Ask HN: Behavioral Interview Questions.

#1

Post by JohnFritzen » Mon, Nov 01, 2010, 6:25 PM UTC

Does anyone have any tips or helpful suggestions for answering Behavioral Interview Questions during a job interview?

(explanation and examples: http://www.quintcareers.com/sample_behavioral.html)

If you are an employer, do you find using this interview technique effective?

Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: Behavioral Interview Questions.

#2

Post by benvanderbeek » Mon, Nov 01, 2010, 6:43 PM UTC

I've never used these in hiring. Assuming the candidate doesn't have the questions beforehand, seems you're mostly testing someone's ability to BS/improv and promote themselves on the spot. For coders, I don't find this skill to be closely tied to job performance. Possibly an inverse correlation.

Providing them beforehand would possibly be more useful, but in this case there's no real need to "practice" so I don't think that's what the link you provided is referring to.

Re: Ask HN: Behavioral Interview Questions.

#3

Post by gatsby » Mon, Nov 01, 2010, 6:50 PM UTC

I have a negative experience with behavioral interview questions, both as an employer and employee.

There's a lot of room for embellishment and most behavioral questions don't properly summarize the candidate's qualifications. They're a snapshot of an hour or two when the candidate was faced with a problem, or had to exceed a goal, or had to wow someone with a presentation. Anyone can think of one or two things that they did extraordinarily well and one or two things that challenged them, but that doesn't qualify or disqualify anyone from a job.