Continuing on with our examples, here is another behavioral interview response. Here is the question. Some employers may want to examine your capacity for making good judgement calls, how you went through a logical process to make a decision (examining all the relevant facts, for example,) before taking an action. Work, after all, can require more than sitting at a cubicle and doing a series of set tasks. So here's what they could ask you:
Tell me about a time that you had to use your judgment and make a decision in your previous job
This behavioral interview respons could go something like this:
" When I was in charge of ordering supplies for the organization". (Situation)
"I had to decide whether I was going to continue ordering supplies, a month at a time, or buy six month's supply and get a volume discount.(Task)
"What I found from my research, was that ordering six month's supplies would result in a huge savings, and also keep us insulated from price increases. We also tended to have a fairly steady pattern of usage from month to month so it was easy to predict what our needs would be."(Action)
"Indeed I was correct. Prices did go up and we ended up saving money on our office supplies purchase". (Result).
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Saturday, March 26, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Sample answer to a behavioral interview question - Part 2
Blog readers like samples. That much I've learned in a year of blogging. So here for your edification is another sample answer to a behavioral interview questions.
This one comes from real life. I had been interviewed for a teaching job by a group sitting around a board table. One interviewer asked: "Tell us about a time where something went wrong in the classroom and what you did about it".
Well that threw me a loop. Like most people, I have a scripted set of answers that extol my strong and most saleable skills. But, "something going wrong? So, I thought about it. The Interviewer continued..."we've all had it happen.." So that encourage me. And here is the answer I gave.
Situation: I told the interviewers about my first teaching assignment where I had a group of office administrative students, with whom I was struggling in class.
Task: I had to creat lessons to meet course requirements in grammar and writing, (but obviously there was something I wasn't getting).
Action: After reflecting on the situation, I realized I hadn't carefully assessed this group of learning, and used approaches that didn't resonate with their learning style.
Result: I changed the the lesson plan to less "lecturing" and more hands-on tasks. It worked better.
What won my interviewers over was that I had learned from the experience and that I did find an approach that worked. So, if you did mess up ( and we all do), be sure to convey how you learn from your experiences. We are all works in progress.
This one comes from real life. I had been interviewed for a teaching job by a group sitting around a board table. One interviewer asked: "Tell us about a time where something went wrong in the classroom and what you did about it".
Well that threw me a loop. Like most people, I have a scripted set of answers that extol my strong and most saleable skills. But, "something going wrong? So, I thought about it. The Interviewer continued..."we've all had it happen.." So that encourage me. And here is the answer I gave.
Situation: I told the interviewers about my first teaching assignment where I had a group of office administrative students, with whom I was struggling in class.
Task: I had to creat lessons to meet course requirements in grammar and writing, (but obviously there was something I wasn't getting).
Action: After reflecting on the situation, I realized I hadn't carefully assessed this group of learning, and used approaches that didn't resonate with their learning style.
Result: I changed the the lesson plan to less "lecturing" and more hands-on tasks. It worked better.
What won my interviewers over was that I had learned from the experience and that I did find an approach that worked. So, if you did mess up ( and we all do), be sure to convey how you learn from your experiences. We are all works in progress.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Sample answer to behavioral interview questions-Part 1
It is said that you can't really memorize a sample answer to behavioral interview questions. But looking at a possible answer can still help you think quickly on your feet. Take the following question:
Describe a difficult problem you had to sort out in your last job. Uncomfotable? Yes. It is asking you to describe how you problem-solved your way out of that. That is the key. When you hear the question then, ask yourself what the interviewer is really asking.
So I don't have a sample answer to this behavioral interview question for you but here are some tips:
Use your STAR (situation, task, action, result)
Relate anecdotes about how you identified the problem, then gathered information and selected the best solution.
You could start something like this:
"At one time when we had a lot of complaints about late deliveries'... (Situation)
"I held meetings with employees in the delivery department and found that some of the inventory was not arriving on time..." (Task)
"I looked into this further and discovered
I investigated and found that requests for new inventory were not been processed fast enough. The backlog was in the orders department as they were not following up adequately with the suppliers. A system for regular follow up was quickly implemented. (Action)
This resolved our stock problems and the delivery staff were able to meet their deadlines." (Result)
Describe a difficult problem you had to sort out in your last job. Uncomfotable? Yes. It is asking you to describe how you problem-solved your way out of that. That is the key. When you hear the question then, ask yourself what the interviewer is really asking.
So I don't have a sample answer to this behavioral interview question for you but here are some tips:
Use your STAR (situation, task, action, result)
Relate anecdotes about how you identified the problem, then gathered information and selected the best solution.
You could start something like this:
"At one time when we had a lot of complaints about late deliveries'... (Situation)
"I held meetings with employees in the delivery department and found that some of the inventory was not arriving on time..." (Task)
"I looked into this further and discovered
I investigated and found that requests for new inventory were not been processed fast enough. The backlog was in the orders department as they were not following up adequately with the suppliers. A system for regular follow up was quickly implemented. (Action)
This resolved our stock problems and the delivery staff were able to meet their deadlines." (Result)
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