We’ve all been there, sitting in the waiting room, palms sweating trying to memorize the “right answers” while we are desperately scanning our resume, looking for the right thing to say (like we don’t know where we have worked and what we have done). Interviews can be just as terrifying as public speaking, except you don’t know what’s coming! You want to be prepared, but so does the interviewer. They want to get to know you and figure out if you’re the right person for this role and their company. This is why most companies have added a step and shifted from relying primarily on traditional style interviewing to utilizing behavioral to validate that the person actually operates in a manner congruent with their corporate values and mission. Companies are learning the hard way that a resume only states what the person has done, and that 75% of those resumes are inflated. As the competition for business and talent continues to grow sharp business leaders are upgrading their hiring process and positioning themselves to hire the best and say, thank you for sharing to the rest.
What is behavioral interviewing anyway?
Behavioral Interviewing is a way to find out how and why people do things rather than what happened. What’s the point of knowing where someone worked if you can’t know what he or she did and the step they took to get there? Often times when we tell stories there is a lot of “we”. in behavioral interviewing the interviewer wants to know what YOU did, how you contributed and the behavior traits you posses that made you act a certain way. It is all about open-ended questions that force you to draw on events and stories that have happened in your life. The difference between “What is one of your weakness”? and “tell me about a time you failed at something and what did you learn?” might not seem like much, but it forces you to give a different kind of answer. These types of questions give employers a better sense of the kind of person you are and what type of role you might fit into in their company. Behavioral Interviewing is how companies attracted and select A players, and leverage their companies hiring power!
Don’t know how? KeenHire can teach you with our Behavioral Interviewing Training!
In our program you get a fundamental understanding and appreciation for why most bad hiring decisions are made in the first ten minutes of the interview. Learn to understand the importance of identifying key performance indicators for each role; delve into all facets of the hiring and selection process, narrowing in on understanding and being able to identify motivations, ways of being, ways of thinking, and modes of interacting.
You walk away with a prowess for knowing what to ask and how to interpret the answer. Catch and redirect yourself in the midst of being “sold” in the interview and focus on the content of the validated answer.
“To fly as fast as thought, to be anywhere there is, you must first begin by knowing that you have already arrived.” – Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull
By: Emily Eastman