Behavioral Style, a New Trend in Job Interviews

Contributed by Sheri Graves

Interviewers always have used open-ended questions to elicit information about the job applicant’s background. But lately they’ve been rephrasing those questions to focus on the candidate’s behavior.

Past behavior indicates future behavior. That’s the new thought among hiring specialists who have switched to “behavioral-style” interviewing.

Yes, they still want to know all about your employment history and your skill set. But they get to that information through creative questioning that focuses on how you behaved in specific situations rather than the accomplishment you achieved in that situation.

For example, it used to be that an interviewer would say, “Let’s say you have several assignments to handle at the same time. How do you prioritize your work?”

Today, that question might be rephrased to say, “Your resume says you are proficient at multi-tasking. Give me an example of a deadline-oriented multi-tasking situation you handled at your previous job. What did you do? What was the outcome?”

The interviewer isn’t looking for a rambling, “First, I did this, and then I did that …” dissertation. The interviewer is seeking information on how you prioritize your work and whether you can meet deadlines when juggling assignments. The interviewer is trying to determine if you are task-oriented or outcome-oriented. And, most of all, did you panic or did you skate through the crisis?

Another example: “What would you do if you had a disgruntled customer who refused to be satisfied with company policy and you had to handle the complaint by yourself?”

Today, that question might be rephrased to say, “Tell me about a time in your previous employment when you were faced with an angry customer. How did you approach the problem? What was the outcome?”

With a question like this, the interviewer is hoping to hear an account of how you performed as a trouble-shooter in your past employment. The expectation is that you would do the same if hired and that kind of situation arose again.

It’s not easy to prepare for a behavioral-style interview. In fact, you may not even realize you’re in the middle of a behavioral-style interview. You need to listen to those questions very closely to determine precisely what it is the interviewer wants to know.

Sometimes it’s a negative question. Nobody wants to talk about a past incident that might cast him/herself in a bad light. Nobody wants a prospective employer to know about past failures. But behavioral-style interviewers will go straight for the jugular.

For example: “Give me an example of a time when your management skills failed. What was the situation? What did you do? What was the outcome? What did you learn from it? How did you capitalize on that experience to succeed in a subsequent similar situation?”

Behavioral-style interviewing tends to involve follow-up questions that get at the heart of the example. As always, the behavioral-style interviewer is focusing on your behavior in the past as an indication of how you will behave in the future.

Behavior is a key indicator of how you will “fit” into the company’s “culture.” In other words, how will your behavior play against the behavior of other employees already on the job?

When a behavioral-style interviewer wants to know how you handle frustration, the question might be: “Give me an example of a time when you were unable to use your creative talents on the job and had to work under a de-motivating boss. What was the situation? How did you handle it? What was the outcome? How did you feel about it?”

Here’s how to respond to behavioral-style interview questions:

• Make sure you understand the question. Repeat it or ask the interviewer to repeat it if you are confused by the question.



• Give examples of actual events that have occurred in your working life. Don’t try to make up something to satisfy the interviewer.



• If no such event ever happened, say so. Then, go on to tell how you would handle such a situation if it ever came up.



• Point out your strengths as you give your example.



• Allow for silence. It’s OK to stop and think before blurting out an answer.



• Maintain eye contact when being questioned and when answering. Break eye contact when taking a moment to think of an answer.



• Don’t be afraid to say, “Oops! My mind just went blank! Can I get back to you on that one?”

If you have experience as a workplace trainer, be sure to mention it.

Your comment may go something like this: “While working for XYZ Corporation, I was responsible for heading up the computer skill training for the staff. In that capacity, I arranged for a computer training video to be shown to the staff, and I personally led the PowerPoint® tutorial. The result was that every staff member in my unit had the same level of computer proficiency, so I was able to parcel out assignments to whoever was available.”

Even if your interviewer doesn’t use behavioral-style questions, you might want to prepare yourself to give behavioral-style answers. It’s a good way to impress an interviewer who hadn’t already thought about how behavior impacts performance.

About the Author:
Sheri Graves is an award-winning writer who freelances from her home in Santa Rosa, California.

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