Behavioral Interviews need Powerful Stories

So many job seekers get all tied in knots when faced with a behavioral, or behavioral descriptive interview. There is no need.

The concept of the behavioral interview is to identify past behaviors and use them as a guide to what future behavior is likely to be.

Your preparation therefore is to dig into your past.

Think of stories. Stories are powerful.

Think of stories preferably about work, where you felt good about what you did, when you solved a problem, helped someone out, came up with a great idea, or were praised by someone for something.

Write down as many stories as you can think of where you did well at your previous jobs. Stories, if relevant, can also come from non paid experience.

So let's say one of your stories was that you came up with a new idea for keeping track of stock, and that it keep things in better order, and saved time that used to be spent running out get get supplies when they ran out.

That's a good story.

Next think of what skills it shows, and which of these skills are valid for the job for which you are now applying.

Our story above shows excellent organizational skills, proactive thinking and problem solving.

There is practically no job on the planet that would not benefit from these skills.

The behavioral question might be phrased in any of the following ways:

-- Tell me a time when your organizational skills really made a difference and benefited your employer?

-- Describe an occasion where you came up with a practical, functional solution to a problem at work.

-- Give me an example of your ability to think proactively

These are just 3. There are many, many more possibilities.

You can use one story for several answers.

If you were asked 2 of the above possible questions in the same interview, the second time your answer could go something like this:

-- Actually, on the same occasion as I came up with the solution to our office supply problem (ie you have already used this story to answer a question on problem solving), I was also demonstrating proactive thinking in that I established a system to deal with problems before the occurred in the future.

The more stories you come up with, the easier these interviews will be for you.

If you like you can write out your stories, then write out the skills they demonstrate. I think you will be surprised how many skills one story can contain.

The caution here however is to make your stories brief. Cut out all the unnecessary details. Just give the interview what s/he is asking to hear. If s/he wants to hear more, s/he can ask you to expand on your story.

Stories make you more human. They demonstrate skills much more convincingly that you sitting there saying "I am organized, a problem solver and a proactive thinker" ... well great! Anyone could say that. You need the proof and the proof is in the story.

Would you like to practice your answers to behavioral interview questions one on one?
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