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Situational Vs Behavioral Question


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i'm wondering if you think it's a bad idea to ask whether you can offer a behavioral response instead of a situational one (or vice versa) if you can't think of a particular situation on the spot? this probably wouldn't be ideal, but do you think you'd get penalized for making such a request?

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Please elaborate or explain.

e.g. recall a time when you were really stressed out and tell me how you handled it: this would be a situational question that's asking for a situational answer.

 

if you can't think of a particular time this happened, how acceptable/unacceptable do you think it would be to offer to tell them how you WOULD respond to being really stressed out instead? this would be a behavioral response to the original situational question.

 

i don't imagine this being a big problem unless you do it too often, but i could be wrong. thoughts?

 

thanks!

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e.g. recall a time when you were really stressed out and tell me how you handled it: this would be a situational question that's asking for a situational answer.

 

if you can't think of a particular time this happened, how acceptable/unacceptable do you think it would be to offer to tell them how you WOULD respond to being really stressed out instead? this would be a behavioral response to the original situational question.

 

i don't imagine this being a big problem unless you do it too often, but i could be wrong. thoughts?

 

thanks!

 

From what I recall your quoted question is actually a behavioural question (ie. past behaviour). Situational is the hypothetical.

 

If you can't come up with something that matches the situation they're asking for, you a) Modify something that happened to you to fill the role (ie. stretch the truth slightly); I'm not advocating this, I'm just saying it's possible--I did it, and it requires practice or b ) You can be honest and ask for another question. I think you can do this once in the interview.

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