Behavioural Interview

There is one time where you can score very high during an interview, and that is when the behavioral interview technique is used. This technique is mostly used to see how fast you can react, how clear you can think and how well you can use your experience and expertise to handle critical (and sometimes successful) issues at your work place, during your work hours. The behavioral interview technique, though highly intimidating at times, is a chance to score very high with the interviewer. It is almost as if the interviewer checks your measurements with that of the vacancy. This is what the interviewer is going to find out from you ' how good you have been or you can be so he/she will judge how well you can match their company in the future. A sure fire way to check your fit, is by exposing you to a behavioral interview.

What is a behavioral interview? This is a technique by which the interviewer will put in front you a job scenario (where they are looking for certain skills ' be it multi tasking, flexibility, diplomacy, patience, marketing tactics, and so on) and ask you how would you have handled that in exact steps; alternatively he/she would ask you to give them an example of a time when you had to do say, aggressive marketing, and how did you do in that case.

Whichever is the case, the key to the success here is to be prepared to a great extent to such type of questions ' with specific focus to points which converge on duties of your past job(s) and the job you are applying for. You need for this purpose, first highlight the skills that are most needed in the job you are applying for; then see the match of those skills in the job(s) you have done in the past. Before the interview, prepare on that line, a few success stories which you can put across to highlight those skills. For example, if your job is in customer relations, you may like to highlight how you have handled a very unreasonable client to his satisfaction with wit, patience and persuasion; or in marketing how you sold a product to a client who had a negative image about your company, and so on.

The main point to remember here is that the interviewer is really looking for details in how you managed a tough situation to the benefit of the company. Give the details without any modesty. Those details could be the ticket for you to that company's job.

However well prepared you are, a behavioral interview may still catch you unaware and unprepared. There could be angles that the interviewer has thought that did not cross your mind. Do not worry when that happens. You improvise. Think that such a situation has arisen and think how best you would handle it to the benefit of the company. Be honest and say that such a situation had not arisen yet in your line of duty, but if that would be the case this would be the way I would handle it.