Chapter 12: Behavioral Interview Questions

This chapter covers some of the most common behavioral interview questions. These questions are grouped by category, and they help employers to assess a candidate's soft skills. You can benefit from learning these questions and practicing their responses, as I have experienced many of these questions being asked in cybersecurity interviews verbatim.

In this chapter, the following topics will be covered:

  • Why are behavioral questions asked in an interview?
  • Common behavioral interview questions

Why are behavioral interview questions asked in an interview?

Behavioral interview questions are asked to help the interviewer gain insight into how you have handled past situations at work, which can help them see how you might handle similar situations in their company.

Many behavioral interview questions you are asked in interviews start with phrases similar to the following:

  • Describe a situation where you…
  • How did you handle [situation]...?
  • Give me an example of…
  • Tell me about a time when you…

Before going into an interview, I suggest you review the job posting and identify the keywords that the employer is listing. This can help you tailor your answers to behavioral interview questions by using some of the keywords from the job description. Also, I recommend doing a self-assessment to identify 5–10 key skills that you have, and then identify situations where you have used those skills. For example, perhaps you are a good communicator, and you can identify that you used your communication skills to diffuse a difficult situation at a previous job. That is an example you can use to answer one of the behavioral interview questions.

When answering behavioral interview questions, I recommend you use something such as the S.T.A.R. technique, which stands for situation, task, action, and result.

For the situation strand, you want to describe the situation you were in and set the scene for the interviewer. For the task strand, describe the issue or situation that you were confronted with. For action, describe the intervention or action you did in the situation. And, finally, for the result strand, tell the interviewer how your actions solved the problem and how you helped the company. When you answer, try to be clear and concise and use quantifiable results wherever possible. For example, your action during the situation might have resulted in a 20 percent reduction in IT support tickets, so be sure to mention this fact to the interviewer.

Common behavioral interview questions

Behavioral questions assess a variety of areas to see how you function in a company and contribute to the success of both your team and the organization. I want to stress that your answers to these questions do not have to be targeted toward cybersecurity or IT jobs. Any situation you have experienced in the past could be used to answer these questions. If you find that you do not have past experience that is applicable to a question, inform the interviewer and answer with what you would do if confronted with the scenario presented by the interviewer.

For each of the following questions, I will provide an example of how I would answer the question based on my own experience or a fictional situation.

Adaptability

The following questions are designed to assess your adaptability to changing situations in the workplace:

  • Can you describe a major change at a company you worked at and how you handled this change?

An example of this was when I worked as a laundry washer in a hospital laundry facility and the dryers caught on fire and shut down. This meant I could not wash any of the laundry loads. However, the trucks delivering the loads from the surrounding hospitals did not stop, so the entire back area of the building was filled with dirty laundry. I quickly volunteered with the maintenance team to help them replace parts in the dryers so that they could work again. It took a few days of non-stop washing and some late hours, but we ultimately worked through the backlog of laundry.

  • Can you tell me about a situation in which you had to adjust to changes over which you had no control and how you handled the situation?

An example of this is when I worked in healthcare, and the company I worked for closed one of its divisions and laid off everyone. I found out on a Friday that, effective Monday morning, I would be unemployed. So, I identified any openings in the division of the company that was still open and spoke with the management team there to determine whether I was a good fit. Ultimately, I decided to move to another company, but it was important for me to take action and not just wait to be rescued.

  • Can you tell me about a time when you had to adapt to a difficult situation?

Back when I worked as a nurse, I worked in some bad neighborhoods, and in one case, there was a homicide near my car. I had to adapt by getting into the vehicle through the passenger side and navigating the slew of emergency vehicles and crime scene tape in the area.

  • What do you do when your priorities need to change quickly? Can you provide an example?

I adapt and re-prioritize. One example is when, years ago, I was working on a marketing project for a client. After performing most of the work, the client determined that they wanted to pivot their marketing, which typically would have required a few weeks of extra work to rebuild the funnels. I listened to the stakeholders to identify their rationale for the change, made the requested pivot, and worked quickly to perform the rebuild in a few days. The ultimate result for the client was an increase in revenue with the new marketing campaign.

Ambitiousness

The following questions are intended to assess your level of ambition:

  • Can you tell me about a project you worked on that was your idea and where you led the implementation?

I worked at a help desk for a healthcare organization and was tired of receiving support calls about a piece of supply chain management software every single time nurses wanted to order more supplies. The main issue was that the training from the vendor was horrible, so none of the nurses wanted to watch it. Instead, they relied on me to walk them through ordering each time they needed supplies. I built a suggested training program and presented it to executive management, showing the cost savings of just having me train everyone versus relying on vendor training. Management agreed, and I rolled out the program that helped reduce our support calls by about 22 percent.

  • Can you tell me about a time when you made a suggestion to improve the work in your organization?

I worked for a janitorial company and noticed that the cleaning route they had me follow was causing me to drive miles out of my way each night, which led to an increase in gas costs and my travel miles. I spoke with customers on my route and asked if they minded me shifting their cleaning hours to adjust my route for optimal time management. The clients liked my idea because it meant their establishments would be cleaned earlier in the evening, and it meant I could spend more time in each business to ensure a deep clean instead of the high-level cleaning they were paying for. I then presented the idea to my boss, mentioned clients were on board with the idea, and it was approved.

  • Describe an important goal you set in the past and how you reached it.

One example is getting my undergraduate degree. A few weeks after starting the program, my spouse had emergency surgery, and at the halfway mark of the first semester, I had a failing grade. I met with the school dean who challenged me to finish the semester with a passing score. I completed the missing assignments and extra credit to end up with a perfect (4.0) GPA that semester, winning awards from the university for my grades.

  • Describe two examples from previous jobs or life experiences that show you are willing to work hard.

I worked for an EdTech company building courses. A client requested an urgent course, so I spent the weekend filming and editing the entire course for the client to have it the following Monday. This required me to skip sleep for the entire weekend. The end result was that the client loved the training and appreciated the fast delivery.

Another example is when I was in the military. I had some injuries, including a hole in my foot, right before a road march to complete the qualification for one of my training schools. Instead of taking the option to recycle to another training class and heal my wounds, I instead ran the entire road march to finish at the front of the unit while ignoring the pain of my injuries.

  • What were your study patterns in school? And how many hours do you spend working each day?

In school, I found I could always learn information faster than others, so I would spend my free time continuing to learn the next level of any subject area. Because of my military background, I only sleep a few hours each day, which opens up time to complete any tasks. I always liked the quote from the movie Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living or get busy dying." I choose to live every day.

  • Describe a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.

As a pediatric nurse, I had a patient (a 6-month-old baby) who was under critical care in his home. One day, a few minutes before my shift ended, the baby had an episode where he stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated. The ambulance arrived to take the child to the hospital, but instead of packing up and going home, I went with the child and his family to the hospital to make sure there were no issues on the way since the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) arriving on the scene did not have experience with ventilators. The baby ended up surviving the experience and is now a healthy teenager.

  • Can you tell me about a challenging time at your workplace when a job or task had to be completed? How you were able to focus on completing the job or task?

When I worked as a pediatric nurse, I walked into my shift to find a child's ventilator alarm ringing and the child blue in the face. The nurse on duty was holding the child and telling me that the child was just a little fussy. I could immediately tell the child had an issue with his airway. I took the child from the other nurse and assessed his airway to find that his trach (a breathing tube) had been removed and the child could not breathe. While that nurse was yelling at me that nothing was wrong with the baby and the mom who had just entered the room was screaming and crying, I was laser-focused on changing the trach and establishing an airway for the child so that he could breathe. I changed the trach within seconds and used an Ambu bag (the same bag that paramedics use in Hollywood movies to help a patient breathe) to deliver oxygen to the baby. The baby's skin color improved, and he was able to breathe normally.

