Behavioral Interviews: What Are They & How Do You Handle Them?

Posted: September 4, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Career Management (General), Interviewing, Job Search | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

The term “behavioral interview” isn’t new. It’s been around since at least the 1990s, I believe. However, you might still not have heard it or you might have encountered a behavioral interview without knowing that’s what it was going to be.

You can prepare just as well for a behavioral interview as for a “normal” interview (whatever that is!). However, you do need to understand what they involve in order to do the most effective preparation.

What is a Behavioral Interview?

According to an article titled “What is a Behavioral Interview?” by Alison Doyle, “Behavioral interviews are based on the premise that a person’s past performance on the job is the best predictor of future performance. When a company uses behavioral interviewing they want to know how you act and react in certain circumstances. They also want you to give specific ‘real life’ examples of how you behaved in situations relating to the questions.”

To put it another way, in a behavioral interview the employer is asking “what did you do when…? ” or “tell me about a time when…” rather than “what would you do if…?” The interviewer doesn’t expect you to hypothesize about what you might do in a certain kind of situation. In fact, he/she doesn’t want you to do that. Real-life examples are the goal.

You really can’t effectively “wing it” in your answers to behavioral questions or try to frame them in a way you think the interviewer will like. Your answers need to be on target.

How Do You Handle Behavioral Interviews?

Start by doing your homework ahead of time. (Groan! Yes, I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep saying it because it’s essential.) Find out as much as you can about the situations you might encounter in that company and position.

Then comb through your success stories and other sources of information about the challenges you’ve encountered and overcome. Identify at least several kinds of situations you’ve run into that could be applicable to the company and the position you’ll be interviewing for. Become comfortable with presenting a story that relates to each one of them. Notice that I said comfortable, not rote-response-enabled. There’s a big difference.

Whatever you do, resist the temptation to fake it. Glib, off-the-cuff responses will more than likely land you in the soup! If you don’t have a response that fits the question neatly, try to come up with one that’s close enough so you can legitimately say something like: “I’ve never encountered that exact situation, but I did experience one that I believe is similar. Here’s what I did about that….”

Remember, too, that in a job interview it’s always okay to take a second or two (even three) to consider a question you’ve been asked and focus your thought on the most desirable answer before you start speaking. You don’t need to rush into speech and stumble all over yourself trying to answer the question quickly.

On the other hand, as I sometimes tell clients when I’m doing interview coaching, you don’t want to sit in front of the interviewer with a “deer in the headlights” expression that tells him/her you haven’t a clue what to say!

Get your act together before the interview, and it probably won’t matter whether it’s a behavioral interview or some other kind.

Career Tip #1: Don’t Sell Yourself Short!

Posted: August 3, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Career Management (General), Job Search | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Have you ever downplayed, devalued or ignored something you accomplished because you thought it wasn’t a big deal or because you did it as a volunteer and figured that didn’t count? Think hard before you answer, because I’ve run into a lot of clients who have and so have many of my professional colleagues. That’s why I’m sharing bits of their experience and my own today, to start you thinking about what you might have overlooked in your own career management and job search plan.

Volunteer Activity Can Boost Your Job Search Success

You don’t have to get paid for something you do in order to make it a valuable career boost. Here are three examples from my colleagues:

  • A stay-at-home mother trying to re-enter the workforce: She raised $300,000 for her school by writing a number of small grants to obtain funding from different organizations for the school’s needs. My colleague helped her get an internship as a grant writer that led to a paid grant-writing job.
  • Man transitioning back into the corporate world after running his own business for years: During interview coaching, he happened to mention raising millions of dollars through his local service group to build a library in an African country. He’d never done anything like that before, had never done anything outside the U.S.–and it was a successfully working library. My colleague consulted the LinkedIn profile of the president of the company where the man was interviewing and found that the president was from another foreign country and had built a library there!
  • Pastor’s wife in her early ’60s who hadn’t held a “real job” in decades: She didn’t think she had anything to offer employers that they would consider valuable. My colleague helped her land one of only 13 spots in an advanced counseling program to pursue a career as a counselor, based on a resume that showcased her administrative, communication, planning and other skills gained over those decides of “not working.”

Unofficial Job Activities Matter to Your Job Search

One of my clients years ago was going for a position that would be a step up from his current role (he worked in a manufacturing plant). We had almost finished the resume information-gathering process when something I said apparently sparked a thought in his mind. He said to me, “I was acting as a supervisor for six months between when the old supervisor left and they hired a new one. Is that important?” Well, yes! Even though he hadn’t held the official title of supervisor, he had fulfilled all the responsibilities for several months. I was able to incorporate that into the resume in a way that made him a stronger candidate for the kinds of positions he was going after.

Make Sure Your Value Contributions Work for You

When you work with a professional resume writer, he or she should always be trying to probe for hidden value in your background. That’s why we ask a lot of questions. However, if we don’t happen to word a question just right or don’t say the specific words that trigger something in your memory, we might miss a value point that could make your job search and career management activities much more successful, and that’s what we’re all about. Always ask if you’re not sure something is important, rather than risk our missing it altogether!

