Behavorial Interviewing Tips

TearTaylor

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	When preparing for interviews job applicants should always anticipate potential questions that may be hurled at them during the meeting. In a traditional interview, some of these questions might be similar to those found on the following list: What are some of your strengths? What interests you most about this job? What are your goals in life? Why should we hire you over the other talented applicants that have applied for this same position? Tell me some of your achievements you’re most proud of? What are some of the positive adjectives that your last employer might use to describe your personality and/or working style? Conventional Questions Most conventional questions encourage job applicants to elaborate on their strong points, which is what every job applicant wants to do anyway. Even if the interviewer asks a job applicant to tell him or her what some of his weaknesses are, even the most inexperienced job applicant knows not to reveal his most debilitating weakness and instead to subtly incorporate an asset in the response. To help illustrate my point, below I've provided what I believe to be several bad responses and better responses to the same question. What is one of your weaknesses? Bad Response I get impatient easily. I don't like to wait on anything. I get really upset if things don't happen for me fast. Better Response I can be somewhat impatient when working on my projects. I like to see results right away. I don't like to sit back and wait for things to happen. I like to take the initiative, move forward on things, be proactive in everything I do. What is one of your weaknesses? Bad Response I get bored fast. If I don't have challenging stuff to do, I lose interest in my work quickly. Better Response I get bored quickly if I'm not challenged by my duties. I have to regularly sign up for new projects and assignments at the office. I have to regularly seek out better ways to assist my boss and coworkers in order to stay challenged and excited about my job. As you can clearly see from the rephrased statements, the candidates' weaknesses (impatience and boredom) no longer sound like weaknesses. As a matter of fact, they sound more like strengths. However, with behavior based questions job applicants can't smoothly manipulate their words to get things to come out the way they'd prefer like these examples have just proven. Behavior-based questions are a lot more probing, and lately more and more interviewers are readily relying on these types of questions to help weed out inferior candidates. Behavior-Based Questions Behavior-based interviewing operates on the simple premise that an employee’s past working style or past job behavior will also predict how he or she will react in similar situations for his/her newest employer. Behavior-based questions are much more probing than conventional questions. Interviewers can dissect specific behavior patterns and traits by simply incorporating a small stock of these questions into their regular arsenal of questioning. Also, behavior-based questions are usually not of the dead-end variety like conventional questions normally are. They can lead to more revealing questions while a candidate still struggles to awkwardly answer the initial question. Below is an extensive list of popular behavior-based questions. How do you normally deal with conflict? Give me an example. Tell me about a time when you strongly disagreed with an idea or plan a coworker had. How did you get him/her to change his/her mind? Tell me about a goal you recently set for yourself. Did you reach it and if so how did you go about achieving it? Tell me about a goal you set for yourself that you failed at. Why do you believe you failed? What have you done in the past or recently to help foster a positive team spirit or environment within your department? Tell me about a time that you had multiple assignments to finish within a short time frame. How did you go about getting them all done? Tell me about a time when you had to tell a subordinate they weren’t doing their job well. Tell me about a time when you had to go beyond the call of duty to get a job done. Tell me about a difficult decision you’ve made within the last year. Tell me about a situation where a coworker or boss was extremely difficult to work with. How did you handle the situation? Tell me about an instance or situation at your company that you were particularly proud of? Something that you accomplished that no one else at the company had succeeded in doing before. Why were you successful in this task when no one else was? Tell me about a time when something was extremely important to you, where you were forced to speak up and sell your ideas to others. Tell me about a situation when you were asked to do something that you thought was a conflict of interest. How did you deal with the situation? Tell me about a time when you were asked to complete a task that you didn't know anything about. How did you complete the task? Tell me about the worst customer you ever had and how you dealt him/her. Describe the steps you would take if a customer came to you with a problem that was beyond your knowledge and/or responsibilities. Describe a recent situation when you didn't know with whom you needed to speak with in an organization to get something done. What did you do? Describe how you handle rude, difficult or impatient people. Tell me about a time when you had to follow your boss' orders when you did not agree with him or her. Describe the types of people you get along with best and why. Describe the types of people you have difficulty getting along with and why. Tell me about a situation where you had difficulties with a team member. What, if anything, did you do to resolve your differences? Give me an example of a time that you were faced with a very difficult task. What resources did you use to accomplish the task? How did you prioritize your time to finish the task? Describe a work situation in which you weren't proud of your performance. What did you learn from the situation? Give me an example of when you were able to meet the personal and professional demands in your life yet still maintain a healthy balance. 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