Behavioral Interviewing

I first learned about Behavioral Interviewing when Mike was a supervisor with AT&T Wireless. The IT Department was a big proponent of Behavioral Interviewing. He would come home and tell me how different candidates had done in their interviews – some good, some not so good. And when I hit the job market in 2000 I remember him advising me to be prepared with answers to Behavior Interviewing questions..."All of corporate America is using this type of interview these days and if you aren’t prepared you will fall short!"... As it turns out, I was never faced with this type of interview – until yesterday. Gulp.

My interview was at 3:00, but I was told to be there at 2:45. At precisely 2:45 I was given an envelope with my name on it. I opened it to find 8 key questions (with little questions included like, “Were you successful? Why or why not?”) My letter about the appointment interview made a vague reference to some “interview questions,” but it hadn’t dawned on me that this meant the dreaded Behavioral Interviewing questions!!!

So there I was. I had 15 minutes to wrack my brain for witty answers. Gulp. Before I knew it, at 3:00, I was met by the head of the Department and taken into a small conference room where I was introduced to 3 other people on the team. There was no chit-chat, just a brief overview about the position, and I was told I would have 40 minutes to read each question out loud and then provide my answers.

So I dug in. And one thing I knew I could do was to read. So I read each question loud and clear, followed by my humble answer. It was weird because all 4 of them were busy scribbling notes about my responses and I had very little eye contact so I received next-to-none non-verbal feedback. But I pressed forward and finally I was done. I took about 30 minutes and I almost felt like I had failed just because I didn’t use all of the allotted time.

I was able to ask a couple of questions I had about the position. Then I provided the panel with my resume and letters of reference and the interview was over. The head of the Department walked me to the door and that was when my blood pressure began to drop.

I’ve now done some checking on the internet and I will practice using the STAR approach to Behavioral Interviewing. And next time I will do better! I just wish I had listened more to Mike way back when…