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 The behavioral interviewing technique is nothing new. In fact, I've been involved with conducting this type of interview for over ten years now. The primary reason we switched to this approach was because the ability of behavioral interviewing to predict future behavior was much greater than traditional interviewing techniques.
There have been several claims that behavioral interviewing is up to five times more predictive of future performance than traditional techniques, but you'll be hard pressed to find a published study backing up this claim. Many companies have switched to this technique for one simple reason - it is a more intuitive way to conduct a job interview.
Behaviors versus Results
One way to think about workplace success is along two dimensions - behaviors and results. Your results are the quality and quantity of work you produce. Your behaviors describe how you accomplish these results. Ideally, you want to hire a candidate that scores high in both these dimensions. You want someone that has the skills to do the job, but you also want them to use good behaviors to get things done. Here's an example why.
Let's say you have a new manager that pushes her direct reports hard everyday. Her demands on the workgroup pay off in the short term because they produce lots of "results." Over the long haul however, this manager's aggressive attitude begins to wear on her direct reports and the work environment deteriorates to the point where everyone wants out of the group.
The manager in the above example had great results, but the bad behaviors caught up with her in the long haul. This example is meant to demonstrate the growing importance of behaviors in the workplace. And for many job openings, behaviors may be more important than results.
Traditional and Situational Interviewing
Traditional interviewing often does not cover enough ground - especially under the condition where you have very little data to use in evaluating a job candidate. Conducting an interview with questions such as "Tell me a little bit about what you've done in the past" leaves things wide open for the candidate.
This approach to interviewing candidates also makes the selection process a lot less objective since each candidate can answer this type of traditional question in a completely different manner.
Situational interviews are a little bit better because they ask the candidate to describe how they might handle a certain situation. Unfortunately, this approach allows the interview candidates to speak in the hypothetical world. They talk about what they might do in a given situation, not what they did in the past.
Behavioral Interview Benefits
Behavioral interviews are believed to be more effective because they ask the candidate to describe how they reacted under certain conditions. That means the technique allows the interviewer to hear not just what the candidate accomplished, but how they went about reaching a goal.
And because behavioral questions are asking about past experience, it is easier to distinguish what a candidate "has done" as opposed to "might do" at work. This is a huge benefit over other interviewing techniques.
Conducting a Behavioral Interview
One of the most important aspects of conducting a behavioral interview is the instructions given to the candidate. Whenever I conduct this type of interview, I make sure to emphasize two points with the candidate:
- What experiences the candidate can call upon in telling the "story"
- How I want the candidate to structure his or her answer or story
Candidate Instructions
This first point brings up another benefit of behavioral interviews - the candidate is not required to have a lot of direct work experience. I always instruct the candidate that they should use the best story they can think of to describe their behavior. The experience can come from everyday life or it can come from the workplace.
The second point I emphasize when giving the candidate instructions is how I want them to structure their story. I describe for them the STAR or SAR approach that I want them to use in answering the behavioral questions that I'll ask.
Quite frankly, I'm very deliberate and precise in my instructions. If the candidate messes up and can't figure out how to answer the behavioral questions, then that tells me something about the candidate's potential, or lack of potential.
STAR Approach to Answering Behavioral Questions
When answering a behavioral interview question, candidates are expected to tell a story using the S-T-A-R, or S-A-R method. By having all the job candidates using the same framework for their responses, it is much easier to "grade" the candidates afterwards.
STAR Statements
STAR is merely an acronym that helps the candidate remember the three parts of the story that are important for the interviewer to hear:
- Situation - you want the candidate to describe the exact situation they were in or the Task they needed to accomplish. The situation must have occurred in the past and can come from the workplace, a volunteer experience or even in a family setting.
- Action - next you need to describe the action that you took - not what you might have done. If you worked in a team environment, it is important to describe your role in the team. Basically, the interviewer wants to understand what the candidate did, not the team.
- Result - finally, you need to describe what happened. How does the story end? Did you accomplish your goal? If not, then what did you learn along the way?
Another benefit of the behavioral interviewing approach is that the entire process makes it much more difficult for the job candidate to exaggerate or create hypothetical situations. As an interviewer, I'm always prepared to politely ask the candidate to elaborate if I think they might be misleading me or stretching the truth.
Examples of Behavioral Interview Questions
Another nice thing about this type of interview is that the types of behavioral questions asked are pretty much the same from company to company. Below is a list of eight or so examples of the most common behavioral interview questions you might encounter:
- Tell me about a time where you were faced with a nearly impossible deadline and it looked like you might be going to miss the deadline.
- Describe for me a time when you were working in a team setting and not everyone on the team agreed with the overall direction the team was taking.
- Tell me about the toughest analytical problem you've ever been asked to solve.
- Describe a time when you had to sell a concept to someone that you thought might not agree with your approach.
- Tell me about a time where you had to bend the rules to get the results you needed (be careful with your response to this one).
- Give me an example of an assignment in which you really had to go beyond the call of duty.
- Tell me about a time where you simply had too much on your plate and you needed to prioritize your work.
- Describe for me a time when things didn't go as expected.
We've got a lot more examples in our behavioral interview question database. In general, you can expect behavioral interview questions to cover topics such as conflicts with others, stress, skills, persuasion, and decision-making.
Answering Behavioral-Based Interview Questions
Now that you understand the types of behavioral questions that might be asked during an interview, you can prepare for this type of interview by thinking about your past experiences. Specifically, you'll want to identify about seven examples where you've demonstrated the behaviors, skills and results that an employer might be seeking.
You need to have a mix of stories to tell - some should be totally positive, while others might have some negative "bumps" but ended positively. If at all possible, your stories should be as recent as possible. That gives the interview team a better idea of how you are likely to behave today.
Finally, as is the case with any kind of interview, make sure you listen to each question carefully. If you've done your homework and prepared for the interview using the tips given earlier, you will be surprised at how these seven stories can answer any question you might encounter during a behavioral interview.
About the Author - Behavioral Interviewing Technique
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