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1. Behavioral Interviewing 101
2. What Is Behavioral Interviewing? Behavioral interviewing (BI) is considered to be a way to evaluate a candidate’s potential for success by assessing performance in similar situations.
Employers believe that past behavior is the best predictor for future success.
3. What’s the Point? The purpose of BI is to best match the candidate’s skills, competencies and motives with the requirements and success factors of the position.
4. What Is The Advantage To Behavioral Interviewing? Allows the interviewer to:
Gain detailed job-related examples
Assess past performance
Assess competencies
Focus the interview so candidates provide more than just “canned” responses
5. Can I Prepare For A Behavioral Interview? Yes! In fact, preparing for a behavioral interview will even help you in a traditional interview.
Although you cannot predict the exact questions, you can think about your answers to common questions and skill sets employers are looking for. We will get to that soon.
6. Typically a company determines skill sets by doing a detailed analysis of the position they are hiring for.
It is helpful if you do this too in preparation for the interview by asking yourself some questions such as:
What are the necessary skills to do this job?
What makes a successful candidate?
What would make an unsuccessful candidate?
What is the most difficult part of this job?
This will help you to get a feel for what kinds of questions you may anticipate and what to include in your answers.
7. Think like an Employer… What skills or qualities are needed for a person to be successful in this position?
8. Preparing for a Behavioral Interview Examine your past work experiences, and be aware of what highlights your skills, attributes, and accomplishments
Practice your stories using real-life examples, have specifics that focus on your involvement
Look over skill sets and sample questions here and on suggested websites
Know your resume and all your experiences well
Be knowledgeable about the job you are applying for
9. Skills & Desired Behaviors That an Employer May Be Looking for Decision making & problem solving
Leadership
Motivation
Communication
Interpersonal skills
Planning & organization
Critical thinking skills
Teamwork
Ability to influence others Adaptability
Attention to detail
Honesty/integrity
Energy
Independence
Listening
Organizational
Management
Risk taking
Work standards
10. Sample Behavioral Interview Questions Describe a time when you were faced with a stressful situation that demonstrated your coping skills.
Tell me about a time when you had to use your persuasion skills to influence someone’s opinion.
Describe a situation when you were able to have a positive influence on the actions of others.
What have you done in the past to contribute toward a teamwork environment?
11. More BI Questions… Describe a recent unpopular decision you made and what the result was.
Give me an example of a time when you had to keep from speaking or making a decision because you did not have enough information.
How do you decide what gets top priority when scheduling your time?
Describe an instance when you had to think on your feet and extricate yourself from a difficult situation.
12. Tips For Answering BI Questions With each question asked, think through what information is being sought – and provide an example from your own experience
Don’t ramble – take a moment to collect your thoughts and organize your answer before replying
Try not to say ‘we’ too often – the interviewer wants to know what ‘you’ accomplished specifically
Use the STAR interviewing technique
13. STAR Technique
14. S.T.A.R Example Question: Tell me about a project you initiated.
Answer:
Situation/Task: During my internship last summer I was responsible for managing “ABC” events … I noticed that attendance at these events had dropped by 30% over the past 3 years…
Action: I designed a new promotional packet to go out to the local community businesses… collected feedback on our events… organized internal discussions to raise awareness…
Result: We utilized ideas from the community, made our internal systems more efficient and visible and raised attendance by 18% the first year.
15. Web Sources on Behavioral Interviewing http://www.brockport.edu/career/behave.htm
http://www.quintcareers.com/behavioral_interviewing.html
http://www.career.vt.edu/JOBSEARC/interview/Behavioral.htm
http://www.umt.edu/career/interviewing/behavior.htm
16. Practice Interview Opportunities Mock Interviews
~Scheduled throughout the semester~Must be registered on Recruit-A-Duke in order to sign-up