Career Coach: Behavioral Questions

CHICAGO (CBS)-- Through this job crisis, CBS 2 is Working For Chicago and working with a career coach every week to bring you advice about looking for and landing a job.

This week, we're digging deeper into what are called "behavioral" questions in an interview.

"Behavioral questions are used by employers to try and get a handle on how you're going to behave in the job if they hire you," Lynee Alves, president of Interview Like An Expert, said. "So they're going to be asking about incidents that happened in prior jobs to get an understanding of what you did them because they believe its an indicators of how you'll behave in the future."

These question start with:

• Tell me about a time when...
• Give me an example of...
• Describe a situation where...
• How do you go about...

Alves says examples to prepare for are, "tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a coworker and how you resolved it" or "describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it."

The best way you can prepare is to put together a list of stories. Some examples of things you've done in your prior jobs. These can include some key successes you've enjoyed or challenges.