The Behavioral Answering Technique

From your side of the desk, the behavioral interviewing approach can appear somewhat difficult at first. The interviewer will be consistently drilling down to specific examples in your past. When you have difficulty coming up with a specific example, a well-trained behavioral interviewer will not let you off the hook, but will provide you with a prompt to continue thinking until you can provide an example. The dreaded silence which follows can be uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. Unless you are prepared in advance.

As you consider the variety of questions which can and will be posed over the course of a series of interviews, keep in mind that you will not always have the right answer to every question. But if you are well prepared, you will have a variety of examples to draw from which will give you the background to formulate your answers.

The Behavioral Answering Technique involves answering questions with specific examples, whether or not you have been asked to provide them. This technique works in lockstep with an interviewer who is following a behavioral interviewing approach, yet it works even better with those who are not. Because you will always be providing examples and stories which make you a real person. With real experiences. Real experience that can benefit a future employer.

So as you go through the exercise of interview preparation, carefully consider all questions in an "example" format. Keep in mind the "Can you give me an example . . . " follow-up that is the cornerstone of the behavioral interviewing approach. Be prepared to use examples from your work, classes, and extracurricular activities. And be ready to offer up not just any example, but your very best example.

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