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Behavioral Interviewing

What is behavioral interviewing? Behavioral based interviewing is interviewing based on discovering how the interviewee acted in specific employment-related situations. The logic is that how you behaved in the past will predict how you will behave in the future i.e. past performance predicts future performance.
In a traditional interview, you will be asked a series of questions which typically have straight forward answers like “What are your strenghts and weaknesses?” or “What major challenges and problems did you face? How did you handle them?” or “Describe a typical work week.”

In a behavioral interview, an employer has decided what skills are needed in the person they hire and will ask questions to find out if the candidate has those skills.
Instead of asking how you would behave, they will ask how you did behave. The interviewer will want to know how you handled a situation, instead of what you might do in the future.
Behavioral interview questions will be more pointed, more probing and more specific. For example:

Give an example of an occasion when you used logic to solve a problem.
Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it.
Describe a decision you made that was unpopular and how you handled implementing it.
Have you gone above and beyond the call of duty? If so, how?
What do you do when your schedule is interrupted? Give an example of how you handle it.
Have you had to convince a team to work on a project they weren’t thrilled about? How did you do it?
Have you handled a difficult situation with a co-worker? How?
Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.
Follow-up questions will also be detailed. You may be asked what you did, what you said, how you reacted or how you felt.

What’s the best way to prepare? It’s important to remember that you won’t know what type of interview will take place until you are sitting in the interview room. So, prepare answers to traditional interview questions. Then, since you don’t know exactly what situations you will be asked about if it’s a behavioral interview, refresh your memory and consider some special situations you have dealt with or projects you have worked on. You may be able to use them to help frame responses. Review the job description. You may be able to get a sense of what skills will be asset from reading the job description and position requirements.

During the interview, if you are not sure how to answer the question, ask for clarification. Then be sure to include these points in your answer:

A specific situation
The tasks that needed to be done
The action you took
The results i.e. what happened
It’s important to keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers. The interviewer is simply trying to understand how you behaved in a given situation. How you respond will determine if there is a fit between your skills and the position the company is seeking to fill. So, listen carefully, be clear and detailed when you respond and, most importantly, be honest. If your answers aren’t what the interviewer is looking for, this position may not be the best job for you anyway.

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5 questions you should always ask on an interview

An interview is a two-way street. It’s never a good idea to go in without prepared questions and you should be able to easily come up with 15 – 20 first-interview questions to ask.

But these five – in some form – should always be asked. Not only will they help you to ascertain if the job for which you are interviewing meets the criterion of your perfect job, but the answers, when put together, will give you a fairly accurate picture of what’s going on behind the interview

1. WHAT PRIORITIES WILL NEED TO BE ADDRESSED IMMEDIATELY? A title alone tells you nothing. The job description won’t reveal much either, except whether or not you’re capable of doing what’s required functionally on a daily basis. For the same reason that you put your accomplishments on your resume – and not just the job description – here, too, you want to get a sense of the individuality of this job in this company.

Was everything left running smoothly? Is it picking up and continuing normal daily functions? Is there damage control to be done? If so, is there a time line for the repair, and is it achievable considering your capabilities? Is it realistic regardless of who holds the position?

This will begin to clue you in about both the supervisor and the previous employee. If you’ve already been provided with some detail, the answer should track with what you learned earlier.

2. HOW LONG WAS THE PREVIOUS PERSON HERE? If that person was there an oddly short time, you also want to know how long the person before that was there. And you’d be wise to ask under what circumstances they each left.

If the job is in disarray, and the last two people were there a short period of time and were fired, you don’t need to ask any other questions. Exit gracefully and then run! Because before long, you, too, will be terminated for not achieving whatever it is they want done – regardless of if the stated time frame sounded realistic or not.

3. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE. HOW DO YOU BRING OUT THE BEST IN YOUR EMPLOYEES?: Is he a micro manager? Is he an information hound that must be kept informed? Does he help you if you have trouble? Do any mentoring? Or is he a berating, derogatory, jerk?

Obviously he’s not going to come right out and tell you he’s a micro manager! Instead he might say, “I like to keep a very close watch on what’s going on in my department,” or “I visit with each member of my department on a daily basis to make sure they’re staying on track,” or something similar.

You’ll find that the person will be fairly straightforward in sharing their management style with you. What you want to pay attention to is how they word it.

4. WHAT TYPES OF PEOPLE TEND TO EXCEL HERE?: Workaholics? Ones who are self-motivated and manage themselves well? People who work well in teams or committees?

This tells you something about the pervasive culture in the company or department. Generally speaking, companies – or departments – tend to be made up of similar types of people that are in harmony with the company culture and philosophy.

An entrepreneurial person won’t function well in a committee environment. People who are accustomed to thinking for themselves will find themselves chafing in a company that has a more dictatorial style. Those who perform better when they’re told what to do will be adrift in a company that requires its employees to think for themselves.

5. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE? WHY DO YOU STAY?: The answer will give you an indication as to the health of the department or company. It will also give you additional insight into your potential boss, his management style, and what type of people excel there.

These are informational questions, not challenges. Be genuinely interested in the answer, because you’re gaining valuable information that has to do with your future. Match what you’ve learned with what you are looking for.

Pay attention to the interviewer’s body language and facial expressions. Is he relaxed? Does he fill in some of the spaces? Does he speak TO you – or AT you? These, too, are valuable cues, and you’ll need to piece them together with the verbal information you received.

Your perfect job might land in your lap by grace and good fortune. But more likely, you’ll need to look for it. It’s there – but to recognize it, you’ll need to know what it doesn’t look like, as well as what it does.