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saturday may u 2002 19 economist sun stouffville tribune business putting your best behaviour forward behavioural interviewing may decide whether you get the job by jerome watt staff writer markhams lally rico walked into a job inter view expecting the typi cal questions what skills do you have what are your strengths what are your salary expectations instead she was asked whether she remembered a time when she had a conflict with a coworker how did she deal with it was the conflict resolved i probably blubbered on she said ms ricco didnt get the job she fell victim to behavioural interviewing a common technique used by recruiters behavioural interviewers ask for specific examples of past job per formance looking for signs of com petency past behaviour is a good indica tor of future behaviour said chris duncan marketing manager for spherion workforce theyre not asking what you would do theyre asking you what did you do ms duncan said behavioural interviewing draws out an appli cants personality identifying how he or she would fit in to an organi zation with the growth of human resources departments behaviour al interviewing is becoming the norm ms duncan said anybody who is a human resources professional is using the technique she said maria woolley a recruitment manager at markhams allied international credit said behav ioural interviewing is routinely used at her company i find that we get the best results by using behavioural interviewing she said when you use the other questions it doesnt tell you much about the person a lot of studies indicate its effective ms duncan whose company adopted the technique a year ago said behavioural interviewing can drastically cut the attrition rate by at least 50 per cent in fact the attrition rate of one of spherions clients dropped from 20 to 2 per cent after it started using the process while behavioural interviewing benefits the employer there are a number of strategies an interviewee can use to gain advantage during an interview ms duncan said its important to understand a typical behavioural interviewing question is followed by three or more related questions and its important to answer the questions honestly because with each question following the next if youre lying its hard to keep the story straight past behaviour is a good indicator of future behaviour theyre not asking what you would do theyre asking you what did you do thats when honesty comes into play she said if you cant be honest i can find out in about 10 minutes using this technique interviewees should use the star method to frame their answers when asked a behavioural question situation tell the interview er about the situation task what you were trying to achieve action what you did to achieve your results result what the results were ms duncan said job candidates should be prepared to answer neg ative questions the problem with these inter view questions is theyll ask you about when you screwed up thats the last thing you want to talk about ms duncan said youve got to put a positive spin on a nega tive question if youre asked to provide an example of when you missed a deadline ms duncan suggests telling the interviewer how you dealt with the situation emphasiz ing the positive outcome another pitfall for the intervie wee is the what is your weakness question again its important to emphasize the positive some people say i work too hard ms duncan said providing an example of a good answer does any employer not want to hear that ms duncan said employers often ask for an example of a con flict with coworkers people who cant provide an example dont get the job she sug gests a person might even use a sit uation where they got into an argu ment with a family member as an example at some point youve had to deal with somebody who wasnt happy she said it may not have been in a work environment show you know how to resolve it thats what they are looking for they want to know the methodology you use to make things better take your time answering a question ms duncan said if you didnt hear or understand the ques tion ask the interviewer to repeat it and dont talk too much dont volunteer any informa tion they didnt ask for you can open a lot of doors you shouldnt open ms duncan said you could mention personal life things you dont want to bring into an interview sometimes she said interview ers use this as a technique for get ting answers they cant legally ask body language is just as impor tant in the interview as the type of answers you give ms duncan said adding eye contact is key she also suggests a job seeker shouldnt slouch should sit still and look enthusiastic ms duncan admits behavioural interviewing isnt foolproof and sometimes a fast talker may get the position rather than the person best suited for the job thats the way it is regardless staff photomike barrett job applicants can be caught off guard by the new interviewing tech nique and may be in trouble if they dont answer honestly she said adding behavioural inter viewing works best when coupled with traditional interviewing tech niques this is a more foolproof way of doing it job seekers should also take into account behavioural interviewing when preparing a resume accord ing to catherine ohara the job finding club coordinator for job skills it does tie into behavioural interviewing she said the resume is the basis for the discus sion she said the resume should trumpet the persons triumphs it shouldnt just be a boring list of job descriptions she said of the typical resume you should also include a list of accomplishments the resume is the connection between you and the employer list any accomplishment ms ohara said even if its a perfect attendance record