When I coach HR colleagues on prepping for their interviews, I always give them one single tip for success:
“If the hiring manager monopolizes the discussion and talks 90% of the time, that’s ok. Don’t freak out. That means he’s going to leave the interview believing you’re an awesome candidate (because the conversation went really, really well in his eyes…)
Of course, that doesn’t always happen. So my friends want to know how to prepare for an interview. They show me the list of 300 questions. They want to prepare for it all. They’ve heard about the stress of a behavioral interview – all the examples, the different areas recruiters and managers can delve into, and they’re freaked.
It’s doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s the cheat sheet to prepare for any behavioral interview, kids:
1. Get your storytelling hat on. Get ready to tell the initial story in 2-3 minute chunks.
2. Create four stories that have the following elements:
–A tough performance situation you were in (the Situation),
–The key things that you did (stuff that you specifically did) to deal with that situation, the action you took, all the details…
–What happened as a result for you and your company (positive outcomes preferred, but not always necessary)
3. Rehearse these 5 stories, get your answers down to no more 2 to 3 minutes. Be natural and conversational. Don’t sound like a robot or overly rehearsed.
4. Be prepared to provide details about what the situation was, and especially what you did, why you did it, and how the skills for the position you’re applying for were used in that situation.
5. Take the high road and stay classy. Never bash people in your stories. Talk about challenges when you’re setting up the situation, but don’t bash bosses, co-workers or your HR clients. Just talk about how you worked through the challenges.
6. Once you have your five stories down cold, research the dimensions/areas usually probed by interviewers in a behavioral interview. Create a grid for the stories that you think best matches the dimensions you’ll see. Teamwork, Communication, Drive, Leadership, Project Management, etc. What you’ll find is that even though you’ve only prepared five stories, you’ve got at least two stories to tell for each dimension.
7. Go to the interview, stay loose and tell the story, then dig into the details if the interviewing wants to dive it.
That’s it. That’s all you need. Tell a good story and keep your story list short, but the details strong and vivid.
Good luck out there. You’ll ace the interview like crazy if you follow this simple road map.