  • Can you tell me about a time when you were effective in prioritizing tasks and completing a project on schedule and within budget?

I led a project where the company was developing proprietary software for patient case management. The initial scope of the alpha version of the project was a barebone functionality that would be deployed to a single team. Once other teams started providing input on the project, we started seeing a large amount of scope creep. I called a meeting with each department's management team and worked with them to identify what was absolutely crucial for a core solution across all departments and what the individual department needs were. Then, our team focused on implementing the core items that the other teams deemed critical. I gained stakeholder buy-in for this plan from all department heads. The end result was that we delivered the alpha version of the project 3 weeks early and were under the planned budget.

  • Describe a project you had that demanded a lot of initiative from you.

I started a new job at a healthcare company, which used an old electronic medical records system. Their main issue was the company that developed the software was no longer in business and no one at the healthcare company had been trained by the vendor to use the software. My boss told me I needed to train the nursing staff on the system and show them how to use new features. I took the initiative and read through the engineering manuals from the vendor and also scoured the internet to find any information regarding the software. The end result was not only being able to train staff effectively, but I also identified ways the software could be used more efficiently, which led to time being saved for producing nursing documentation and a greater ability to pull critical data from the system to help physicians.

  • How do you stay current with industry trends, new technology, and your skills?

For me, I stay current by investing in myself in the form of courses, books, and conferences. I have found one of the best ways to truly know you have a skill is to be able to teach it to others.

  • Describe a time you worked without close supervision and the result.

I worked at a company that had created the position for me, so my boss didn't fully understand what someone in the job role could do. She left me alone after my first day and assumed I would just be completing the required training from human resources. Instead, I completed all of that training within a few hours and started fielding calls from nursing staff to help them with technical issues. I also implemented a reconciliation process that saved the company tens of thousands of dollars each month.

  • What impact did you have at your last job?

I helped grow revenue and improve client satisfaction.

What you might notice with this answer is how I kept it brief and direct to answer the question. An interviewer would then typically ask you to expand upon your first answer with additional information about how you helped grow revenue or improve client satisfaction. Remember, for some questions, you just want to give the interviewer the bare minimum answer and allow them to start digging deeper.

  • What was the most competitive work situation you have experienced? And how did you handle it?

For me, it was during the military. Many people were trying to do the same job role I wanted to do. So, I focused on a self-assessment to identify my strengths and weaknesses, and then I focused all of my efforts on maximizing my strengths. This led to me passing difficult training schools that others, who were more qualified on paper, failed.

  • Describe a risky decision you made and the outcome.

I applied for an IT internship in another state and used my remaining dollars to buy a round-trip ticket. At the time, I had not used a computer much and didn't know anything about computer networking, so I purchased a book on networking and read through it on the plane ride to the other state. I was able to talk my way through the interview and then worked hard over the next few weeks on the job to build my networking skills. The outcome was that I was offered a full-time job with the company after just 2 weeks.

  • Describe some challenges you faced in your last job and how you handled them.

One challenge in my last role was that the team was spread across different countries and time zones. I handled this challenge by encouraging flexibility in meetings and only holding meetings that were directly related to executing on a project. Any meetings that were being held for brainstorming were limited as well.

Another challenge was that some members of leadership had personal agendas, and so having to navigate those to push projects forward. A key way of handling this was to identify each agenda and discern what was truly critical to that person and what was a nice-to-have item on their list.

  • Are there projects that you have started on your own recently? And what caused you to start them?

A recent project of mine is writing a book. I started this project so that I could give back to the cyber community by sharing the knowledge I have collected over the years.

  • Describe some things you have done to invest in yourself and improve your skills.

Each year, I set aside a budget to invest in courses, books, coaching, and conferences.

  • Can you tell me about an idea that you came up with during your career and how you applied it?

When I worked as a nurse, I invented a medical device out of necessity to make my job easier. I ended up pursuing a provisional patent application and selling the rights of the device to a large healthcare company that made a competing product.

  • How do you handle disagreements with your management team?

I simply follow a process of allowing the other person to share their point of view and ask questions with an open mind. Often, I find that the other person in management has more contextual information than I do, which allows them to take a more well-informed position on the subject.

  • If you have several projects you need to do, how do you prioritize getting everything done?

I follow the same process for work as I do for life, which is the ABC method. The "A" tasks are those that are absolutely critical to get done today or this week and have the maximum impact on the organization. Usually, completing these tasks helps you complete the "B" and "C" tasks, too. The "B" tasks are those that would be nice to get done today or this week, but they can be moved to the following week. The "C" tasks are the nice-to-have tasks that have minimal impact on the organization.

Analytical thinking

The following questions are designed to test your analytical thinking skills:

  • Can you provide an example of how you use your analytical abilities?

As an executive, I have to analyze problems and identify which main problem I can solve that removes many of the smaller problems I encounter. For example, learners might experience issues with an individual lab assignment, which is a small problem. If they experience issues with several labs, this becomes a larger problem, and the solution might be to switch to another lab provider.

  • Developing and using a detailed procedure is important in a job. Tell me about a time when you had to develop and use a procedure to successfully complete a project.

As a pediatric nurse, a challenge that I faced was bath time with the babies because they would try to pull out their trach (used for an airway to breathe) and feeding tubes. I developed a process to bathe a child by distracting them with a pile of toys I had stashed nearby while keeping the baby from pulling out its trach and feeding tube.

  • Can you walk me through your decision-making process?

For decision-making, I always think about the impact my decision will have in the future. For example, if I need to approve or disapprove budget expansion on a project, I review how the project will impact the company over the next 3–5 years. If the project will drive more revenue in the next 3–5 years, I don't mind increasing the short-term expenditure.

Another key to any decision-making process is to ensure you have adequate sleep, eat properly, and remove yourself emotionally from the decision.

  • Please provide an example of a time when you used good judgment and logic to solve a problem.

One night as a pediatric nurse, I noticed that my patient seemed very excited. From my experience, I knew babies typically became excited like that if they were either using the restroom or if their airway was compromised. I trusted my judgment and checked the child's airway to discover that their trach tube had been pulled out. I quickly changed to a new tube and re-established their airway.

  • Provide an example of when you took a risk to achieve a goal. What was the outcome?

After being homeless and hungry, I decided to bet on myself and went to a local military recruiting station to enlist. At that point in my life, I had never left my local area, but I decided to take the chance. That decision helped me get a steady paycheck and a place to live, which helped propel me in my career and life.

  • Can you give an example of when using precision was critical for your job?

In the military, my shots had to be on target when clearing buildings; otherwise, my teammates could be injured or killed by my rounds (during live-fire training). I chose to spend extra hours practicing my craft to reduce the likelihood that I would cause harm to my team.

  • Tell me about a time when you had to analyze information and make a recommendation.

As an executive, I analyze information and have to make a decision within minutes based on the available data. An example of this is when I had a demonstration from a new lab provider and had to decide either yes or no on moving forward with them based on this short demonstration.

  • Can you give me an example of when you had to have attention to detail to complete a task successfully?

In military training, we were assigned random cleaning tasks in the barracks. My responsibility was to clean a drinking fountain so that it would shine. Unlike others in the barracks, I would take my time on the drinking fountain to remove all of the water spots and would guard the drinking fountain until the instructors came in to complete the inspection. All of the instructors commented how the drinking fountain I was responsible for was cleaner than the water in the Caribbean.

Building relationships

The following questions are designed to see your effectiveness at building relationships:

  • Give an example of a time when you had to address an angry customer and diffuse the situation.

Back when I worked at a fast-food restaurant, I had a customer screaming and cursing me because their $0.99 breakfast sandwiches included a charge for sales tax, which was required by law. The customer had ordered 20 sandwiches but only had $20 on them. With tax, their total came to $21. After getting approval from my manager, I simply asked the customer if they would be willing to part with one breakfast sandwich to reduce the order to under $20 in exchange for getting 3 free hash browns and orange juice. The customer agreed to this and left. A few months later, I ran into that same customer again and he apologized for his behavior that day.

