Behavioral Interview Questions for Training and Mentoring

Developing employees is critical to the success of an organization. Almost every position in a company will train or mentor someone else in the company at some point. Some positions have only minor training responsibilities, while other positions are full time training roles. In either case, you may encounter questions about your experience training or mentoring.

Behavioral interview questions provide a good way to ask about training and mentoring skills. A Behavioral Question asks the candidate to describe how they acted in a specific situation. This technique uses the past performance of the candidate to predict how they will perform in the future.  Below is a selection of behavioral questions targeting training and mentoring responsibilities:

• Tell me about a time when you trained a new hire.
• Tell me about a time when you retrained someone who was struggling in their job.
• Tell me about a time when you mentored a coworker successfully.
• Tell me when you trained a superior.
• Tell me about a time when you mentored coworker but failed to help them improve.
• Tell me about a time when you delegated a task for developmental reasons.
• Tell me about a time when you brought in an outside expert to train your team.
• Tell me about a time when you taught a group in a seminar.
• Tell me about a time when you utilized interactive training techniques.
• Tell me about a time when you overcame disruptive behavior from a seminar participant.
• Tell me about the greatest training challenge you have faced.
• Tell me about a time you had to train a group on a topic you were not an expert in.
• Tell me about a time when you implemented new technology to facilitate training.
• Tell me about a time when you identified a training need in an organization that had been unmet.
• Tell me about a time when the training you delivered resulted in significant bottom line results in the organization.
• Tell me how you would train me to do… (insert a common task or topic in your industry).

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews: