The Career Report
	Volume 1 - Issue 8 - June, 2007
- Sign up for the Career Report For comments, questions or future topic suggestions, contact askmelinda@thepittmangroup.com - Search Jobs - Post Resume - Contact Us Know someone who could benefit from the information in the article? Please forward this report to them.	A Behavioral-Based Interview Primer (By Melinda Pittman)   Last month’s issue of The Candidate Report served as an introduction to behavioral-based interviewing techniques and the fact that they’re becoming more and more prevalent in today’s marketplace.  We also discussed how you should approach a behavioral-based interview and the types of things from your work history that you should be prepared to discuss.   This month, we’re going to look at some actual questions that might be asked during a behavioral-based interview.  They cover five main areas—communication, leadership, problem solving, decision-making, and creativity/innovation.  You’ll notice that while the majority of the questions inquire about past successes, a few also delve into past failures, as well.  That’s a trademark of this type of interviewing, and these are questions for which you need to be prepared.  So let’s get started, shall we?   Communication   Tell me about a time you were tolerant of an opinion that was different from your own. Describe a situation in which you successfully persuaded team members to do things your way.  What was the ultimate outcome? Leadership   Tell me about a time that you took control of a situation, built up support for your plan of action, and achieved positive results. Describe a time in which you may have been disappointed in your behavior.  What did you learn from the situation?   Problem Solving   Tell me about a situation in which you foresaw a potential problem and then took the steps necessary to successfully avoid that problem. Describe for me a situation where you may have missed an obvious solution to a problem.  What did you learn from that situation?   Decision-Making   Tell me about a time where you had to make a decision that was unpopular with the majority of your team?  What was the outcome? Describe a time where you were forced to make an important decision with limited facts in a short amount of time. Creativity/Innovation   Tell me about a situation in which you were able to come up with a new and better way of accomplishing a task.  What was the long-term benefit? Describe for me how you’ve successfully brought out creativity in other members of your team.   By formulating answers to the above questions, you’ll be prepared for an interview that is becoming more commonplace and you’ll also gain an edge over other candidates.  Overall, candidates still prepare for traditional interviews rather than the behavioral-based variety.  Ideally, you want to be adequately ready for both.   Here’s an effective exercise for accomplishing that.  Think back over the past two to four years of your work experience and select four or five of the most complex projects with which you’ve been involved.  As you remember details about these projects, write those details down in a notepad.  Those details should include the scope of the project, its goals or objectives, the players involved, whether or not it came in under budget, what went wrong, what went well, and what you would have done differently.   If you remember back to last month’s issue, it’s important to select the best “stories” from your employment past and use them to illustrate the value you’ll bring to the company if you’re hired.  Making sure that you can communicate your value is the best way to increase the chances that you’ll be hired.   If you have any questions about behavioral-based interviewing or any other question regarding career advancement, please contact me at melinda@thepittmangroup.com.   BioScience | Informatics | Information Technology
If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please click here. The Pittman Group adheres to SPAM rules and will honor your decision to be removed.