  • Can you tell me about a time when you were not able to build a relationship with someone because they were too difficult to deal with?

During a business transaction, I had someone who did not hold up their end of the deal. I attempted to work with this person and extended many deadlines over the course of a year. Ultimately, I made the decision to just cut ties with this person and take the financial loss because the time investment was costing me more money. Shortly thereafter, my business accelerated even more, while their business went under.

  • Tell me about a time when you had to quickly establish rapport under difficult conditions.

In the military, we had a short period of time on patrol to establish positive relations with locals. I used the simple psychology of smiling and waving at people and just treating them as equals, which helped us get intelligence on our adversaries.

  • What do you think are the keys to establishing successful business relationships? And can you provide an example of how you used them in your life?

Relationships are the currency of life. In business, the key is to always focus on the other party's needs. If you deliver value to the marketplace, then the marketplace will tell everyone else about you, so you will never need to spend money on advertising. By establishing successful business relationships, I have been able to make a phone call or send a text message to get people hired into cybersecurity jobs after those people had been applying for jobs for over a year. In one case, a young woman was able to get a job offer within 2 hours of me calling someone, and she started work the next day.

Business systems thinking

The following questions are designed to assess whether you have big-picture thinking and how you navigate office politics:

  • Describe how your position contributes to the company's overall objectives.

In one of my current roles, I am an executive. My position directly contributes to the core of the business, which is training, along with the overall strategic objective of scalability.

  • Are you a big-picture person or more detail-oriented?

I am a combination of both. I always think strategically over the long term and focus on attention to detail to deliver quality outcomes.

  • Have you experienced a politically complex situation at work? If yes, please describe it and how you came to a positive outcome.

Typically, I remain out of office politics, since I focus on being productive. There was an incident where two women were in a fistfight in the office, and I was called in to give my version of events. However, since I kept to myself, I actually didn't know they fought until I was called into the office, so I had no additional context to provide my boss. The ultimate outcome of this was that one woman was fired immediately and the other was fired a few weeks later.

Caution

The following questions are designed to assess your ability to use caution when guidelines are not clear and to exercise caution against burnout by performing a self-assessment:

  • Have you ever worked in a situation where the rules and guidelines were not clear? How did it make you feel?

I have been in many work situations where instructions were lacking. In one case, I worked as a nurse in an elderly nursing home as a contractor. When I arrived for my shift, the outgoing nurse didn't give me a report (which was required under law at the time), and the paperwork for the patient charts and medication delivery was terrible. Coupled with all of this, I had over 70 patients to care for that night, since another nurse called in sick. I had to quickly look through the paperwork on the facility policies and procedures to determine what I needed to do and read through the physician notes to determine what medications the patients needed. I was able to successfully complete the shift, but the outcome was that I never went back to that facility and transitioned into pediatric nursing.

  • Can you tell me about a time when you demonstrated too much initiative on a project?

One time I demonstrated too much initiative on a project was when I built a large number of custom labs for a client almost 3 months prior to their expected deadline because I worked 20-hour days and 7 days a week to finish. The downside of this was the client then expected future labs to be delivered on a similar timeline, which I did, but it was not a sustainable business model in the long term.

Communication

The following questions are designed to assess your communication skills:

  • Can you tell me about a situation where you were able to effectively "read" another person and tailor your actions to your understanding of that person's needs?

One time, I was delivering a speech and was able to read the audience to tell the children were getting bored with the topic. So, I adjusted my approach and explained the topic in the context of a video game they might play, which captured their attention.

  • Can you share an experience where you didn't feel like you communicated effectively? What happened and how did you resolve the situation
  • I had expectations for my team members to complete a project by a specific deadline. I noticed that there was little production on the project and it was getting close to the deadline. When I asked the team members if they needed help, I was always met with a no. Finally, I asked whether any of them understood the ultimate business objective of this project and none of them did. By explaining what we were trying to do, the team members felt more conviction about seeing the project completed, and we were able to complete the project on time and under budget.
  • How have you used effective communication to strengthen a relationship?

As a nurse, I had a co-worker who didn't like me because of my race. She assumed that because we were in the South, all people of my race must be terrible. One day, I was tired of her microaggressions, so I sat down with her, addressed my concerns, and asked her to share about how she grew up. Additionally, I shared my upbringing in the North, swapping stories of crazy patients we both had at other companies. As soon as she found out I was not born in a Southern state, she treated me with respect and we had no further issues.

  • How would you communicate a difficult or unpleasant idea to your manager
  • The first thing I would do is perform a trade-off analysis of either decision. This means I would determine what the benefits and drawbacks would be to the manager saying yes versus the benefits and drawbacks to the manager rejecting my idea. My next step would be to determine any objections the manager might have to the idea and identify a response to each objection.
  • What is the most important presentation you have completed?

I created a presentation to help minority and veteran small business owners in my local city identify cybersecurity best practices that they could implement on a tight budget, which would significantly help reduce risks for their businesses.

  • Can you give an example of how you successfully communicated with someone who didn't like you or who you didn't like?

There was a manager from another department who didn't like me for unknown reasons. I simply approached this individual with respect each time, even though they were rude to me, and kept the conversation focused on the task at hand and not personal things.

  • Describe a time you had to sell an idea to your co-workers or a manager. What was your process? And were you successful in selling the idea?

One time I had to sell managers of other departments an idea to create a training program across the company. Before pitching the idea, I put myself in the other manager's shoes to determine what might be important to them and any objections they might have to the proposal. I then presented my idea to the first group of managers and adjusted my presentation for additional managers based on any additional objections to the idea, so I could move the project forward. Ultimately, I was able to get buy-in from all departments on the project, and we were able to roll out the training program successfully, which saved the company a significant amount of money over the next several years.

  • How do you communicate critical information to your team?

The communication style varies between email, a meeting, or some other form of communication, but my process is the same. I always focus on the end objective that we want to accomplish and focus on how the change or idea will impact the daily workflow of my team. Then, I convey the information in a transparent manner and answer any questions around it. If I identify that several team members are asking similar questions, I create a job aid reference for the team to answer some of the common questions.

  • How do you keep your manager informed about your work?

In the past, I would typically have a weekly meeting to check in with management on projects and any blockers I was facing. As an executive, my life is full of meetings, so check-ins with other executives happen on a daily basis.

  • How do you explain complex technical topics to non-technical stakeholders?

I always relate the technical topic to something from everyday life that the person is familiar with either because they have experienced it themselves or because they have seen it in a movie or a television show. For example, years ago, I began working at a company where the nursing staff was resistant to cybersecurity training. Having been a nurse in a previous life, when I came on board, I decided to relate the training objectives to things a nurse would care about. In one instance, the objective was to not share your login credentials with other nurses, which was a huge issue at this company.

During training, I asked the nurses if any of them wanted to keep their nursing licenses and everyone raised their hands. Then, I asked whether any of them wanted to redo their nursing charting on patients at the end of each day. None of the hands in the room were raised. Next, I asked for two volunteers and ran through a scenario where a regulatory agency came in for an audit and found one nurse documenting but another's nurse's name being signed on the nursing note. I asked both nurses whether they wanted someone else's name to be signed on their nursing notes. Of course, the answer was no. I then explained how sharing their login credentials for the electronic medical record (EMR) system would lead to the name of the nurse logged in to be signed on every note and that this was the reason we didn't want them sharing login credentials with each other. After this training, the company was able to see a significant reduction in credential sharing among nursing staff.

  • What types of communication situations cause you difficulty? Please provide an example.

As an introvert, public speaking has always been a challenge for me because I would prefer to sit quietly in the back of the room. My way around this was to practice giving speeches in front of the mirror and giving speeches to my cat. She didn't care about what I had to say by the way. But by practicing an area I considered a weakness, I became more comfortable when put in uncomfortable situations.

