Up Your Interview IQ

If you’re in a position to conduct selection interviews then you’ve probably had the opportunity to practice and you most likely have done some research. A relatively recent trend in interviewing has been the evolution toward what are known as behavioral questions or I prefer the term behaviorally based since all interview questions elicit behaviors. Several articles have been written regarding the types of interview questions with each article coming up with its own number and descriptions based on the experience of or research conducted by the author and many of the articles conclude by recommending behavioral interviews. I take a broader approach to interviewing and suggest that each type of question regardless of its categorization can have its place in the interview process given that it does not discriminate on an illegal basis. Again, a fine point, but all interview questions are intended to discriminate on the basis of relative suitability for the position in question. Therefore, to simply say a question should not be discriminatory is not accurate.

Having started my career as a psychology associate and having had several years of experience as a school psychologist and marriage and family therapist in addition to twenty-five plus years of experience in the human resources field, I have considered myself a student of the interview process. After conducting hundreds of psychological interviews, I was introduced to the subject of employment interviewing by my original mentor in the field, Jack Feldhaus, PhD. In addition to focusing on creating and conducting structured oral boards, my work with him and my subsequent work in human resources has focused on maximizing the effectiveness of the interviewing process.

It is generally recognized that open-ended questions that encourage applicants to do the majority of the talking contribute to gaining the most information about the candidate. Since more information generally assists in the reliability of results, it is desirable to gain as much information about candidates as possible. Combining this tenet with another basic tenet of personnel selection is the concept that past performance is the best predictor of future performance has led to behavioral questions coming into vogue. I began using behaviorally based questions while at the City of Henderson and have used them for over fifteen years with thousands of applicants. In fact when I first started incorporating this type of question, the form was so new that I called them situational questions in the interviewing manual I wrote for the City of Henderson.

Essentially behaviorally based questions ask candidates to describe a situation where they demonstrated a particular knowledge or ability. In structured interviews based on an appropriate job analysis, the questions and responses are tied back to a specific knowledge or rating factor that has been demonstrated to be required in the job. The knowledge domains give rise to questions to measure those domains. Common examples along with the domain they measure include:

“Tell us about a time you believe you demonstrated leadership.” (Leadership)

“Describe a situation where you believe you showed exceptional customer service.” (Customer Service)

“Tell us about a time you demonstrated your management style.” (Management)

“Describe a situation where you believe you demonstrated organizational ability.” (Organizational Ability)

“Tell me about a situation where you displayed your ability to deal with a difficult customer.” (Verbal Communication, Problem Solving)

“Tell me about a time you made a mistake in your work.” (Problem Solving, Honesty, Verbal Communication)

Okay so you get the idea. The key to having awesome interviewing skills or a high interview IQ rests in the development of the exam, choosing the right questions and the follow-up questions. Follow-up questions are particularly critical if you want to get the most out of behavioral questions. One of the beautiful things about behaviorally based questions is that they put the candidates back into the situation you are asking them to describe and that situation is typically emotionally laden. Reviewing the situation, candidates often feel the same emotions that they experienced in the situation and these emotions tend to come out in the interview since most candidates tend to become disarmed by experiencing their previous emotions. This gives you an opportunity to observe the congruity between what is being said and what was actually done. Further, the descriptions provided by candidates usually go beyond saying what they believe an interviewer wants to hear. Additionally, if you have utilized hypothetical questions to ask candidates what they believe they would do in hypothetical situations, you can compare those answers to what they actually did in real situations.

In order for all this to work though, it requires some pinning down. My experience has shown that candidates try to avoid direct and complete answers to behavioral questions. I characterize four types of candidates in the regard: shotgunners, eels, generalizers, and artful dodgers. Shotgunners are the ones that go so broad in their answers that you can’t tell what they are talking about with the hope that somehow by shooting all over the place they have hit the target you were looking for. Generalizers love to say “we” and you can’t tell for sure what they did. Eels are slippery and tend to use statements like, “I think I would…” Artful dodgers are similar and they tend to use some of these dodging techniques in all their responses. Regardless of the dodge or how you want to describe it, they can all be defeated with follow up questions. This is when interviewing gets even more interesting than it already is.

Follow up questions essentially go back to the original question and restate it to include part of the language used by the dodger.

Shotgunners – “Thank you for that detailed response, can we go back to specifically what you did and what you said in that particular situation and please make your answer concise.”

Generalizers – “Please tell me exactly what you role was on that team project and specifically what you provided in meeting the team goal.”

Eels – “I can appreciate how you would see that story is related, but what we want to know is how you handled the last complaint that a customer had about you. Be sure to tell us what the complaint was, whether or not it was true, what you did about it and what happened afterward.”

In addition to reestablishing the interviewing relationship, follow ups break down barriers between interviewers and candidates allowing for a more real dialog that tells you as the interviewer what you need to know to make the best selection possible. Also never forget the most important follow up question, "Why?" The why behind a person's actions is almost always more telling than what they did. Congratulations, if you read this whole post, you’ve just increased your interviewing IQ. Keep an eye on this site for more tips in the future.