Seven Behavioral Interview questions and answers for child care workers

If you are going for an interview in the near future for a position in day care or to be a pre-school teacher, you might want to prepare yourself with some of the questions below. As with all behavioral interview questions, these are meant to make you uncomfortable, and the best way to answer them is to draw from your experience either in previous employment or from your training and practicums. Be as specific as possible and try and convey a sense of trustworthiness and confidence. 

1. What would you say is your worst quality and why?

What the interviewer is looking for is your body language and reaction. Ouch! I absolutely hate this. As a human services professional,  you want to convey a sense of  likability. The worst thing you can say is that you have no such quality. However, try to pick something fairly tam,  and then tell the interviewer you are working on it. Things not to talk about? Impatience or having a bad temper.  Maybe you could say that sometimes the kids push your buttons, but that you try to have a sense of humor about it. 


2. How do you think children at the various age groups should be disciplined? Why

The interviewer is looking for professional competence, even though this is a very subjective question. Draw from your experience, or if you have not had that much,  try and catch up on your reading from school where various experts would have weighed in on this topic. 

3. What do you think is most important in taking care of infants?
The interviewer wants to know that you are sincere and committed to your profession. Answer this question honestly, saying what you think and why. Give examples from your experience.

4. If two children were disagreeing over something and became physical, what would you do and how would you deal with the situation? 
The interviewer again is looking for your ability to respond promptly, to think on your feet and even to see to what extent you would go to. Would you intervene physically as well? This is a very hands-on job!

5. If there was a child whom just would not sleep at nap time what would you do?
The interviewer is looking for signs of creativity. Working with children demands a fair bit of 'making it up as you go along.  So be creative, and again draw from your experience. Have you done anything especially unusual that has worked?

6. How would you try to calm an infant if they were crying but they were not hungry, wet or sick?
What the interviewer is really asking is how might you respond if there were a possible crisis, where you might not know immediately what to do. Do you have strategies? If so, then say so. Would you call some to assist you?  Explain. Again, do the best you can with your experience. Your interviewer also wants to see how well you think on the spot.

7. If you had to deal with a parent each day whom just was not ever happy what would you do to make them happy?
The interviewer wants to see what kind of inter-personal skills you have. You may want to talk about being a good listener, making the parent feel like he/she has been heard, not reacting, being proactive and solution-oriented, and even giving the person the impression you like them (even if they don't like you)  and to ask for their input. 


Study these sample behavioral Interview questions and answers for child care workers. Hopefully they will help you prepare for your next job interview. 

List of behavioral interview questions and how to answer them

• Can you tell  me about a project you were reluctant to complete and how you inspired yourself to complete it? 
   
• Let's talk about your most difficult boss, professor or other person.Tell me why that person was difficult and how you successfully dealt with that person? 
   
•  Describe the steps you took to complete a particularly difficult task.
  
  
• What was the riskiest decision  you have ever made. What considerations did you make for that particular decision. 
   
• We often have to work in groups. Tell me about a particular group project. What obstacles did you face? How did you resolve these? 
   
• Describe a situation when you or a group that you were a part of were in danger of missing a deadline. What did you do? 
   
• None of us are the same. Tell me about a time when you worked with a person who did things very differently from you. How did you get the job done. Would you consider working with that person again? 
   
• Tell me about your  three greatest accomplishments to date.  
  
  
   
• Give me an example of something you had to learn quickly. How did you do it? 
  
  
   
• Give me an example of acomplex problem that you solved? What process did you use? 
  
  
• Tell me about an occasion about  make a quick decision. 
  Avoid artificial sounding  answers or anything that sounds memorized. You are not perfect. Interviewers are interested in knowing about how you might have sweated, and how you pulled yourself out, what you learned, and what you might have done differently. We all make mistakes!!
  
  
  Don't forget to use the STAR method - - situation, task, action, result.

More behavioral interview preparation

1. Tell me about your greatest accomplishment on the job.


2. Tell me about a difficult situation you encountered at work and how you overcame it.


3. Give me three adjectives you would use to describe yourself and examples of your work style to support them.


4. Give me three adjectives you would use to describe your weaknesses/areas for improvement and the reasons why you feel you need to work on these.


5. If I was to ask a co-worker about you, how would they describe you on-the-job?


6. Tell me about a time where you were required to work with a difficult person (i.e. client, co-worker, manager, etc.). How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome?


