by Ron Venckus
Behavioral interviewing systems have been around for many years, however over the last few years the use of this type interview program has been increasing. At this time when job descriptions are developed, the job skills and job knowledge level is identified and along with those, a company is indicating what competencies/behaviors/traits are desired. The competency/behaviors desired, are in tune with the company’s culture.
The first question that jumps into your mind, most likely is, what is behavioral based interviewing? According to Quint Careers, the premise behind behavioral interviewing is that the most accurate predictor of future success is past performance in similar situations. Behavioral based interviewing is touted as providing a more objective set of facts to use in making employment decisions. The big difference in behavioral interviewing, than other interview systems, is that the interview questions are dealing with your character and the questions, along with your answers tend to be picked apart so specific behaviors can be identified. By the way, the phrase “specific behaviors” is being used because it means that the interviewer wants to “hear” the actual behavior. Please keep in mind that some executive level positions will require a visit with a corporate psychologist and these folks will be almost totally interested in your behavioral make up.
The business world is using the terms, Competency or Behavior and these are interpreted as your personal skills and traits. Do not confuse the word competency when it is used in conjunction with an interview. It means more than job skill competencies. Your personal behavior, what you use to get work done and your job skills and knowledge are two different issues. An important question to ask when an interview is being scheduled is, WHAT TYPE OF INTERVIEW SYSTEM ARE YOU USING?
Behavioral interviews involve the key area of what a person uses to get work done. You do not get work done just because you have a bag of job skills and job knowledge. What gets work done is how an individual impacts people around them, up, down and across organizational lines. . Think of it this way, most managerial resumes will have the terms Leadership, Teamwork, Relationship building, Customer focused, listed on them. If these are competencies for you, then the question becomes, how will you discuss the level of your effectiveness using a particular competency? The competencies/behaviors/traits you have cannot be identified solely by discussing you job skills and accomplishments. Your personal competencies must be added to your accomplishments, and you must be able to discuss them in terms of your having a solid impact in the organization. DURING AN INTERVIEW IT IS YOUR JOB TO BRING YOUR PERSONAL COMPETENCIES TO LIFE. To do this effectively you will have to learn how to talk about them. As an example, let’s use teamwork. There are many issues that go into managing a team, effectively. Consider that to be an effective team leader takes, participation, confronting negative attitudes, showing people concern, being perceptive, interpersonal warmth, being accepted as creditable, having a helpful manner, being interested in feed back, having the ability to translate corporate goals in the team environment and having a willingness to share. So ask yourself a question, how I can make a case for my team management skills using the issues involved in the competency teamwork? To be more specific, consider how you would make a case, verbally, about your level of warmth with a group?
Over the next several issues of the Gladiator we will present a competency by breaking it down into its various components. These components will give you some ideas on how to talk about a competency which may be a strength for you and bring it to life for a listener. This new area will be identified as “Distinguishing Yourself”.
Competencies are the items that impact or our LIKEABILITY FACTOR, during an interview. The likeability factor is made up of who and what we are in behavioral terms, and gives a picture of how we interact with people, the likeability factor is not made up solely of your job skills… The industry feels that a person’s behavior will tell much more about the person than only the job skill level. To effectively prepare for a job interview, it could be a competency/behavioral approach or any type of interview, you must recognized that there are two sides of you, what you know how to do, these are your job skills and what you use to get work done, which are your personal competencies . Knowing each of these in depth and knowing how to bring them to life, will give a company a complete picture of you, the person, and will enhance your success in an interview
The objective of this effort is to give you ideas on how to develop the actual language you might use to bring a competency to life during an interview. This type of analysis, identifying your competencies will also be helpful in your current work and in your personal life.