Preparing for a behavioural interview without sounding rehearsed

Behavioural interviews ask about what you have done rather than what you would do, on the reasonable theory that past behaviour predicts future behaviour better than hypotheticals.

The questions are largely predictable: a conflict you handled, a failure you owned, a time you changed your mind, a project you led. Preparing specific stories for each is sensible. Memorising them word for word is not — it produces answers that sound like recitations and collapse under a follow-up question.

Prepare the raw material instead. For each story, know what the situation was, what you specifically did, what happened, and what you would do differently. That last part is where most candidates lose points by claiming they would change nothing.

Choose stories where you were genuinely responsible for the outcome. "We shipped it" invites the follow-up "what did you do?", and if the answer is thin, the story has cost you.

Be willing to describe a real failure. Interviewers are not looking for someone who has never failed; they are looking for someone who noticed, understood why, and changed something as a result.