Behavioral Interviewing A behavioral answer is always the best interview answer Randy Guthrie, PhD Microsoft Research

Interview Preparation “Me in 30 Seconds Statement” Answers the question: “Tell me about yourself” Demonstrates most critical behaviors or experience Uses a work-related experience to demonstrate behavior Does not mention interests, experiences or behaviors not related to job Do not mention family, hobbies, personal situations Prepare 2 or 3 of these Practice saying them to friends & family DO NOT EXCEED 30 SECONDS!

Sample “Me in 30 Seconds” Behavior: passion for technology I’ve always loved computers. I built my first from-scratch computer in 9th grade , and I starting writing C programs using MatLab to help with my math homework when I was in 10th grade. I earned some of the money for college by creating web sites for local businesses. I believe that information technology can change the world, and I want to be the person at the cutting edge doing it

Behavioral Interviews Used by many large companies Used by almost all consulting firms Assumes your past behaviors predict your future behaviors Consist of questions about past challenging situations you have faced “I’ve never faced that” is a wrong answer Do an Internet search on “Behavioral Interview” for detailed (essential!) information

Sample Behavioral Questions Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an angry customer Tell me about a time when you had to tell your manager she was wrong Tell me about a time when you had to make a sacrifice to make a commitment Tell me about a time when you had to deal with personality conflicts on a team Tell me about a difficult decision you had to make this past year

The SAR or STAR Approach Situation/Task: describe situation or assignment Must be a specific (real) event, not hypothetical Give just enough detail so the interviewer understands the situation 15-20 seconds in length Action: describe the action YOU took personally (don’t say what the team did) Results: describe the positive outcomes (including lessons-learned) from your actions

Situation: I was asked to join a team that that had been trying to build a software system for two years with little success Action: I discovered that they did not have a specification or plan. I wrote a draft specification and insisted that we ratify or modify it and agree to it. Result: We finished the system within 90 days of my joining the team. I was asked to be the project manager for the next version

Preparation Think of 20 or 30 plausible / likely behavioral interview questions you might be asked Think of jobs, internship, club service Try to avoid family & spiritual service examples often do not generalize to work situations Write out a SAR answer for each question Practice giving the answers to family / friends Note: you can often use the same situation for different questions depending on how you spin it; ie: teams problems can be spun as a sacrifice to reach goals

Behavioral Answers are Best When asked a non-behavioral question, answer with behavioral answer Example: Q: What would you do if….. A: I had a situation like that. Here is what happened…

Resume as Interview Agenda Resume focused on accomplishments will likely drive interviewer to ask questions that you have prepared answers for

Conclusion Interview is focused conversation that YOU the interviewee have a great deal of control over what is asked and how it goes If your resume is written to focus on accomplishments You are well prepared Think “rehearsal”

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