Mark Murphy explains why behavioral interview questions about priorities, adaptability, and conflict often backfire. The problem: the questions themselves signal the right answer, so candidates give rehearsed responses instead of revealing how they actually think and act.
So let's take some very common behavioral interview questions. Tell me about a time when you had to balance competing priorities. Tell me about a time when you had to adapt to a difficult situation. Tell me about a time when you were bored on the job and how you motivated yourself. Tell me about a time when you overcame a conflict with a coworker. Whatever, we could pick any number of things. Those are all pretty typical. Typical kinds of behavioral interview questions. Now, doesn't seem like they're really awful. They're certainly not illegal. They're not necessarily stupid questions. They, you know, could get at potentially some decent characteristics. What's the problem here? Well, if you think about this question for a second, tell me about a time you had to balance competing priorities. Just think about the right answer to that question for a second. What's the right answer to that question? Well, it pretty much tells you in the question what the right answer is. The question gave away the right answer. Nobody in their right mind is going to answer this question by saying, "Well, there was a time where I had a lot of competing priorities and it was awful. I mean, my boss was a jerk and they couldn't figure it out and I had 8 bosses and nobody knew what they were doing and blah, blah, blah and it was, oh, I just sat there paralyzed." Nobody in their right mind is going to answer this question that way. Why? Because we said in the question, tell me about a time when you balanced competing priorities. Take the next one.
