Ready for Your Close-Up?
Cue the Behavior-Based Interview
Nan Knight
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Jane was brought up to listen politely to others
and not brag or talk about her own accomplishments.
When the interviewer at a large industrial chemical
company asks her to describe her proudest moment
as a college student, she replies simply, "When
I graduated, and my mom and dad were in the audience."
The interviewer shifts uncomfortably and makes
a check on a piece of paper. Jane cringes. She
feels as though she's given a "wrong"
answer, when, in fact, her response was absolutely
true.
Alice has always been a star student. When asked
by an HR staff member at a large professional
organization representing chemists to describe
her most challenging academic project, she launches
into an intricate, 20-minute story, including
descriptions of the lab, faculty, and fellow students.
Finally, the interviewer stops her, mid-story,
and says, "I think we'll have to move on
to other information here." Alice is alarmed.
She thought her story was pretty interesting-clearly
the interviewer didn't agree.
Susan sits in the outer office of the research
lab, her lips moving slightly as she goes over
several "stories" in her head. When
called in for the interview, she is prepared.
She keeps an acronym in mind that will help her
structure her responses. She is prepared with
several well-rehearsed examples of her career,
life events, and learning experiences that will
give the interviewer a clear and positive picture
of her ability to function in the work environment.
She leaves the interview feeling good about herself
and confident that she communicated well.
All three women have encountered behavior-based
interviewing, a job-selection technique that can
seem deceptively like normal conversation to the
unprepared candidate. All may have had similar
qualifications and equal abilities to do any given
job, but Susan is the one most likely to be given
high marks by an interviewer-for the simple reason
that she constructed several "scenarios"
to describe her accomplishments and previous work
experience.
Behavior-based interviewing attempts to find
out what kind of employee you will be by eliciting
details about skills, competencies, resourcefulness,
and knowledge. This technique is "based on
the idea that candidates' past and present behavior
is the best predictor of how they will behave
in the future," says Jim Kennedy, founder
and president of Management
Team Consultants in San Rafael, CA. Queries
such as "Tell me about a time when you were
called on to make a difficult decision" or
"Describe a situation in which you had a
colleague who was hard to get along with"
are aimed at revealing what kind of worker you
can be under pressure. Questions such as "Tell
me about your best lab experience ever" or
"Describe a moment when you were called on
to lead" can tell the interviewer not only
about your experience but also about the level
of your self-confidence.
But even the most confident individual may become
tongue-tied when faced with the task of condensing
important moments of his or her life and work
into a tidy and coherent package. The key, say
the experts, is to understand the process and
be prepared.
Lights, Camera, Action!
Think of your resume as a snapshot of your background
and capabilities. It contains all the basic facts
that the employer used to select you out of a
pool of applicants for further consideration.
If your face-to-face job interview consisted of
merely going over these facts again ("So,
I see you were at Michigan State." "Yes,
for four years."), then the experience would
be an empty exercise for you and the interviewer.
Worse, if rehashing your resume constituted the
entirety of the interview, then on what would
the interviewer base hiring decisions? Your looks?
How you sit in the chair?
Instead, behavior-based interviewing tries to
take the "snapshot" provided by the
resume and turn it into a "movie"-a
detailed picture of what you're like on the job
and in action. And, even though you may not ordinarily
be an extrovert, it's up to you to step into the
spotlight and perform.
The Critics Have a Score-Sheet
Although behavior-based interviewing feels like
conversation, the interviewer is looking for evidence
of very specific types of skills. Well before
you or any other candidates appeared for the job,
the interviewer should have used a description
of the position to decide what skills and life
experiences would best suit the position. Sometimes
these are numerically weighted to yield a final
score for each interviewee, a number that helps
add the appearance (if not always the actuality)
of objectivity to the final hiring decision.
Most behavior-based interviews are looking for
examples that illustrate three specific sets of
life and work skills:
Content skills: Do you have the specific knowledge
base the job calls for? Obviously, you can't recite
the periodic table or draw intricate molecular
structures on the interviewer's desk pad, but
you can give examples that show that in order
to solve problems you had to have a grasp of essential
knowledge in this field and that others recognized
your mastery of the material.
Functional skills:
Can you work with other people, process and manage
information, and communicate well? Can you actually
get the job done? Your ability to communicate
verbally is on display in the interview, but you
also need to give specific examples that show
how you've managed projects, worked with colleagues,
and prioritized workloads.
Adaptive skills: How well do you roll with the
punches? In the past, have you shown the resilience
and reliability the company is looking for? This
is your chance to shine by talking about the details
of past successes. But remember that not every
company is looking for the same qualities in every
candidate.
Here Are Your Cues
In general, behavior-based interview questions
fall into three categories.
Theoretical: The question asks you to think on
your feet about a hypothetical situation that,
in some cases, may be entirely foreign to your
own life or work experiences. "You're told
you need to get all your belongings out of your
house in 30 minutes. What do you do?" is
one example. Odd as some of these questions may
be, you can be sure that the interviewer is looking
for something specific and that other candidates
will be asked the same or similar questions.
Leading questions: You won't have to be a genius
to know what the right answer is here. "Working
into the night on special projects isn't a problem
for you, is it?" would be one example. But
consider your answer carefully. Leading questions
are often one way the interviewer may alert you
to elements of the job that other people have
found problematic.
