Employers used to ask softball questions.
Of course, they didn’t think they were softballs, but as they started to realize their interviews weren’t predicting success, they switched it up a little.
They moved from “What would you do if…” to “Tell me about a time when…”
And the behavioral interview was born. While a behavioral interview is not a perfect predictor, it’s a heck of a lot more effective than hypotheticals.
Job seekers often prepare for behavioral interviewing questions. You may wrack your brain for examples of success in your past. You may craft stories to support your qualifications. Here’s a way to bring your effectiveness to the forefront.
The Do-It-Yourself Behavioral Interview
Everything you need is right here! Here we go…
The questions
- Tell me about a time where you used creative thinking to tackle a professional challenge.
- Share with me an example of when you’ve used strategic planning principles to effectively react to the market.
- Detail an example of how you have taken responsibility for addressing a situation of your own accord.
- Tell me about a time where you managed a project to completion.
- Have you ever used relationship-building skills to secure a contract? How did you accomplish this?
- Share your experiences with creating organization and structure that supported results.
- Tell me about a time where you were required to communicate the features and benefits of your product or company. What was the outcome?
The answers
Are you taking notes? Here we go…
- Your job search.
- Your job search.
- Your job search.
- Your… er, you get the idea.
You can be excellent anywhere. And if you’ve managed projects, built relationships, created plans, and communicated, you can do these very same things in the context of your job search.
I’m not suggesting that you answer behavioral questions with examples from your job search.
Just know: if you have been excellent, you can be excellent.
If you are excellent, you will be excellent in your job search.
And the excellence you exude in your job search will carry over. You will build your own confidence. You will increase your effectiveness. And you will get a new job faster, with an excellent smile on your face.
Evaluate your performance
Are you bringing excellence to your job search? Are you living your resume? If an employer asked you how you’re managing your job search, what would you say? How can you bring your on-the-job skills to getting you on the job?
How can you bring excellence to your job search today?
Related posts:
- Behavioral Interviewing: The basics of the CAR method
- Top 10 Interview Questions You’ve Gotta Be Ready For
- Interview Question of the Week: What would your last supervisor say about you?
- Your Kick Butt Job Interview Guide: Best of the Blog 2009
- Interview Question of the Week: Communication and project success
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Regarding those pesky behavioral interview questions, here’s two tactics I’ve used:
1. If you have outdated copies of your resume, or copies of old performance reviews, you’ll have a wealth of behavioral interview examples to choose from. Don’t beat yourself over the head trying to remember — use what you’ve already got written down.
2. Many of the gajillion behavioral interview questions fall into certain themes. Once you memorize a “story” for one of these questions, you’ve pretty much got the rest of that question’s “theme” covered. The “theme” I can describe in my sleep is the “difficult customer” one — and I know it so well that my mneumonic (spelling?) device is the name of the actual person who was that “difficult question.” When I hear questions that go with that “theme,” I think of that person’s name, and I can easily / confidently answer that question.
Be Excellent! (Sorry, couldn’t resist the “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” obscure reference….)
Heather: Great tips for behavioral interviews! The idea of having standard stories to work with is one my clients put to work all the time. It’s much easier to pull from a mental database of ready-made answers than to make one up on the fly. Good resume preparation often leads to good interview preparation in this way — you’ve got your accomplishments top of mind.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!