Career Tips - Issue # 22

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Behavioural Interviews

- Describe an experience when you had to calm down an angry customer.

- Describe an experience when one of your subordinates questioned and opposed your decision.

- Describe an experience when you had to form a team and lead it.

No two persons can give same answers to the above questions. Behavioural interviewing (asking questions about your past behaviour in some specific situation) is one of the hot trends in hiring.

The underlying logic is that your past behaviour is predictor of your future behaviour. So, if you handled an angry client well in the past, most likely, you'll be able to do the same in future, too.

At the root of BI, it seems, is what Russian physiologist, psychologist and physician Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936, Nobel prize in 1904) proved about a century ago: we behave in a conditioned way. During his experiments, Pavlov's observed that if you give a dog something to eat every time you ring a bell, soon the dog starts to salivate when you just ring a bell. Dog gets conditioned to associate one stimulus (ringing bell) with another (food) and behaves accordingly.

It seems we are no different. If someone tends to become irritable under pressure, he will do so every time pressure is applied on him. If someone gets *unduly* impatient when he has to wait (like in a queue at a bus or taxi stand or at an airport), he would do so every time such a situation arises (that's me).

>>CAREER TIP: If you're going for an interview, be prepared for some BI questions. The way to prepare is to study the job requirements. Does it involve leadership skills, working under pressure, handling conflicts, working in a team or what? And then, prepare 4-5 related stories based on your past experiences that demonstrate your behaviour in such situations. Each story should essentially comprise three things:

- What was the situation
- What did you do or how did you behave?
- What was the outcome?

Extreme BI: I recently read that someone went for an interview to an accounting firm in U.K. The interview was conducted in a very sporting manner. The candidate was asked to play a game of squash with someone while the human resources director watched them. The job seeker thrashed his opponent and won the game 9-0, 9-0, 9-0. But, alas, he lost the job! It seems HR director felt he lacked team spirit, which was a key job requirement. Indeed, the candidate concentrated on winning but not on win-win. He never bothered to help his opponent play better (even in the last set). That's BI at extreme!

Will be back after a week.

Atul Mathur

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***Copyright 2005 Atul Mathur***

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