It would be great if you always got the title and recognition (and the money!) that clearly announced the value of what you contributed–on the job or off–but the reality is, that doesn’t always happen. However, as the above situations show, you can still “make capital” out of those experiences by legitimately claiming credit for your accomplishments. As I’ve said before, keep track of what you do and what the results of your actions were. You never know when it might come in handy.

P.S. Does your LinkedIn profile sell you short? That matters, too!

Job Success: Make Others Look Great

Posted: May 28, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Career Management (General), Interviewing, Job Search, Resumes | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Regardless of what you do on the job and when you’re pursuing a new job or career role, quality obviously matters. You certainly wouldn’t knowingly give less than your best to the situation. In fact, if you’re seriously invested in your job success or career advancement, you’re probably making a strong effort to excel in terms of quality performance. Is there something else you should be doing? Quite possibly.

Your Success Could Depend on Others’ Success

If what you contribute makes your colleagues look like winners, not just you, that’s worth something. Even better might be if you can add value that makes your boss look like a champ. Now I’m not suggesting that you become a shrinking violet and meekly let everyone else take the full credit for what you worked hard to contribute. However, you can boost others without sacrificing yourself if you do it right.

In fact, that’s pretty much the point of a recent article titled “Stop Emphasizing the Quality of Your Work and Do This Instead,” by Ben Drake. As Drake puts it, “no one cares about the quality of your work; people care about the quality of their own work….What matters to others (users, clients, citizens, friends, families, employees) is their quality. If what you do doesn’t make them better at what they do, you’re useless to them. This is extremely important to understand in the professional world. If you can’t provide value, they’ll forget your name 30 minutes after they meet you.”

I’m not sure I go 100% with his statement that no one cares about the quality of your work, but I think the point is that they care most about your work being high quality when/if it affects them one way or another (good or bad). That might sound a bit self-serving, but it’s basically just human nature.

How to Make Others Look Great

To start with, you need to focus consistently on providing value to others–your boss, co-workers, and so on. But, as Drake says, “don’t ask others how you can improve. Instead, ask others what they need from you to help them improve,” achieve their main goals, etc.

I can think of a number of illustrations of this point. For example, if your boss has a big meeting coming up and you know he/she wants it to go off as smoothly as possible to impress the senior execs from corporate headquarters in the UK, what can you do to help make sure that happens? Come up with some ideas and “float” them in a one-on-one meeting with your boss to see how one or more of them might produce desirable results.

This approach plays equally well in a job interview. According to Drake, it’s best if you “don’t talk about your quality. Talk about what you can do for them, not what you’ve done in the past. Provide the vision of how they can be better with you on the team.”

I talk about this a lot with clients when I’m doing interview coaching as well as when I’m creating a professional resume for them. It’s important that you have stories to tell to underscore what you can bring to the party that will benefit the company. “I am the greatest” worked for Muhammad Ali; it’s not necessarily the best way for you to come across!

Interview Preparation: Are You Ready?

Posted: June 22, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Career Management (General), Interviewing | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The phone rings, and a company you applied to wants to interview you more or less “right now.” What should you do? Ideally, start by buying yourself some think-time. That is, indicate to the caller that although you don’t have time to talk properly at the moment, you are definitely interested and would like to schedule a call or in-person interview for a later day/time. Too much is at stake to rush into the interview without a chance to think about it.

Lack of Interview Preparation Time

A recent article by Nick Corcodilos (Ask The Headhunter), has some excellent points to make on the subject of interview preparation. He was specifically responding to an inquiry regarding a call from a recruiter, but his points relate equally well to calls from employers. Basically, he made 3 comments:

  1. Don’t apply if you didn’t choose the interview based on research.
  2. Good headhunters always prep their candidates.
  3. Preparation is more important than showing up on demand.

To finish up, Corcodilos lays it on the line like this: “If you’re dealing with lousy headhunters, stop. If you’re desperate to interview as often as possible under any circumstances, stop….Decline the interview until you are prepared. This isn’t a race. It’s business, and unprepared business people lose.”

Horror Stories: Why Interview Preparation Isn’t Optional

Years ago, I had a client call me to say that he thought he had just blown his chance for an interview. He had received a call from a manager about the resume he had submitted. The indication at the beginning of the call was that this was just the precursor to an in-person interview. By the end of the call, no suggestion of a face-to-face interview was made. What went wrong? It might have been the fact, as my client mentioned to me, that he happened to be taking care of his two young grandchildren at the time, and he was distracted on more than one occasion while trying to answer the caller’s questions–to the extent that he wondered once or twice where in the world his responses had come from!

As I tell clients when we’re doing interview coaching, you do not have to proceed at the time of that initial phone contact, and if you handle it professionally, you can arrange a time to talk that allows you to prepare properly and to minimize interview distractions during the phone call. Along with that, however, it’s a good idea to heed Corcodilos’ advice to avoid applying and trying to secure interviews until you’ve done your research. You owe it to yourself to give interview preparation your best shot.