Behavioral example questions: These are the
questions designed to elicit stories about your
past work. Kennedy and other interview experts
refer to these as "competency" questions
because that's exactly what you should be highlighting:
your ability, either by direct evidence or analogous
stories, that you can do the job. Sometimes the
interviewer constructs the question using material
from your resume: "I see you worked as an
agricultural chemist in Guatemala one summer.
What was your most challenging work situation
there?" More often, behavioral-based questions
are less specific, such as "Tell me about
a time when you disagreed with someone in charge."
You need to be prepared with a range of vignettes
from your life that both answer the question directly
and can be used to let the interviewer learn more
about your capabilities and resourcefulness.
Learn Your Lines
As self-centered as it may seem, the most important
part of preparing for a behavior-based interview
is to sit down and write a few moving stories
about yourself, the star of the moment. Put aside
any discomfort you may feel about this and look
at it from the company's point of view. They have
only a brief snapshot of you from your resume,
and the interview will provide only the most fleeting
"screen test" of what you have to offer.
Your job, then, is to be your own "script
writer" in preparing for your interview.
You can start with a list of 10 to 20 events,
activities, or skills that are part of your life
story. Try to include examples of different kinds
of skills and experiences. For each one of these,
construct a brief-no more than 3-minute-short
story, including all the elements that make a
story compelling: problem, action, and resolution.
Practice telling each story in front of a mirror.
Refine your wording. You may even want to practice
with a tape recorder. The point is to have these
polished vignettes ready to use as responses to
any number of different types of questions.
Behavior-based interviewing is of special importance
for younger workers, who may not have extensive
references or experience that employers can assess.
Many colleges and universities include tips for
behavior-based interviewing, and most use an acronym
(STAR, PAR, PHAR, etc.) to help applicants "structure"
stories that showcase abilities and knowledge.
JobSpectrum's mnemonic is similar, but with a
few added twists to make you shine.
A: Know your audience. Before your interview,
find out as much about the company as you can.
If a copy of the job description is available,
break it out into the skill areas-content, functional,
and adaptive-that the company may be looking for.
Keep these requirements in mind when constructing
your life stories.
G: Give the interviewer
a solid grasp of the extent of the problem or
difficulty you faced. Make sure that it's clear
that this situation required specific skills,
ingenuity, or perseverance.
L: Lay it all out in a straight line. This is
where your story-telling abilities come into play.
Include only facts that are essential to understanding
the story and tell them in a clear chronology.
O: Highlight the outcome. This is the punch line,
the reason you've told the story. Tell the interviewer
how the problem was resolved, what good (or bad)
happened as a result of the resolution, and what
recognition you received for your efforts.
W: Wrap it up. Don't belabor points, repeat yourself,
or go off on tangents. Know when to conclude your
story on a high point and wait for the next question.
Have Your Encore Number Ready
A good interviewer will appreciate the fact that
you're able to present well-thought-out examples
from your past experience. But he or she will
also want to follow up by asking you probing and
sometimes challenging questions about what you've
just said. In most cases this is to learn more
about how you behaved in a specific case, but,
says Kennedy, it's sometimes to find out how truthful
you are. "Most candidates generalize, many
exaggerate, and some, unfortunately, completely
fabricate stories and examples of their behavior,"
he says. Your honesty in telling about past experiences
and your forthcoming responses to follow-up questions
will work to your advantage in the interview.
A Final Note: Dealing with Stage Fright
What if you come from a culture in which talking
about yourself at length is regarded as the worst
form of hubris? Of what if you're just very shy
and reticent by nature? Preparing and practicing
specific stories about your past experience will
help to some extent, but you still may find yourself
blushing and at a loss for words at some point
in the interview. The best strategy here is absolute
directness. Stop, look at the interviewer, and
say, "You know, I've always had difficulty
talking about myself, and this is no exception."
Then you can explain the reasons-your cultural
background, previous work isolation, an early
speech defect, for example-and talk about how
you've dealt with this in the past. You'll not
only get high marks for honesty, but you'll turn
a potential drawback into a positive example of
a behavior-based response.
Additional Resources
The career Web sites of many colleges and universities
offer a standardized advice sheet on behavior-based
interviewing, as well as additional resources
for candidates preparing for interviews:
University
of Montana-Missoula Career Services
Rollins
School of Public Health at Emory University
University
of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Career Services
Texas
A&M University Career Center
For an interesting perspective on what employers
look for from the behavior-based interview and
the ways in which they approach the selection
of candidates and the evaluation of results, see
Jim Kennedy's The Interviewer's Edge, available
at www.interviewedge.com.
Many job counselors and most high-powered "headhunter"
services offer one-on-one advice on structuring
stories for behavior-based interviews, with some
firms going to the length of filming clients and
critiquing speech, gestures, and facial expressions.
Kennedy and others caution, though, that it is
possible to appear too prepared and polished.
You want to come across as genuine and truthful,
not as a "professional performer."
Nan Knight is a freelance science writer and
editor whose credits include Smithsonian exhibits,
Discovery Channel Web sites, and a wide range
of publications on radiation in medicine.
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