  • Tell me about a time you did a successful speech. How did you prepare for it?

A few years ago, I presented a webinar to several thousand business owners. I prepared for this webinar by selecting a topic that many business owners would care about, which was how to improve their marketing campaigns and sales conversions on a low budget. I then sent out a survey to business owners that I knew to identify some of the challenges they were facing in this area. My next step was to identify solutions to those issues, and then I created my slides for the presentation. A key component of my presentation was case studies across industries, where the business owners experienced challenges that had surfaced in that survey. The end result of the presentation was helping business owners and increasing my own client list.

  • Describe a time you had a conflict with your supervisor and how you handled it.

I had a supervisor once that played with puppets most of the day, and she used to have the puppets peer around the corner of the wall at me to ask me questions. This led to me surfacing my concerns with the puppets each day to her and her yelling at me that there was nothing wrong with the puppets. Finally, I approached her and asked if a customer came in and witnessed puppets peering around the corner talking to them, what did she think they would say and who would they say it to? She mentioned that they would not like it and they would report it to her manager. Once she was able to see the issue from the customer's point of view, the puppet issue cleared up.

  • Can you tell me about a time you had to present complex information? How did you assess that your audience retained the information?

I have presented complex information to a lot of people over the years. The best method I have found is showing them, doing it with them, and then having them do it or crawl, walk, and run, as we called it in the military. For example, if I need to teach you how to tie your shoe, I will start by showing you how I tie my shoe, then help you tie your shoe, and finally have you tie your own shoe. Typically, I will then have you go teach someone else how to do it because teaching others, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to assess that you know something.

  • Describe a time you used your communication skills effectively to make a point.

I dealt with an aggressive patient with Alzheimer's who was in and out of our reality for much of each day. This patient had a habit of attacking nurses and trying to get out of his bed, so several of us nurses would take turns sitting near his bedside to try to keep him in bed and keep him from hurting himself. One night, as I was sitting there, the patient woke out of a dead sleep and yelled "There's a fire on the wall," while pointing to the bathroom sink. I didn't see any signs of a fire, but the patient insisted the whole room was on fire and told me to get the fire extinguisher. I asked the patient why he needed the fire extinguisher, and he looked at me with an evil smile and said "So I can bash your head in with it," which seemed a little concerning at the time. Instead of running out of the room and yelling for help, I simply sat back down and continued asking the patient questions about the fire extinguisher until, finally, he became mentally exhausted and went back to sleep. After that day, I never had an issue with that patient again, and other nurses would call me in the room when he was attacking them because the patient seemed to listen to me each time. I have found when you are experiencing difficulty in communication, it's best to just ask questions to the other party and listen to what they have to say.

  • Tell me about a time you were effective in giving a workshop.

I ran a workshop years ago for small business owners to teach them about sales funnels. The request from the non-profit organization was a long, death-by-PowerPoint presentation, but I knew that none of the business owners would truly understand the information if it was just slides. Instead, I brought in bags of candy and I asked all of the business owners to come and stand in a line and each was given a bag of candy. I then explained that this was one long sales funnel, and we worked through each business owner stating a price for their bag of candy. It was the only time I have seen a $10-million bag of Reese's candy, but the end results were that the business owners had fun learning, and they retained the information years later when I ran into several of them at a conference.

  • Give an example of a time when you needed to speak up during a project and the outcome.

I worked on a project with other teams, where my team was already strapped for human capital resources. The other teams had ample resources but were expecting my team to take on the majority of the work. I addressed this issue, citing the need for additional resources and asking the other team managers whether they were willing to part with their budget and send it my way. None of them wanted to share their budget, so ultimately, they decided to have their teams offload work from my team and the project moved forward to completion.

  • Can you tell me about a time you had to be assertive? What was the outcome?

I once had an employee that would take a long time to do any project, but they had ample time to play on their phone. I attempted to give the employee training and other resources to help streamline project completion, but the issue was, ultimately, with their motivation to focus on projects. I sat the employee down and, essentially, told them we could work together to get things completed on time, or I would write them a letter of recommendation to find a new job. The employee then improved their focus to complete their tasks quickly, which still allowed them to have phone time during the day. It was a win-win for everyone involved.

  • Describe a time you used effective written communication to make a point.

Many years ago, I worked with a hospice patient and was her only male nurse. The patient expressed some concerns about one of the other nurses because the patient felt this nurse didn't know how to do everything they should know how to do. Because of this, I provided the patient with my contact information. Early one morning, a few minutes before my shift, I was waiting outside of the patient's home in my vehicle when the patient sent me a text asking whether I was almost there because she had been without pain medication all night long and the nurse on duty didn't seem to know how to replace the medication bag. I quickly rushed into the patient's home to find the Morphine pump ringing in alarm that the medication bag was empty. I quickly changed the bag as per the physician's orders and the patient began receiving her pain medication. I then reported the issue to the hospice nursing company, which subsequently tried to sweep the incident under the rug because this patient was poor. My response was to send a letter to the State Board of Nursing to open an investigation, along with sending letters to other agencies. The result was that within 24 hours, investigators were interviewing the patient about her experience and the patient was able to get compensation for the incident. She was also able to switch to a new hospice nursing company.

  • Tell me about a challenge you faced while coordinating a project with other teams.

The biggest challenge I have faced is getting other teams to complete their portion of the project on time. I have found that the best way to keep them on track is through scheduled check-ins, where we identify any blockers as a team and continue to reiterate why we are doing the project and how it benefits the team.

  • What have you done in your career to improve your verbal communication skills?

With this question, the interviewer is trying to determine whether you are willing to continue your education and go outside of your comfort zone to advance your career.

To improve my verbal communication skills, I have taken several courses on public speaking and voice coaching. Additionally, I have volunteered for webinars and conference presentations to practice communicating with others.

  • How have you persuaded people with your documentation?

Yes. As a nurse, I had to use my assessment documentation of patients to persuade physicians to adjust medications or even to discharge patients when they were healthy enough to leave the hospital. My documentation had to be thorough enough to help the physicians make an educated decision about the patient's care.

  • What are the most challenging documents you have done?

I don't know that I have found any documents to be challenging, but if I have not done a specific type of document before, then I search online for an example template that helps me visualize the typical structure and layout of the document. From there, I organize my content into notes and then produce the document. If I had to select the most challenging documentation, I would suggest nursing notes because your documentation, literally, has life or death consequences for the patient. I witnessed this firsthand in the military when a nurse did not document properly, so the physician thought they needed to perform a procedure on the patient's other leg. Fortunately, the physician assistant spoke up and the physician reconfirmed the area for operation, so nothing bad happened to the patient.

  • What is your process for preparing written communication?

My process for preparing written communication is to identify the audience and the end objective. Then, I work my way back from there to ensure I have substantiation for why we need to get to that end objective and how it benefits anyone reading the documentation. My next step is to identify any possible objections the reader could have and the answers to those objections. Then, I create the documentation.

Conflict resolution

The following question assesses your ability to resolve conflicts in a way that benefits everyone involved:

  • Describe a time when you took accountability during a conflict with another person and how you resolved the conflict to benefit both parties.

In military training, I had one guy that just didn't like me for whatever reason, so we would end up in a lot of fistfights. One day, I approached him, and instead of using my fists to beat him up, I used my brain and we had a discussion about our careers and objectives with the training school. He never shared why he didn't like me initially, but after that day, we never had another fight or issue and went our separate ways after training.

Customer orientation

The following questions assess your ability to interact with clients:

  • Describe how you handle problems with customers?

I always start by listening to the customer to identify what the real issue is. Generally speaking, if you allow people to talk long enough, they will reveal the actual reason they are upset. Once I have identified the real issue, I can then work through possible solutions with the customer.

