Demystifying the Behavioral Job Interview Technique

Over the years, all sorts of techniques have been used in the quest to find the perfect employee. Of all of these, "behavioral interviewing" techniques have stood the test of time, and are now considered the best way to weed-out the merely qualified candidates and find the perfect candidate.

What exactly is this technique called Behavioral Interviewing?

It's a method of determining whether you are a good fit for a job by asking questions related to your past behavior.

Anyone can say they are a "great problem solver," or a "hard worker." But what the interviewer needs is a concrete example of this, proof really, that the person they are interviewing has done what they say they can do.

An interviewer might ask a behavioral question along the lines of, "Give me an example of a time when working hard or going above and beyond the call of duty led to a success."

How long has this technique been used?

Industrial psychologists developed it in the 70's as a way of predicting whether a person would succeed in a job. They concluded that if interviewers asked their subjects questions about past behavior they could get a good an indication of their future behavior - good or bad.

A key trait of a behavioral question is that it is highly specific. You may be asked to "Tell me about a time when you succeeded in a group," the key words are "a time." This calls for the candidate to tell a specific story about this quality rather than to talk in general terms about their qualities.

"What if" questions encourage you to use your imagination to come up with an answer. In, "What would you do if you had a problem to solve?" the word "if," should be a clue that the interviewer wants to hear about your thought process - the path you take when thinking through a problem. Here, an example of a past experience is not required.

How can I prepare for a behavioral interview?

Preparation is important for every interview, and is essential for the behavioral interview. The key is to have examples or stories ready that illustrate any skill or experience you have claimed on your resume or that may reasonably come up in the interview.

For example, if you claimed you were "very organized" on your resume, the interviewer might ask you to tell them about a time when you organized a project or event. This gives you a great opportunity prove your claim by relating a story about a successful project that required you to be organized.

The technique to succeed

There are several methods and acronyms that work well for story telling or listening, but the main point you will want to remember is that any story has three key elements:

Luckily you learned all about them in grade school. There's a Beginning. "There was a time when I faced the following challenge...." A Middle - "These are the steps I took to solve it..." and an End - "The problem was solved and.."

On way to think about story telling is to thinking about going to a movie.

If you miss the first 10 minutes you often spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out what's going on. Why? Because this is beginning of the story, it's about 10-20% of the whole, and it's where the situation that will play out for the rest of the film is set up. In the interview, if you do not "frame" or "set up" your story the interviewer may be confused from the outset.

The middle of the movie should be a good 60-70% of the story. It's where our hero, you, overcomes the challenge that was set up in the beginning. Don't be shy here. You're the star of this movie. Be careful of using words like "we" and "us" too much. That just makes it difficult to see the star. Keeping the story focused on you by using "I" statements. If you must use the word "we" in the story, make sure your listener, is aware of who "we" is. For example, "My partner and I," or "I worked with a team of four people."

Back to the movie. If you were to leave 10 minutes before the movie was over, you would not know the outcome and never know what happened in the end. An ending is very important to your story. If you don't tell the end of the story the interviewer may ask, "And what was the result?" That's a clue that you have left off the ending.

Remember, every successful story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

What are there secrets of telling a good story?

Stories should be interesting and full of action. This is the pitfall for most people - the story lacks detail. Give the interviewer something to remember about you. A savvy interviewer will be able to hear skills from the stories and judge your behavior from your past actions, but you must let them hear the steps you took to solve the problem. The more details and skills you can work into your story, the more convincing your story will be. The biggest fault are examples/stories where there is no "action" or detail.

Preparing your example stories before the interview may take time, but it's vital in order to remove fear and anxiety from the behavioral interview process. It will allow you to tell your success stories the interviewer wants to hear. It's through your examples that the interviewer will get a clear picture of who you are whether you are the right person for the job!

Article Source: http://www.myaddirectory.com

Carole Martin, America's #1 Interview Coach and contributor for Monster.com is a celebrated author, trainer, and mentor. Carole can give you interviewing tips like no one else can. Get a copy of her FREE 9-part "Interview Success Tips" by visiting Carole on the web at The Interview Coach (www.interviewcoach.com) Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.

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