A beginning: Once upon a time...
A middle or "climax": Princess is in a crazy dangerous situation! Will the Prince get there in time?!!
And an ending: Princess rides into the sunset with Prince. Everyone lives happily ever after.
Behavioral Interview questions should have just as interesting answers. They generally don't come just off the cuff. The answers to your work life should be thought out. Like real stories of how you have dealt with things in the past.
People have many different ways of going about answering these questions, but what in real terms will help you answer the looming question : "tell me about a challenging situation and how you handled it." ?
In essence a good method is this:
Explain the challenging situation (problem, aka. the beginning)
What outcome you were attempting to achieve (what is the story about aka. girl gets guy. no need to make it a suspense thriller)
What did you do? (action taken -- the middle exciting part)
The conclusion ( what happened? The end, riding off into the sunset)
One method, easy to research and much more detailed, is the STAR Method. Just google it. You will find a million different articles.
The end of this story? Success in an interview happens when you keep the audience engaged. Think of a movie, good book, or song. They all generally have a beginning, middle, and end. They are interesting and contain all the necessary parts.
Think of various projects you have worked on over the years. They are all stories. The trick is to explain your great efforts in a positive light, with the right amount of detail, and in a way that the audience does not get lost or become disinterested.
I will leave you with an awesome picture that has a beginning, middle, and end of its own. Think of one of the best days of your life and how you would tell that story.