  • How do you go about establishing rapport with a customer? What have you done to gain their confidence? Give an example.

I have found that simplicity is better, so I start with a smile and a greeting when interacting with a customer. This approach defangs the customer, similar to how we might defang a malware sample to analyze it. When I worked in fast food and customers would verbally abuse me, I often found them coming back the next day to apologize and say their anger was not directed at me but rather at the situation they were going through in life.

In one instance, a guy that spent almost an hour screaming that I was the devil for not giving him a free upgrade on his fry size came back a week later to tell me that he had buried his wife that day and was dealing with the emotions from that. It's important to approach customers with a positive attitude even if they are terrible to you because you can easily turn your haters into your biggest advocates. I've been in past situations where my boss has been yelling at me in front of customers, and customers who had literally been cursing me 10 minutes prior, coming up to my boss and telling them to leave me alone because I was doing such a great job. The fastest way to build rapport with customers in my opinion is to kill them with kindness and know what you are talking about. That will build trust quickly.

  • What have you done to improve relations with your customers?

I have done a number of things over the years, depending on what job I had. As a hospice nurse, I used to pay out of my own pocket for a rinse-less shampoo cap that I could use on bed-ridden patients to help them feel like they were able to take a real shower again. This was very popular with patient families, and it helped the patients have some dignity right before they passed away. When I worked as a janitor, I would give each client an upgraded cleaning package once a month, which meant an extra hour spent cleaning off the clock. Customers appreciated this extra touch, and when I left that company, I heard many of those customers tell the management team to double my wage to bring me back.

Decision making

The following questions are designed to assess your effective decision-making abilities:

  • Discuss an important decision you have made regarding a task or project at work. What factors influenced your decision?

As I'm writing this book, in one of my executive roles, I'm dealing with the decision of how we scale without some of the typical problems other EdTech companies have experienced. My decision-making process is to think at least 5 years ahead in terms of where I want the company and the cybersecurity community to be, then work backward from there. As a side note, it's always best with anything in life to start at the end and work backward from there. There are a number of factors that can influence my decision, but the major ones are budgetary and resource constraints. These constraints help me focus on the short-term wins I can get and what the longer-term roadmap needs to look like to get the company and community to achieve their 5-year objectives.

  • Have you ever made a poor decision at work? How did you recover?

Yes; I chose to help a fellow team member out and started helping them with their workload because they supposedly had a lot of personal issues going on. This led to them seeming to have perpetual personal issues and me doing all of their work while they were getting a paycheck much higher than mine. I recovered from this by just being direct with them and mentioning that I had been helping for several months, and if they had so many personal issues where they couldn't do their job, they need to speak to the management, or I would ask them about getting them some additional help. At the mention of the involvement of the management, this person's personal issues magically seemed to clear up and they started doing their tasks again.

  • Describe a time when you had to make a quick decision.

In the military, I had to make quick-shoot or no-shoot decisions. The key to being effective in decision-making under this kind of stress is to train a lot and always assess your training. Additionally, it is good to have others assess it to identify mistakes and offer suggestions about how you can make corrections and improve. In my opinion, the biggest part of decision-making is taking ownership of your decisions, good or bad. For example, if I cleared a room but some of my shots went into the hostage target, I need to take ownership of that and work to improve it, not blame other soldiers, the wind, or a rainy day as the cause. It was my decision to put rounds on that target, so I need to own that because it's the only way for me to improve my skills for a real-life scenario with that same hostage.

  • Can you provide an example of a time when you didn't have enough information to make a decision? What did you do?

We might not have enough information at the time to make the best decision, but I am a firm believer that we can make a decision with whatever information we have, whether it is a good decision or a bad one. An example of when I didn't have enough information to make a good decision was while doing some trail running in a park with some friends and one of them became separated from the group. None of us had been to this park before, so rather than turning around and going back the way we came, as most people would do, we decided it would be best to go down a partially hidden trail that looked like it had not been used in years. For about 10 minutes, we walked along this trail and, finally, came out into a ravine, where the only way out was either back down that trail or to climb up a sheer rock cliff of about 70 feet, at about a 90-degree angle, without any rock climbing gear. Again, we naturally chose not to use common sense and decided to attempt to climb up the rock cliff. My friend was approximately 100 lbs heavier than me and a foot taller, so again, it made perfect sense to send him up the rock cliff first with me following. As we climbed the cliff, he kept losing his grip and kicked me in the face a few times, causing me to lose grip and, each time, almost sending me tumbling to my death below. We finally made it up the cliff and, after a short time, found another trail and, eventually, our friends. If I had more information regarding the park, I could have made a better decision on the route to go to find our friends. If I had more information regarding how difficult it was to climb a 70-foot rock cliff with no climbing gear, I would have been able to make a better decision about turning back to the trail versus climbing the rock cliff.

  • What is your process of determining how to handle a difficult customer?

The first step is to always listen to the customer to identify what the real issue is and not just respond to comments they are making. Another key part is remaining calm and not getting emotional with the customer, so you can diffuse the situation. From there, I progress to identifying how I can solve problems for the customer, including what solutions can be implemented immediately and what other solutions might take some additional time or resources to implement.

  • What is your process of making important decisions?

I make important decisions by thinking of the end result I want to achieve. Then, I work my way backward from there. Next, I identify anything that might be a blocker to a successful outcome and correlate all of the data I have to make the best decision. It is important for me to not be emotionally tied to the outcome of any decision I make.

  • How do you involve your manager or others when you make a decision?

Effective communication is the key to a successful career. I include my management team and other stakeholders in decision-making by, first, identifying who on the team needs to know about the decision. Then, I communicate a description of the decision and why it needs to be made. Additionally, I ask for the other person's objective thoughts on the decision. I always refrain from sharing my thoughts or opinions because I want to get honest feedback from the other party.

  • What is your process for identifying whether a decision you make is beneficial?

The decisions I make have clear objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). I track these to determine whether the decision I made has the beneficial impact intended.

  • Tell me about a time you had to defend your decision successfully even though key stakeholders were initially opposed to your decision.

One time, I received significant pushback on implementing a security awareness training program across the enterprise. I met with each stakeholder to identify any concerns they had and how they felt the program could benefit their department. I found many of the stakeholders shared the same concern in that their employees would not find the training relevant to their daily workflow, so I made sure that the program included scenarios across all departments and how a cyber attack could impact daily tasks for everyone. Ultimately, the program was approved and implemented, and it helped to reduce the risky behavior of end users across all departments. A key to the success of this project was communicating with stakeholders to identify their needs first and adjusting the program accordingly versus just creating a program and telling them that my way was their only option.

  • Which types of decisions do you make rapidly? And which types take you longer? Please provide examples.

An example of a decision I make rapidly is adjusting a training module to ensure students are retaining the skills they have learned. If I notice students have difficulty grasping a topic, I don't continue delivering the content in the same way with the same examples. Instead, I work to identify an explanation that they relate to and take the necessary time to ensure retention.

Decisions that take me longer to complete include analyzing employee performance reviews for raises. I like to digest not just the KPIs but also have a short meeting with the individual so that I can identify their needs. This way, instead of just giving someone a raise, I might also identify that they are working on a college degree, and then I can go fight to get a budget increase for more tuition assistance and distribute that economic opportunity across the entire team.

  • Describe a problem you have had when coordinating technical projects.

The main challenge I have faced in coordinating technical projects is managing the different personalities of all team members.

  • What was your most difficult decision in the last 6 months and why was it difficult?

The most difficult decision I have faced in the past 6 months was to cut staff hours back at a critical time when we needed all of the help we could get on projects. I had to reduce spending on the budget in the short term to keep the company financially viable for a longer period of time. This meant reducing the hours of some contractors we were working with on projects and investing my own time to cover the slack. Any good leader finds it challenging to make the decision to cut hours or positions because we understand the impact that can have on the individual on the receiving end.