Too Busy? Prioritize Your Job Search

Posted: June 4, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Career Management (General), Job Search | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Some people think they’re too busy to conduct an effective job search–they feel overloaded at work, overwhelmed by family responsibilities, unsure what tasks to tackle next on their “to do” list. You know what–I think I just described myself, LOL! Except, of course, I’m not conducting or even planning a job search because I love what I’m doing now. Having said that, I think there are a lot of parallels between being an independent business owner/operator and a job seeker or potential job seeker.

Identify Primary Job Search Priorities

No human being I know can do everything at once, not even close. As for doing everything and doing it well–fat chance! That’s just as true for planning and conducting a job search or managing your career effectively as it is for someone like me who is what’s known as a solopreneur (no employees, etc.). Sooner or later–and sooner is better–you have to make some choices. Start by cutting yourself some slack and recognizing that not only can’t you do everything at once but also it’s okay to acknowledge and accept that fact. Superman or superwoman/Wonderwoman is a comic-book myth.

The next step is to identify the primary job search (or career management) items you need to complete in order to accomplish your next goal. You can start by including everything you’d like to achieve, but eventually you’ll find it necessary to begin whittling down that list to what’s do-able. That requires setting job search priorities (the must-do items) and establishing a prioritized timeline for completing them.

How to Handle Changing Job Search Priorities

Few things remain static in this life, and job searching/career management requirements definitely fall into the changeable category. That is, whether you want them to stay predictable and in line with your plans or not, they sometimes just won’t cooperate! You simply can’t script-out everything in your job search plan and expect to execute it exactly as originally planned. If you’re very lucky and have done your preparation work properly, you might actually succeed in that, but don’t count on it. As I tell my interview coaching clients, “expect the unexpected and be ready for it!”

When events outside your control force a change in plans, you need to reexamine both your end-goal and the actions you had planned to initiate to achieve it. Some elements might need to be postponed, accelerated or eliminated altogether. It’s also a good idea at this point to take a fresh look at the resources you are counting on to help you succeed in your job search. Maybe some of them need to be reevaluated and re-prioritized as well.

Occasionally you will find that the initial goal isn’t where you need or want to go any longer. Don’t be afraid to look at new possibilities. Sometimes they can produce results that will surprise and delight you.

Tricky Interview Questions & How to Handle Them

Posted: April 2, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Interviewing | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

As if interviewing weren’t enough challenge for many people–especially those who have an urgent need for a new position–there’s the tiger lurking in the underbrush, ready to pounce. By that, I mean the interviewer who throws in trick questions to catch you off-guard and pull out information you normally wouldn’t want to provide.

Some Tricky Interview Questions You Might Get

I’ve seen a lot of questions that could be tricky while seeming innocuous, such as asking about your hobbies. Suppose, for example, your #1 hobby is sky-diving and you’re pretty good at it. However, if you mention that to the interviewer and the company happens to be risk-averse, you might have squashed your chance for a job offer. What’s even more frustrating is that you might not ever know that was what killed it.

That’s only one example, though. According to an article by Jenna Goudreau in which she interviewed well-known author Joyce Lain Kennedy, the following are 10 Tricky Interview Questions companies might use to sneak up on you:

  1. Why have you been out of work so long, and how many others were laid off?
  2. If employed, how do you manage time for interviews?
  3. How did you prepare for this interview?
  4. Do you know anyone who works for us?
  5. Where would you really like to work?
  6. What bugs you about coworkers or bosses?
  7. Can you describe how you solved a work or school problem?
  8. Can you describe a work or school instance in which you messed up?
  9. How does this position compare with others you’re applying for?
  10. If you won the lottery, would you still work?

I’d like to note that at least a few of the questions aren’t entirely new, and I’ve been advising clients for years (during interview preparation coaching) to think through some of these situations ahead of time, so they’re not thrown for a loss during the interview itself. Questions #7 and #8, for example, are simply variations on ones that look for your problem-solving skills, how you learn from mistakes, and so on. You should always have a plan in mind that answers such questions honestly–to a point. You’re not compelled to give excessive detail or, for instance, provide a laundry-list of your past mistakes!

Your Best Options for Handling Tricky Interview Questions

Start by mapping out a plan of action that includes elements like boning up on the company, its current situation and possible changes on the horizon, why they might need someone like you, and anything you want to know about them to help you decide whether you do want to work there (remember, the interview is a two-way street). Think seriously about any possible down-side to your situation that tricky questions might fool you into revealing and have at least a rough idea of how best to respond. (Note: If you have a drawback that could interfere with your ability to do the job effectively, that’s another matter entirely.)

Also, remember the old maxim that “silence is golden” and avoid rushing into speech when the interviewer asks a question. A pause of a second or two to gather your thoughts shouldn’t come across as a suspicious hesitation and could help you give a reasonable answer that doesn’t put you in a needlessly unfavorable light. Finally, as I always tell my interview coaching clients, make sure you understand the question you’re being asked. If you don’t, request clarification before you answer. That’s a lot better than trying to backpedal after you’ve discovered that what you said wasn’t what the interviewer wanted to hear.