Assessment Methods:
Situational Interview Questions - Overview

Situational questions describe a hypothetical situation based on challenging, real-life, job-related occurrences and ask the candidate how he or she would handle it. 

The assumption with situational questions is that intentions can predict future behaviour (people tend to do what they say they will), however, evidence suggests that there is little correlation between what an applicant says they will do and actual job performance. Therefore, where possible, enhance the validity of situational questions by asking candidates to provide examples of how they behaved in a situation similar to the situation in past work, volunteer or life experience. (See Behavioural Interviews for further information).

Situational questions may be useful where applicants do not have the necessary experience to be able to provide relevant examples from their past however, consider assessing key competencies using other assessment tools (e.g. role-play, in-basket) which require an applicant to demonstrate their competencies in a simulated situation. Rating scales are developed in advance of the interviews.

See Creating Situational Interview Questions for more information and sample situational questions including one for an Information Officer scenario illustrating how it was developed.