Help! - Behavioural based interview

Gurgle

I've got an interview coming up in a couple of weeks. The HR person from the company tells me its 'behavioural based'.

Does anyone know what that means ?
What preparation can you do for it ?

luckat

Read any of Aubrey C Daniels' books for a start, and read Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor; these will give you the skinny on behavoural theory without killing too many brain cells.

But it probably means they want to give you "personality tests" and the like.

samo

have done a couple of these over the years, the most typical is a series of statements to determine if your a 'team player' or person that works better on etc such as I get frustated if my co-workers are slow! Strongly agree, agree disagree, strongly disagree etc
They say your not meant to second guess what answer they want to hear but I suppose what type of job your going for is wrth bearing in mind. Thats my interpretation of behavioual tests anyway, hope goes OK

Last time I went for job as part of a call centre team so figured it was a bias towards Team player and working well with people answers

leeroybrown

The interview I sat for my current job was behavioural. It consisted of a set of situational questions asked by two interviewers requiring me to answer based on past experiences. Time was allowed for thought about each question and no open/deliberate pressure was made to speed me up.

Examples:

"Describe a situation where you were part of a team making a major decison with particular focus on how your input helped to maek the decision."

"Describe a situation where you were having issues with a work colleague and how you resolved them."

Over an hour of these kind of questions can be very taxing, especially at 10 am after a 4 hour journey, and that's before you factor in that I hadn't been informed it was a behavioural interview beforehand.

I took the approach of not rushing and taking as much time as I needed to consider each answer.

WhiteWashMan

or a psychametric test, which can be amazingly accurate, if you believe that sort of thing.

SantaHoe

God I hate those questions.

"Describe a situation where you were part of a team making a major decison with particular focus on how your input helped to maek the decision."

"So yeah like I was playing CTF... and I was helping this guy take the enemy flag, then I saw the blue team running down the other way, so I was like "HEY - DEFEND THE FLAG", and they did... we won that match... yeah."

"Describe a situation where you were having issues with a work colleague and how you resolved them."

"Well I tried to sort it out with him, but he wasn't having any of it, he was one of those people completely closed to reason and who can do no wrong... I complained to the boss, which made things worse... so I just waited a few months untill he left for another job, getting through the day on polite hostility and painted-on smiles."

Am I too honest?
If I ever get these questions, I'm completely screwed as you can see.
Maybe if I just laugh and say "can I ask the audience?!" they'll let me away with it
Given the time, I can think of good examples... but in an interview, I'm not sure if I could string together such a line of feel-good teamwork bullshít while keeping a straight face... therein lies the test I suppose.

leeroybrown

I don't believe in lying in interviews but embellishing half truths is perfectly fine. When answering these questions it's best to identify a particular situation that suits then making a small few alterations to make it fit the question. You're a lot less likely to get caught out if 90%+ of each interview answer is based on the truth, and also real life situations have a tendancy to ring true. The bit you're not making up will sell the rest.

pickarooney

"Describe a situation where you were having issues with a work colleague and how you resolved them."

And if yo've never had issues with a colleague? Can you tell the truth or do they expect you to make some rubbish up?
Although, if it's for a call-centre, they'll expect you to have a talent for lying through your teeth.

Gurgle

pickarooney wrote:

Although, if it's for a call-centre, they'll expect you to have a talent for lying through your teeth.

lol

its not, thank god.

leeroybrown

pickarooney wrote:

And if yo've never had issues with a colleague? Can you tell the truth or do they expect you to make some rubbish up?
Although, if it's for a call-centre, they'll expect you to have a talent for lying through your teeth.

I had that same issue in the interview. I've worked with colleagues who were awkward to work with but it was always something I could work with/around easily. I picked a former work colleague (manager) who was awkward and tended to have an unchangable attitude about some things and be indefinite about others and described how it was making my job difficult as I was never 100% sure what he wanted. The resolution was a simple case of sitting down and talking to him.

Everyone massages the truth in interivews but the hired candidate will be the person who does it convincingly the right percentage of the time.

luckat

I wouldn't work for any company that asked to do a psychometric test. For me, that would be a "behavioural" clue to the company's own behavior and attitudes - utter lack of respect for its employees' dignity.