  • Can you tell me your process for making highly technical decisions?

For any decision, I focus on the end result and then identify the KPIs that are needed at each stage of the project to get me to that end result. I remove my emotional attachment to the outcome of the decision. Next, I perform a self-analysis of my skillset to determine whether I need to hire an additional resource to cover the technical skills needed for the project.

Delegation

The following questions assess your ability to delegate tasks to others:

  • Do you consider yourself a macro or micromanager?

I consider myself a macro manager. I focus on hiring the best teams, providing a little direction on the ultimate objectives, and then step back to let these intelligent and creative people do their work. This approach leads to innovative ideas that drive massive revenue for the organization. Micromanagers cause your company to lose revenue and lose its best talent.

  • How do you make the decision to delegate work to your team?

I know my own strengths and weaknesses and time constraints along with the strengths and weaknesses of my team members. This allows me to quickly delegate parts of a project to team members that specialize in those areas and own my own specialties.

For any aspiring manager reading this book, I suggest you study personality types, behavioral assessments, and human psychology so that you can also learn to read your team and empower them to peak performance.

  • What was the biggest mistake you have had when delegating tasks?

Early in my career, the biggest mistake I made was delegating tasks to anyone. I quickly learned that I needed to know the strengths and weaknesses of my team members, so I could delegate the right tasks to the right people.

  • Can you tell me about your biggest success when delegating tasks?

My biggest success when delegating tasks was to let a team member know the end outcome that we were looking for and then give them ample time to be creative. This team member came back having invented new technology that saved the company millions of dollars in just the first year of implementation.

Detail orientation

The following questions are designed to assess your attention to detail:

  • Describe a situation where you had an option to leave the details of a project to someone else or handle them yourself and what your decision was and why.

This decision depends a lot on the project and the strengths of the team. One example is when I was tasked with building custom labs for a company. I had significantly more experience than my team in designing and building labs, so I chose to handle the details of the project and then collaborated with the team to get additional thoughts on ways to improve the lab design. The outcome of this approach was that we were able to create labs the company loved, which were delivered months before they expected them.

  • Reflecting back on previous jobs, overall, have those jobs required low attention to detail, a moderate amount of attention, or a high amount of detail to be successful in the job?

It really depends on the job, but the vast majority of positions I have held required a high level of detail. An example of this was when I worked as a nurse and had to document my patient assessments for the physician. If I did not perform the job properly and missed a detail, it could literally mean the difference between life and death for the patient.

  • Can you share a situation where you found it challenging to handle the details of a project?

I have not found it challenging to handle the details of any projects in my career.

For this question though, you could share a situation where you found the details or instructions on a project challenging. A key takeaway for an interview is to never make up any situation just to answer a question. If you don't have an example to share for each question, it's okay.

  • Can you describe a situation where you found attention to detail was not important?

I find attention to detail extremely important to a successful outcome on projects. So, unfortunately, I do not have an example of this. For those reading this book, it is completely fine for you not to have an answer to this question because you believe in quality work. As a hiring manager, I look for people that strive to deliver quality work.

Employee development

This question is designed to assess your ability to build out employee development training:

  • Have you ever developed or enhanced a training program? If yes, please tell me your process for building one.

Yes, I have developed and enhanced several training programs in my career. My process varies slightly based on whether the program exists already and just needs to be improved or whether I am building it from scratch.

For programs that require improvement, I will go through the training from the eyes of the trainee and identify what is working well in the program and what could be improved. Then, I outline a roadmap for improvements and projected costs, so I can fight for the necessary budget.

For programs that I am building from scratch, I start by performing a competitor analysis to identify issues with other programs so that we can solve those challenges in ours. Then, I outline a roadmap with projected costs and petition for the budget.

Evaluating alternatives

The following questions are designed to assess your process for evaluating alternate options:

  • Describe a situation where you had multiple options to choose from. How did you reach a decision about which options to choose?

With multiple options, I always perform trade-off analysis to determine the benefits and drawbacks of each decision. An example of this is when I had to decide how to reduce my team's spend over a few months. The initial choices I had were to either cut staff or to reduce the hours of some members of staff. I performed a trade-off analysis of each option and determined the best route was to reduce billable hours for a small number of contractors and retain full-time staff members.

  • Were there any alternate options you developed as part of your review process?

Yes; an alternate cost-saving option I identified was to reduce hours from the contract video editing team. This allowed me to keep one of the curriculum contractors working for a longer period of time.

  • Can you share a major decision you have made in the past 12 months and how you evaluated the other options that were available?

A major decision I have made in the past year is around my Cyber Life television show. Initially, I had contracted a media distribution company, but that company failed to deliver on the contract. I knew the owners of the company, so I had to determine whether I should cut the contract and terminate the relationship with these individuals or remain with them but not get anything in the contract fulfilled. I did my due diligence and assessed competitors in the space and, ultimately, decided to terminate the contract and move to another distribution company, which has led to a massive increase in viewership for my show and proper distribution.

  • Are there types of decisions that you find more difficult to make than others?

For me, the toughest decisions are always around cutting staff members because of budget reasons. Any decision like this has an impact on the individual and their family. Some executives look at team members as just a number on a spreadsheet, but I always see the human behind the number. If I do have to lay off people, I work hard to find them something within my network prior to their last day with my company.

Flexibility

The following questions are designed to assess your flexibility on the job:

  • Have you ever had a subordinate whose performance was consistently below average? What did you do to improve their performance?

Yes; I have come across several of these individuals over the years and found that it's best to start with something positive they are doing. Then, I ask them what they think could be improved and shut up to let them talk. If they have no suggested improvements, I share my thoughts and work with them to identify whether we can add some training to help them improve or utilize another method. In a few rare cases, the person simply didn't want to be there and didn't want to improve, so I had to fire them.

  • Describe how you make adjustments to your management approach if you see it's not working to improve performance.

I look for parts of my approach that are working and double down on those. Also, I assess the personality type of the other person and adjust my communication approach to be more in line with their personality type.

  • What is your process for working through obstacles that you face in projects?

My process is simple: I focus on the end result I want and remain persistent until I reach my goal. Usually, persistence is the main key to success in both projects and life.

  • Describe your process when you experience difficulty persuading someone else to your point of view.

If someone continues to be resistant to my point of view, I always ask them to share why they feel that way. This helps me identify real objections and determine a response for each objection. If the other party continues to be resistant, I might bring in a mediator to listen to both sides and help us talk through a solution.

Follow-up and control

The following questions are designed to assess your process for tracking metrics:

  • What is your process for tracking projects that you have delegated to others?

I like to give my team members autonomy in how they complete a project. So, my typical tracking is an informal check-in with a team member to ensure we are hitting key milestones within the project. This check-in might be done via email or a messenger service such as Slack or Discord, with an option to speak on the phone if the team member has questions. Over the years, I have tried different methods, and I have found that if I hire very smart people and give them autonomy, the projects always get done on time, within budget, and the team member usually invents a new process or product as a result of having the freedom to choose how to spend their time to get us to the end objective.

  • What is your process for collecting data for performance reviews?

I have a few task-based checklists that I use for performance reviews. I just complete these on a weekly basis so that I have enough data when it is time to make determinations regarding salary increases.

  • Describe your method for tracking tasks assigned to your team.

To track tasks assigned to our overall team, I use project management software to track each task and who is responsible for the task completion. I build milestone check-ins into every project to ensure the team stays on track for completion.

  • What key metrics were you held to in your last position?

In a past position, a key metric was the number of content hours produced in a given month. Another key metric was staying below budget while scaling.

Initiative

The following questions are designed to assess your initiative:

  • Describe a situation where you anticipated problems and were able to influence a new direction to avoid those problems.

