Jumat, 25 Juni 2010

Behavioral Interviews

More and more these days, employers are implementing behavioral interviews to screen potential employees. Behavioral interviews are quite different from the straightforward methods used in traditional interviews. What exactly is a behavioral interview?

Behavioral interviews are defined as interviews in which an employer chooses an applicant based on his or her behavior in the past. The main objective of the employer is to discover how you have acted in past employment related situations. Employers who use this interview method firmly believe that your past effects how you will handle present and future situations.

Differences between Behavioral and Traditional Interviews

There was one person that once said, "An interview is an interview!" This may be true in some instances; behavioral interviews differ greatly from traditional interviews. First of all traditional interviews usually are conducted by asking straightforward questions such as: "How many years did you work at your previous company?" or "What was the office atmosphere like?" And secondly, the questions asked usually center around your actual working experience.

Behavioral interview questions on the other hand focus on how you behaved in a particular situation in your past working experience. To clarify, here are a few example questions that may be asked during a behavioral interview session.


Please describe a situation when you felt particularly stressed, and how you handled the situation.

Give me an example of a time you had to use your logical and reasoning abilities to solve a certain problem that arose. What was the outcome?

In times past, when certain stressful situations arise how did you handle yourself?

How well have you worked under pressure?

How do you handle workmates who are difficult to work with?

When you were faced with a troublesome issue, which approach did you take in order to deal with the issue? What was the outcome?

You can see from the above questions that these are truly different from traditional interview questions. Behavioral questions tend to be more "probing". The potential employers, by your answers, acquire a better understanding of the type of person you are on the inside. Most employers who use behavioral interviews use them solely for the purpose of selecting those whose personality is best suited for their company. And that may not be the most educated or previously highest paid applicant either.


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