Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers
There are some categorical tips for
Job Interview Questions those support Behavioral Interview Questions
Based Behavioral Interviewing (Behavioral Interview Questions)
The primary reason a company conducts an interview is to learn
enough about a candidate to determine whether the person will be
successful on the job.
There are three parts to this success: (Behavioral Interview Questions)
1. Having the technical skills and knowledge
2. Having the functional skills and abilities
3. Being able to demonstrate the position’s competencies.
The vast majority of interviews focus on the first two components
for success; many fail to consider competency proficiency.
At this point some of you may be thinking, ‘‘Anything that sounds too good to be true is probably too good to be true.’’ And you would be right. It took Gillian about a month to go from elated to concerned, and another month to being completely frustrated.
So, what went wrong? As often happens in organizations, Gillian hired a person who was technically and functionally perfect for the position. Unfortunately, Peter was not interviewed against the competencies for success in the position, which included ‘‘conflict management,’’ ‘‘maintaining a high customer focus,’’ and ‘‘building high performance teams.’’ Had he been, he probably would not have been hired.
In the vast majority of positions, the single factor that will distinguish one employee from another is the ability to exhibit the competencies for the position. When you identify and define competencies, and then interview against them—in addition to considering the technical and functional aspects—you are increasing the likelihood that the candidate to whom you offer the position is the one who truly is most likely to be successful.
Tips of Behavioral Interview Questions
Interview Questions and Answers
What Is Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing?
Before we define competency-based behavioral interviewing (CBBI), it’s important that we define a competency. Simply put, a competency is a behavior (a skill and/or ability) or set of behaviors that describes the expected performance in a particular work context.
The context could be for the organization, a functional job group (e.g., accounting, human resources, operations), a job category (e.g., senior managers, middle managers, professionals), or a specific job. When they are appropriately developed, competencies are the standards of success for the position and the behaviors that are needed to support the strategic plan, vision, mission, and goals of the organization.
Competencies are different from the other requirements one might find for a given position, such as technical skills, functional skills and knowledge, education, and experience. For example, it is one thing to recruit for a position and require five years of management experience. It is another thing to recruit for a position that requires five years of management experience leading a diverse group of people. In the second situation, you would be looking for a candidate with five years of management experience coupled with a demonstrated competency of ‘‘valuing diversity.’’ Competency-based behavioral interviewing is a structured interview process that combines competencies with the premise that, with
few exceptions:
The best predictor of future performance/behavior is past performance/behavior.
– and –
The more recent the performance/behavior, the more likely it is to be repeated.
The questions asked during CBBI(Competency Behavioral Interview Questions) are based on real situations that relate to the competencies for the position. Candidates, then,are evaluated based on actual behaviors/performance rather than on possible or potential behaviors/performance. As a result, the information gathered from the candidate is significantly more predictive of what their behavior and performance are likely to be in the position for which they are interviewing than what one finds with other interviewing styles.
In CBBI, rather than asking candidates directly if they have a particular competency—to which you will almost always hear a resounding ‘‘yes!’’—the interviewer asks the candidate to provide an example of a time when he demonstrated the competency. The focus is on the candidates giving you an indication of their proficiency in a particular competency by relating a real-world experience.
Typical interviews will sound something like this:
Interviewer:
‘‘I think I mentioned earlier that this is a high-stress position.
How do you manage stress?’’
Candidate:
‘‘My last two positions were high stress. I actually do some of
my best work under stress. Through experience, I’ve learned how to make
stress work for me rather than against me. I think two of the most effective
stress management techniques are . . .’’
