Behavioral Interview

You may feel that two short interviews and a three page resume are not sufficient for you to make an important hiring decision. Perhaps you should consider the kinds of questions you are asking the candidate in your interviews. Behavioral interviewing is a very good technique to help you identify the right person.

Behavioral interviewing is based on the assumption that a person’s past performance (in previous roles) is an excellent predicator of their future performance.

To prepare for a behavioral interview, take the following steps:

• Make sure you have clearly defined the competencies for the role. General competencies include:

  • Enthusiasm

  • Knowledge/skills

  • Problem solving

  • Team building

  • Personal attributes

  • Leadership

  • Communication

  • Flexibility

  • Decision making

Develop a series of questions which will enable you to find out if the candidate has these competencies.

Questions might take the form of:

• Give me an example of how you have...

• Tell me about a situation where you...

• In the past, how did you deal with a situation where...

• Given your past experience, how would you best deal with...