You need to know how to succeed in a behavioral based job interview if up until now you have only ever come up against interviews that follow the commonplace 'what did you do here' or 'why did you go there' type of interview, based around your CV or resume information.
An interesting departure from this is the behavioral based interview where the interviewer is looking for specific evidence of a particular set of abilities or competences. This is also a very common style of interview initially used by recruitment officers who aimed to gauge competency levels through examining the applicant's ability to carry himself/herself in such situations.
Like the standard interview there will often be a "background review" to get things moving but after that they will move into a set of questions which will be the same for every candidate to determine whether you've got the level of competence or ability in the areas they want for the particular job.
Many companies call this type of structured interview the 'STAR' routine which stands for:
* Situation
* Task
*Action
* Result
So what they actually want is for you to:
1. Outline a Situation where you used the particular ability or competence or the Task that you had to do;
2. Describe the Action that you took;
3. Summarise the Results of your actions.
This may sound complex, but it's actually a very straightforward interview to master because they let you know beforehand what competences or abilities they intend to cover and that makes it much easier to prepare your skills statements!
A typical set of competences they might want to explore in a behavioral based job interview could be:
* Planning and Organising
* Motivational Fit
* Customer Service Orientation
* Teamwork & Collaboration
* Problem Solving
* Work Standards
* Communication
* Delegation
* Initiative
With knowledge of the STAR routine and your prepared skills statements you'll have no trouble with this one!
So where do your competences come from? Competence comes from your skills! Before you set off, think about a definition of each of the competences above, as it relates to your job.
Then you must work out how you can relate a short story describing how you do each thing with an example to illustrate it.
Here are some examples...
1. Planning and Organizing is possessing the ability to establish appropriate courses of action for self and /or others to accomplish a specific goal; planning proper assignments of personnel and appropriate allocation of resources.
Key Actions might be: set priorities; establish objectives and milestones; estimate times and schedule activities; identify and allocate resources; use relevant tools (files, charts etc.)
A typical question might be:
"Tell me about a time when you were faced with conflicting priorities. How did you determine what took top priority in scheduling your time?"
2. Motivational Fit could be described as the extent to which job activities and responsibilities; the organisation's culture and values, and the community are consistent with the type of work that is personally satisfying. The actual definition depends on you.
Key Actions may include opportunities for interaction with others; variety of tasks; fast work pace; achievement; development; coaching or leading others.
A typical question might be:
"Tell about a time when you had opportunities to work independently from your manager. How satisfied were you and why?"
3. Problem Solving is the competence or ability to commit to a course of action after developing alternatives based on logical assumptions and factual information, taking into consideration resources, constraints and organizational values.
Key Actions would include defining the decision criteria; considering alternatives based on pertinent facts; weighing the 'pros and cons'; informing others.
A typical question might be:
"Occasionally we make decisions our manager disagrees with. Tell me about a time this happened and why they disagreed with you."
4. Work Standards includes setting high standards for self and staff workers as well as for the organisation. Being dissatisfied with average performance.
Key Actions would be setting and emphasising high performance standards. Showing pride and recognition when high standards are met. To show dissatisfaction with low standards.
Typical questions might include:
"Everyone is pressured from time to time, to complete a project at the expense of quality. Tell me about a time when this happened to you, what did you do?"
5. Delegation is defined as allocating decision-making authority to appropriate direct reports; utilising their time, skills and potential effectively.
Key Actions would be targeting assignments appropriately; give responsibility for action; clarify boundaries of responsibility; show confidence; provide relevant resources and follow up procedures.
Questions on this ability might include:
"When assigning work to one of your direct reports, how did you determine how much instruction to give? Give me an example of when you applied this."
6. Initiative shows active attempts to influence events to achieve goals. Being self-starting rather than passively waiting for something or someone. Taking action; being proactive to achieve more than is required.
Key Actions include generating ideas for improvement; solving problems without being asked; seeking self-development opportunities; doing more than is required - going the extra mile.
Questions to determine initiative might include:
"How have your management techniques differed from other people in your company. What did you do that was different? Give me an example."
You see how easy this becomes?
1. Define the competence or ability (which they'll tell you about) then,
2. Build up a little story to illustrate your competence,
3. Use the Key Actions to form the basis of your competence story
Take this approach, and you soon know how to succeed in a behavioral based job interview.