A recent example of anticipating problems and pivoting direction is when I noticed a lab host provider had limited capabilities for us to build advanced cybersecurity labs with standard industry tools while leveraging our proprietary technology stack. I worked with my team to identify the cost ranges of building our own architecture and performed a trade-off analysis of both options. As I write this book, the company is in the midst of pivoting toward owning its own lab platform to build advanced labs.

  • How were you assigned tasks in your last role?

In my last role, I was given a list of content that needed to be built over the next year and then was responsible for identifying security professionals that were skilled to create that content.

  • What excited you the most about your last position?

The opportunity to work with team members all over the world.

  • Describe a time when you developed a project that went above and beyond the requirements of your job description.

Several years ago, I had started a new job, and as part of their onboarding process, I rotated between departments so that I could get a more holistic view of what everyone in the company did in their day-to-day operations. In one department, I noticed that the current training they had on one of the software applications was extremely boring, and this sentiment was shared by that entire team. I spent the next weekend building a new training program for that department and then proposed the idea to their manager after the content was built. They loved the new training and implemented it that same week.

  • Can you share a time in school when you exceeded expectations?

During the first semester of my undergraduate degree program, my spouse had to be hospitalized and I missed several weeks of classes. The dean of the campus met with me and asked whether I could complete my missing assignments and finish the semester with a passing grade. I not only completed the missing assignments, but I also did extra credit assignments and ended up with perfect grades that semester, winning an award from the university.

Interpersonal skills

The following questions are designed to assess your interpersonal skills:

  • Describe a recent unpopular decision you made and what the outcome was.

A recent unpopular decision I made was the decision to reduce contractor hours for a short period of time. After making the decision, I communicated it to the contractors and explained why we had to make the cut in the short term, which they understood.

  • Can you share an example of the most difficult person you have ever worked with and how you handled your interactions with them?

Back when I worked in fast food, there was an employee that refused to do any work when he was on shift. He would also horseplay and throw trash all over the restaurant. I mostly kept my cool, but one day I confronted him and mentioned that if he didn't like his job he could just quit and make it easier on the rest of us. He then shared how he needed this job to pay his bills, and I mentioned that it might make sense for him to start doing the job, so he could keep it. I was not in his chain of command at all, but this conversation seemed to work and he became one of the top employees at the restaurant.

  • Describe how you contributed to a team environment in your last position.

In my last role, I focused on the mission of the company and the performance outcomes we wanted across the organization. While working on projects with different teams, I focused on being respectful of the thoughts and opinions of others and recognizing their individual contributions to projects. The collaboration between teams allowed the company to scale without a significant increase in cost.

Innovation

The following questions are designed to assess your ability to innovate with new ideas to solve problems:

  • Describe a situation where you had to be innovative at work. What was the outcome?

As a nurse, I had a challenge with one baby I worked with where, during feeding time, he would roll around and try to pull out his feeding tube and knock over the syringe used for feeding him. One of my hands would be occupied holding the syringe and the other pouring food in the syringe, so I would have to try and block the baby with my arms as he tried to pull out the tube. One day out of frustration, I went through his equipment and pieced together a new device that could be used to vent (in the medical field, it's commonly called gastric decompression) the patient's feeding tube prior to the feeding and allow food to be delivered, all while remaining hands-free for me. I called the pediatric physician and explained what I had built and then received an order from her to deliver food via my new device at the next feeding time. When I tested the new device, I found I could keep both hands free during the feeding, which allowed me to use a toy to distract the child. Later, I ended up doing a provisional patent application on the device and selling the rights to a large healthcare company.

  • Describe a time you made a suggestion for improvement to your boss. What was the end result of the conversation?

I noticed my manager seemed to have reservations about communicating in meetings with other department heads and that the managers of the other departments seemed to ignore her on the few occasions she decided to speak up on a matter. I sat down with this manager and asked her whether she had noticed similar treatment from the other department managers and asked how she felt the situation could be improved. Then, I shared my suggestions; one of those suggestions was to bring me as a champion to the meetings to reaffirm her point of view and gain buy-in from the other departments. At the next meeting, this manager shared her opinion on a topic and I mentioned it was a great idea and how I felt it could be applied on a broader scale. Having a second person reaffirm her point of view seemed to help as she quickly received buy-in from the other teams and no longer had issues in meetings moving forward.

  • Can you describe a time you used a non-traditional method to solve a problem on the job?

As a janitor, I worked the night shift. One evening, I noticed the facility I usually cleaned was out of cleaning solutions and the only cleaning product left was a bottle of dish soap. I let my management team know and then cleaned the facility using the dish soap, which worked much better than traditional cleaning solutions.

  • When was the last time you had to think "outside of the box"? How did you do it?

A recent example is building an entire 9-month custom cybersecurity training program in less than 2 months. Most cybersecurity programs focus on certifications, which makes it easy to just copy exam objectives and perform knowledge-based training to those objectives. With a custom, on-the-job task-focused program, you have to create all of the case studies and lab scenarios from scratch, build all of the content, and perform quality checks to ensure everything is working correctly. The keys to our success on this project were a talented curriculum team and moving fast to deliver the content.

  • Describe a time you were required to use creative thinking on the job to solve a problem.

At one healthcare company I worked at, we had an issue where patients would consistently show up late for their medication appointments. They stated they did not know what to expect during the treatment, even though most of them came multiple times per week and had been given brochures. I decided to create a series of short videos for these patients, which were entertaining and fun, and walked them through what to expect during their appointment, reminding them how important it was to show up at their scheduled time. Within a few weeks, these simple videos led to a reduction in patients being late.

  • What is one of your most creative ideas?

Inventing the pediatric medical device is probably my most creative idea that has come to fruition so far since it was used to help a lot of children.

Integrity

The following questions are designed to assess your integrity:

  • Describe a time when you were asked to keep information confidential on the job.

When I worked in the military, I dealt with information at different levels of classification. The key to confidential or classified information is to understand the controls you need to follow for the protection and distribution of the information.

  • Describe a time you acted with integrity.

I worked with a hospice patient who experienced mental deterioration, which led to her withdrawing large amounts of cash from the bank and hiding it in her dresser drawers and other places around her house. This woman had two daughters: one daughter had legal custody, and the other daughter had no visitation rights. The daughter with legal custody told me that her sister was not allowed into the home and that if I found any money I should tell her about it. Later that night, after the sister with legal custody went to bed, the other sister showed up at the front door demanding entry into the home. She stated her mother had withdrawn money to help her pay her rent. I attempted to reach the sister with legal custody, but she did not answer my calls. So, I denied access to the other woman and mentioned I would be forced to contact law enforcement if she attempted to gain entry to the home. Finally, she went away and I began preparing the patient's medication. After preparing the medication, I washed my hands in the bathroom and searched for a towel to dry with. In the closet with towels, there was a stack of hundred-dollar bills that probably amounted to several thousand dollars. I called the daughter with legal custody again and left a message about finding the cash and mentioning exactly where it was. Early the next morning, that daughter came to retrieve the money to put it back into the bank account. She also thanked me for denying access to her sister. She explained her sister had a narcotics addiction, and that was why she didn't have the legal right to interact with their mother. She had robbed her mother a few times for drug money and had been charged with the crimes.

  • Can you tell me about a time when your trustworthiness was challenged and how you reacted?

I had a boss in fast food that accused me of damaging the walls of a small building we called the dog house in the drive-thru. In this small building, we would sit to collect payment after someone placed their order, and then the customer would move to the main building to pick up their food. The good news for me was the dog house was damaged while I was out of town and it had cameras inside, which captured another employee causing the damage. I reported my manager to their supervisor, who was head of the region, and they faced disciplinary action for accusing me before doing simple diligence to review the camera footage. Shortly after the accusation, I quit that job and went to an employer that appreciated my hard work ethic.

  • Describe a time when you witnessed dishonesty in the workplace and how you handled it.

