Have you ever drawn a blank in a job interview? Behavioural interview questions are tough. Trying to come up with specific examples of things you’ve achieved in a stressful situation like a job interview can be difficult.

How can we prepare ahead for behavioural interview questions?

Here’s a very simple exercise that will help you prepare for those tricky behavioural interview questions.

Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle, from top to bottom.

On the left side of the page, make a list of all the skills the interviewer might be looking for. You can get a lot of these from the job description, and also Google “key skills in demand” for a more complete list. Don’t forget to think of “negative” questions; many interviewers will want to know how you handle failure, so be ready for those topics, too.

On the right side of the page, make a corresponding list of experiences that match the topics on the left side. Take time to visualize the details of each scenario as they played out. But don’t write out the entire example, just write something that will jog your memory, such as the date and who was involved, maybe a basic outline of the problem.

This is purely a memory exercise, so that when you’re in the interview being asked for examples, you won’t have to come up with them on the spot.

I hope this tip is helpful!