Cultural and Behavioral Interviews

Putting Your Best Self Forward

This blog post is dedicated to all of the behavioral and cultural questions that applicants face in interviews. It goes without saying, technical knowledge is vastly important but the fact that you got an interview — means you have the skills needed to perform the job (unless you lied on your resume). Many times, interviewers miss a huge red flashing sign when they are faced with cultural and behavioral questions. It’s not just what you answer — it’s how you answer. One of my favorite movie quotes comes from Will Smith’s blockbuster film Hitch: “Sixty percent of all human communication is nonverbal, body language; thirty percent is your tone. So that means ninety percent of what you’re saying ain’t coming out of your mouth.”

The following is a compilation of the most common, most popular, craziest, funniest and most interesting questions I’ve experienced in interviews over the past 10 years. Please remember, the goal here is to show a company (or in many cases a recruiter) that you have the personal qualities required to excel on a team, as an individual, or both all within the context of the workplace.

Tell me about yourself

Tell a story, but make it count. Who are you outside of the workplace? How do those qualities make you more attractive to companies? What cooperative efforts do you participate in that translate to the workplace? Thinks to bring up — family, team related hobbies, highlight successes and how those experiences made you the person that you are today. They key here is detail but all within a short and specific time frame. Example: I was raised by these types of parents — after high school I decided to make these life decisions — this is why, this is how it helped me build my career.

Why do you want to work at this company?

Do your research. What product do they offer? How many customers does their product effect? Are they global? What values or initiatives do the company demonstrate outside of the workplace? How does that match to your personal values?

What are your greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses?

Pick one of each — too many will cause you to ramble on. Positive — pick a work-related example you can tie it to. I love working with people because — one time in my career I had this experience and I felt it really changed the way I live my life for the better. Negative — try to steer away from specific work-related examples. I don’t work well with people is obviously the wrong answer. What can people relate to? I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt which can be good but many times it can lead to getting taken advantage of. I feel most people can understand that — that also doesn’t specifically correlate to a terrible trait in the workplace.

Tell me about a time you made a mistake.

Similar to above — but this question is direct so don’t avoid it. Use an example of something that occurred early in your career — a valuable lesson but something that occurred when you were young and inexperienced. We’ve all been there — use it to connect and build rapport with your interviewer. The key here is saying what it was but more importantly saying what it taught you and how you used that lesson to grow as a professional.

How do you get along with coworkers during team projects?

Again, no one is perfect. We all struggle sometimes with coworkers but that’s natural — it’s about how you deal with it. The key is conveying a simple truth — none of us can change the world alone. We need help, we need a team and work life typically moves a lot smoother if you understand that people have different perspectives and that is not bad — its good. It offers you an opportunity to see things in a way you haven’t experienced and more importantly learn things that you would have never considered. Convey that in an interview and you are doing great.

At this point, I hope you get the idea — we aren’t perfect, but we need to relay that we understand that, and we are willing to work effectively, empathetically and passionately with others despite agreeing or not agreeing with them. Let’s go over a few analytical questions I found online and some of the popular answers — remember, HOW you answer them is just as important. When faced with a trick question — if you instantly regurgitate the answer because you already knew it — 0 points for you. Good that you knew but the whole point of a trick question is to see your thought process, so slow down and play it out loud so your interviewer can follow along.

A scientist puts bacteria in a petri dish at noon. Every minute the bacteria divides in two. At exactly 1pm, the petri dish is full. At what time was it half full?

Seems sneaky but if you think it out the answer is simple — it doubles every minute — one minute before noon it was half full.

Tracy’s mother had 4 children. The first child was named April, the second named may, the third June.

What was the fourth child’s name? Hope you read the first sentence — the answer is not July, the answer is Tracy.

An apple costs 40 cents, a banana costs 60 cents and a grapefruit costs 80 cents. How much does a pear cost?

This one is sneaky and honestly — I wouldn’t have figured it out while dealing with the pressure of an interview. But, a little practice and a little review of analytical questions before the big interview goes a long way.

“If you charge 20 cents per vowel, the two-vowel word ‘apple’ would cost 40 cents, three-vowel ‘banana’ 60 cents, and four-vowel ‘grapefruit’ 80 cents. Therefore, a pear would cost 40 cents.”

Take some time, go through the internet, so some research, lead with your best self forward. Here is to your job search and building your skillset to land that big job — best of luck!