I noticed another nurse one time writing out her entire nursing note for each day of the weekend on a Friday night. It was impossible for her to predict what the patient's condition would be over the next few days, and charting like that was against nursing standards of practice. At first, I addressed it directly with the nurse, but she told me she didn't care what I thought and she was going to do what she wanted. So, I ended up reporting it to the company and the state board of nursing. An investigation opened that found the nurse had been documenting in that way on several patients in the past. Additionally, it was found that the nurse was reporting hours for two separate companies on the same shift hours. The last I heard regarding the investigation was that it had been referred to the district attorney for criminal prosecution, along with a nursing board action to revoke her nursing license.

  • Describe a time you chose to trust someone on the job and the outcome.

As a nurse, I chose to trust another nurse to pick up medications for my patient from the pharmacy even though this nurse had ended his work shift. This nurse was trustworthy and returned with the patient's medication. I am still connected with the nurse to this day because he proved he was trustworthy.

Introducing change

The following questions are designed to assess your ability to implement change in an organization:

  • Describe your process for implementing policy changes to your team?

My process for implementing policy changes across the team is to start by explaining the policy at a high level and why we are implementing the policy. Then, I ask the team to surface any questions or concerns with the new policy so that we can address them. Finally, I continue checking in with the team after we implement the policy to ensure it is meeting its objectives and to ensure it is not causing significant disruption to the team's productivity.

  • Have you ever experienced resistance when implementing a new idea or policy with your team? If yes, what was your process for dealing with the resistance?

Yes; people inherently are resistant to change. I have found that the best way to combat resistance is to ensure people understand the why behind the new policy or idea and how it can directly benefit them.

Leadership

The following questions are designed to assess your leadership skills:

  • Describe some ways in which you motivate your co-workers.

I motivate team members in many ways. One simple method I used in the pre-pandemic days was to write a simple thank you card and leave them across desks at the organization. The majority of employees had no clue who was the person behind the random thank you cards, but it helped improve morale and increased productivity across the organization.

  • Can you share a time when two members of the team did not work well together and your process for motivating them to work together?

I had two employees who didn't like each other and were in a conflict, which was affecting their productivity. After trying standard solutions to resolve the issue, I wrote a number on the whiteboard and told them it was the bonus that would be split between the two of them each month. If there was any fighting or if work was not getting done, the number would reduce by $100 for each occurrence until it went back down to $0 for the month. Additionally, I mentioned that it was up to both of them to work together to get this bonus because this bonus couldn't be earned working as individuals. In the first month, they only earned $100 because they both kept fighting with each other, but when that $100 was paid out, they both realized the potential for earning a lot more. So, in the second month, it was a night and day difference in terms of their relationship, and they received the full bonus that month and in subsequent months.

  • Describe the toughest situation you have faced when trying to get cooperation from other teams.

The toughest situation I have experienced is just getting full buy-in from another team on the project. I have found the best way to get the buy-in from other teams is to ensure they see a clear benefit for their team in the project.

Listening

The following questions are designed to assess your ability to listen to others:

  • Describe a time when you made a mistake because you did not listen to the advice of others.

One time, I ignored advice from a close friend regarding a business deal. It led me to lose tens of thousands of dollars on a bad deal.

  • How do you show people that you are listening to them?

I use active listening, which means I listen to the person and engage in the conversation with them to let them know I am listening. My goal with this is to just have a conversation and not try to force my agenda onto them.

  • Describe when you think listening is important in your job and when you find it difficult to listen.

To me, active listening is always important in the job.

Motivation

The following questions assess your ability to motivate other people and self-motivation:

  • How do you motivate your team?

I motivate my team through many methods. It really depends on the individual and what they relate to the most. For example, I have some employees who are motivated when I sponsor someone else for a security certification because the employee was productive. I have other employees who also prefer direct recognition of their efforts.

  • Describe your process for assessing when your team members exceed your expectations on projects. How do you reward them?

I hire smart and creative people, so I always expect they will crush my expectations. I have not been let down yet. As far as processes for assessing expectations, I track the outcomes that we want in each project and the contributions of each team member. Then, I reward them appropriately.

  • Can you share how you get subordinates to work at their peak potential and produce at a higher level?

If people truly believe in the objectives, then they will naturally produce at high levels. Hire the best and empower them to be even better, and your company can be unstoppable.

  • Can you share a time when you were able to have a positive impact on others?

I worked with a little boy who was from a very poor family. So, with the permission of his parents, I would treat the little kid to ice cream and fast food, along with his family, so he could experience different things from poverty. I grew up very poor, so I saw myself in this little kid. I also took this kid to a fire station to meet firefighters and see the trucks, and he could not stop talking about that experience for almost a month.

  • How do you define success in your career?

To me, success is defined as impact. What kind of impact am I having on the world? That's real success to me.

Negotiation

The following questions assess your experience negotiating:

  • Can you share the most difficult negotiation you were involved in and the results of that negotiation?

A while back, I was involved in a massive business deal, where the other party was determined to make it a deal that only benefited them. We were successful in finding some middle ground and all parties walked away happy with the deal.

  • Describe a time when you had to bargain with someone. What was your process?

I bargained with my Spanish language teacher to not only receive training but also have her do some translation work for my television show. The process was simple in that I, first, closed the deal for having her train me. Then, I focused on negotiating to add in some translation work for the show.

  • What do you find to be the most difficult part of negotiation?

When I first started negotiating, the most difficult part was identifying what the outcome I wanted would look like. Once I created the vision in my head of exactly what I wanted, it became much easier to get what I wanted in the negotiation.

Organizational responsibilities

The following questions assess your ability to prioritize organizational responsibilities:

  • Describe a time when you had to make a difficult choice between your personal and professional life.

I am involved in several start-up companies, which eat up a lot of my time. The difficult choice I had to make is sacrificing watching movies and television shows so that I can focus that time on those businesses.

  • How do you decide what is the top priority when you schedule your time?

I focus on what the most impactful project will be to the organization, especially to drive revenue growth or cost savings, and focus on that.

  • Describe what you do when you experience interruptions to your planned schedule.

I simply adapt to the interruptions and reprioritize my tasks to ensure I am only focused on the most critical tasks that will have the biggest impact.

Performance management

The following questions assess your performance management ability:

  • Describe a time you helped someone accept change and make the necessary adjustments to move forward. What were the change/transition skills that you used with this person?

The largest change I have helped others accept is a transition from military service back to civilian life. As far as process goes, I just shared my own journey of transitioning, the mindset changes that need to happen, and the challenges I faced when getting out of the military.

  • Describe how you have empowered others into accomplishing tasks.

I empower others by using social engineering tactics to convince people that they can accomplish the tasks they are trying to achieve and by mentoring them through that transition journey.

  • Describe your process for handling performance reviews.

I approach performance reviews by looking holistically at the person to identify not only how they are performing on projects but whether there are any challenges or personal issues happening that might have led to lower productivity.

  • Can you tell me about a time you had to take disciplinary action against one of the people you supervised?

Yes; I have had to do write-ups for performance issues and terminate some employees. However, my process is to first meet with the employee and attempt to identify any training opportunities that we can invest in to help the employee. Then, I move into more formal disciplinary action if needed.

  • Give an example of how you provide constructive criticism to your team.

One example is mentioning a positive thing an employee has done on a project and then offering your suggestions to help improve the project.

Behavioral interview questions are asked in every interview that I have ever been in and they are one of the easiest types of questions to prepare for because you are answering with your real life stories.

Summary

In this chapter, you learned about common behavioral questions that you might be asked in an interview. Remember, even if you don't have work situations that you can use as examples to answer these questions, you still have experiences from your personal life that you can use to answer them. In an interview, you will probably only be asked a few of these questions, but it's good to study a few questions from each section so that you are well prepared for interviews.

In the next chapter, the authors will share their final interview advice with you.

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