On HireVue's platform, most of their customizable interview questions follow a uniform situational judgment structure, where "you'll be asked what actions to take when confronted with a hypothetical situation. Tell me about a time when you faced this situation. Explain the steps you took. What was the outcome?" The goal of these behavioral questions is to gauge your job knowledge, competencies, and hard skills. Your response will showcase your soft skills like emotional intelligence, communication, empathy, resourcefulness, teamwork, and initiative. The algorithm often relies on this structure to create a candidate insights report.

Make sure you're relaxed and comfortable and that your answer reflects a sincere and authentic tone. Recount the situation objectively. Among the things it will rate you for are your attitude and emotional maturity, your adaptability, and your willingness to learn and grow. Distance yourself from any negative emotions you felt at the time and embody the emotional state you wish to express. You want to showcase that you exercised emotional maturity, which ultimately resulted in a successful outcome. If you can't detach yourself emotionally from the example and observe it situationally, come up with a different one. Stay focused on the positives, while ensuring your verbal and non-verbal cues are consistent with one another. To express empathy nonverbally, remember to tilt your head slightly, nod slowly, keep your palms open, maintain eye contact, smile softly, and raise your eyebrows slightly.

"There was a recent occasion when we were particularly busy in the branch and had some long lines. It was a grind that day. Then a customer I was fond of came up to my counter, and we chatted for a while, and I took advantage of the momentary stress relief it offered me, but it slowed down our progress, and my supervisor talked to me about striking a better balance of delivering strong customer service and keeping the lines moving. They were right, and I immediately took responsibility for my actions."