i want to share what i observed going through abbvie's behavioral rounds because i think the usual 'just do STAR' advice undersells how specific their culture lens is.
i went through their full loop earlier this year for a senior IT business analyst role. the behavioral section was two separate rounds with different interviewers, each 45-60 minutes. that's a lot of behavioral. here's what came up across both sessions:
questions i was asked (paraphrasing): "tell me about a time you had to influence a decision without direct authority." "describe a situation where you had to manage conflicting priorities from different stakeholders." "give me an example of when you had to communicate a technical concept to a non-technical audience." "tell me about a failure and what you learned." "how have you worked across teams with different goals or incentive structures?"
none of those are shocking but the follow-ups were persistent. they kept asking "why" and "what specifically did you do" until they got to something concrete. vague answers don't work here.
abbvie's stated values are things like: integrity, transformation, collaboration, care, urgency. i noticed interviewers would occasionally use those words explicitly, like "that sounds like it reflects our value of [x]." that's actually useful signal because it tells you what frame they're using to score you.
the "care" piece shows up a lot. this is a pharma company that makes real drugs patients depend on. the mission is not abstract there the way it is at a lot of places. interviewers genuinely seem invested in it. when i talked about impact on end users i could feel the room engage more.
if i were prepping again: prepare 6-8 STAR stories that each illustrate a different value. don't try to reuse the same story four times. they will notice.
also: the failures question is real. have a genuine one ready. they don't want "my biggest weakness is i work too hard."