A behavioral answer is always the best interview answer Randy Guthrie, PhD Microsoft Research.
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Transcript of A behavioral answer is always the best interview answer Randy Guthrie, PhD Microsoft Research.
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A behavioral answer is always the best interview answer
Randy Guthrie, PhDMicrosoft Research
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“Me in 30 Seconds Statement”◦ Answers the question: “Tell me about yourself”
Demonstrates most critical behaviors or experience Uses a work-related experience to demonstrate behavior
Does not mention interests, experiences or behaviors not related to job Do not mention family, hobbies, personal situations
Prepare 2 or 3 of these Practice saying them to friends & family DO NOT EXCEED 30 SECONDS!
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Behavior: passion for technology
I’ve always loved computers. I built my first from-scratch computer in 9th grade , and I starting writing C programs using MatLab to help with my math homework when I was in 10th grade. I earned some of the money for college by creating web sites for local businesses. I believe that information technology can change the world, and I want to be the person at the cutting edge doing it
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Used by many large companies Used by almost all consulting firms Assumes your past behaviors predict your
future behaviors Consist of questions about past challenging
situations you have faced◦ “I’ve never faced that” is a wrong answer
Do an Internet search on “Behavioral Interview” for detailed (essential!) information
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Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an angry customer
Tell me about a time when you had to tell your manager she was wrong
Tell me about a time when you had to make a sacrifice to make a commitment
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with personality conflicts on a team
Tell me about a difficult decision you had to make this past year
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Situation/Task: describe situation or assignment◦ Must be a specific (real) event, not hypothetical◦ Give just enough detail so the interviewer
understands the situation◦ 15-20 seconds in length
Action: describe the action YOU took personally (don’t say what the team did)
Results: describe the positive outcomes (including lessons-learned) from your actions
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Situation: I was asked to join a team that that had been trying to build a software system for two years with little success
Action: I discovered that they did not have a specification or plan. I wrote a draft specification and insisted that we ratify or modify it and agree to it.
Result: We finished the system within 90 days of my joining the team. I was asked to be the project manager for the next version
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Think of 20 or 30 plausible / likely behavioral interview questions you might be asked◦ Think of jobs, internship, club service◦ Try to avoid family & spiritual service examples
often do not generalize to work situations Write out a SAR answer for each question Practice giving the answers to family / friendsNote: you can often use the same situation for different
questions depending on how you spin it; ie: teams problems can be spun as a sacrifice to reach goals
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When asked a non-behavioral question, answer with behavioral answer
Example: Q: What would you do if….. A: I had a situation like that. Here is what
happened…
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Resume focused on accomplishments will likely drive interviewer to ask questions that you have prepared answers for
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Interview is focused conversation that YOU the interviewee have a great deal of control over what is asked and how it goes◦ If your resume is written to focus on
accomplishments◦ You are well prepared
Think “rehearsal”
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http://blogs.msdn.com/MIS_Laboratory