“Tell us about a time when…”

If you have ever participated in the DAR hiring process, chances are you have asked a candidate to “tell me about a time when…”. Have you ever wondered why? This is an example of behavioral based interviewing, which is encouraged as a hiring best practice for all units within DAR.

Behavioral based interviewing is a type of interviewing that is intended to discover how a candidate acted in a specific employment-related situation. The logic is that how you have behaved in the past may predict how you will behave in the future, i.e., past behavior predicts future performance.

The employer, in this case DAR, has already decided the skills and competencies needed to be successful in a role. We craft interview questions to find out if a candidate has these skills by asking how they have behaved, as opposed to how they would behave (the latter is known as situational interviewing, which may also be used at times).

Let’s take this one step further and combine behavioral based questions with our values of Servant Leadership, Innovation, and Commitment. Below are a few examples:

Servant Leadership:

“Tell me about a time you ensured your team worked collaboratively with other units in the organization. What was your role? What was the result?”

Innovation:

“Describe a time when you saw a problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to address it.”

Commitment:

“Provide an example of a time you were balancing competing priorities. How did you navigate the situation? What was the outcome?”

 

Need more inspiration for behavioral based interview questions? Reach out to Kathryn Kay or Christy Dasher in Talent Management.