7. If you were given a task to complete in an unrealistic time frame, what would you do?


8. If someone came to you with an enthusiastic, yet unrealistic request, how would you handle it?


9. Why are you looking to leave your current position?


10. What do you want to get out of your next job?


11. Tell me about the best manager you ever had? Now tell me about the worst?


12. What are the three most valuable things you’ve learned while working in your current position?


13. What was the biggest mistake you’ve made on a job? How did you handle the failure?


14. What do you feel makes you successful in your current role? Give an example to support your success.


15. What do you think makes a company good to work for? What do you like about your current company? What could be better?


16. Do you prefer working alone or in teams? Give examples of how you have worked successfully both alone and in a team? What do you attribute your success to?


17. What are your own business philosophies - what do you feel must be present in a successful business?


18. What skills are you looking to develop in your next job? Why?

Sample Behavioral Interview response

Continuing on with our examples, here is another behavioral interview response. Here is the question. Some employers may want to examine your capacity for making good judgement calls, how you went through a logical process to make a decision (examining all the relevant facts, for example,) before taking an action. Work, after all, can require more than sitting at a cubicle and doing a series of set tasks. So here's what they could ask you:


Tell me about a time that you had to use your judgment and make a decision in your previous job

This behavioral interview respons could go something like this:

" When I was in charge of ordering supplies for the organization". (Situation)
"I had to decide whether I was going to continue ordering supplies, a month at a time, or buy six month's supply and get a volume discount.(Task)

"What I found from my research, was that ordering six month's supplies would result in a huge savings, and also keep us insulated from price increases. We also tended to have a fairly steady pattern of usage from month to month so it was easy to predict what our needs would be."(Action)

"Indeed I was correct. Prices did go up and we ended up saving money on our office supplies purchase". (Result).

Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers - Tips and Advice

By Damen Choy

Behavioral interviews are becoming more and more popular in this highly competitive job market. The main reason that employers like the behavioral interview is that it can predict the future actions of candidates quite accurately. What do we mean by this?

Traditional interview questions - the ones you may be more used to - typically call for highly objective answers and can be based on misperceptions. For instance, how you answer the question, "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" is based on your own perception of yourself. Since the employer does not yet know you, he or she cannot judge the accuracy of your answers.

However, behavioral interview questions provide the interviewer with much greater insight into how your mind works. As the name implies, behavioral questions focus on just that: your actual behavior - and not your perceptions. In this type of interview, the interviewer has targeted several specific behaviors and attitudes that the job requires, and has designed behavioral interview questions that will shed light on whether you might be a good fit for the position.

Behavioral questions examples

Here are some typical interview behavioral questions:

*Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision without sufficient information. How did the situation work out?

*Tell me about a time when you had to work with someone who did not like you. How did you deal with the situation? What was the outcome?

*Describe a decision you made that was unpopular. Why did you make the decision? How did you sell your decision? What was the outcome?

*If you are given an assignment that you don't know how to handle, what would you do?

*What would you do if a customer complains about you to your boss?

*Tell me about a time when someone's interruptions were in danger of causing you to miss a deadline. What did you do?

Notice how much more specific and detailed this type of question is than traditional, straightforward interview questions. The idea behind the success of behavioral questions & answers is that a person's past performance is a good indicator of his or her future performance.

Navigating behavioral questions & answers

While answering this type of question may seem more difficult than traditional questions, actually, with a little practice, you may find that the answers come more naturally since you're simply recalling your past experiences. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind for answering behavioral questions in a way that will help your interviewer the most:

*Always relate the question to a specific instance in your career.

*Describe the tasks that were related to the instance. What was the expected outcome?

*Describe your actions in relation to the task or instance. What did you do? Why did you decide to do it?

*Always describe the actual outcome of your actions, even if it wasn't favorable. What did you learn from the experience? What might you do differently if faced with a similar situation?

In answering interview behavioral questions this thoroughly, you show that you understand what the interviewer is looking for and that you're willing to offer up the information to help them make the best decision.


Additional tips

*Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. Just answer the question as honestly as you can, while focusing on describing your actions during the situation.

*Don't feel attacked by the interviewer's follow up questions, which may feel very probing. The interviewer is simply trying to understand how and why you've acted in situations he or she believes related to the job, and is not personally attacking you.

*Relax and take a deep breath before answering. It's ok to take a few minutes to think of your answer.

*If you're describing a stressful situation, avoid the temptation to get upset all over again. Detach yourself from the emotions of the situation, and describe the details as factually as possible.

*Smile! Speak smoothly and confidently.

With some practice and preparation, you'll find that you can handle the more difficult behavioral interview questions successfully and with confidence.


Damen Choy Author and Editor http://InstantCareerAdvice.com a career advice website providing free ebooks, articles and software for career advancement, job interviews and resume writing advice. Damen has also written a book about job interview available at Amazon.com. Access the ebook version here at http://www.a-better-job-interview.com

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