By Fred Coon and Steve Mulligan
Cultural fit can make a big difference in how happy and successful you will be in an organization. In the first part of this discussion, we talked about doing a self assessment regarding your comfort level with various culture issues. Organizations have become more aware of their cultures and the need for a good fit. In recent years, most companies have added an additional step in the interview process, called the behavioral interview, to determine the cultural fit of a candidate.
The behavioral interview looks at values, style, and competencies of a candidate. The questions are more general in nature and designed to discover how you handle yourself in various situations. It is important for you to be honest and thoughtful with your answers. Don’t try to anticipate what the interviewer is looking for. An honest and thoughtful interview will determine if there is a good fit. It works for both of you. You would not want to work where you aren’t comfortable, and the company would not want that either.
The behavioral interview is usually the first interview you have. Before a company gets too involved with a candidate, they want to make sure that you are a fit.
Ron Venckus, an expert in the behavioral interview, works with clients at Stewart, Cooper, & Coon to get them ready for this type of interview. He offered some insights on how to answer some of these questions.
Tell me about yourself?
Ron’s advice: This is guaranteed to come up. Provide an overview of your work background, select a SHARE event or two, which relate to the job you are interviewing for. Be sure to cover education or special training. Speak briefly about your interest in the company using information from your research. Also, this could be a good time to mention why you are in the job market, as it is going to come up any way.
Tell me about a time when your ability to communicate in a concise manner had an important impact on your team?
Ron’s advice: This is an opportunity to discuss your ability to influence, to educate, and building relationships. Bottom-line does your communication skill have the desired impact.
Tell me about a time when you needed to bring multiple pieces of information together to achieve a long-term goal?
Ron’s advice: Your ability to think strategically and conceptually are the competencies this question is getting at. It is an opportunity to talk about your skills at identifying themes, key issues and understanding their impact in a broad business context.
What do you feel you can do for us that someone else can’t?
Ron’s advice: Actually this is a very typical question. This is clearly an opportunity to discuss your personal behaviors as related to your successes.
Discuss your ability to solve problems in the work place and what do you do when there is a problem you can’t solve?
Ron’s advice: This is an opportunity to show case your skills at using a systematic approach in solving problems through analysis and evaluation of alternatives. It also is a way you can demonstrate your ability at seeking additional resources to solve a problem.
These questions and others like them require you to know how you operate and react to different situations. Many people struggle with this type of question because they seldom take time to think about what they do and how they approach various situations. Most people just do it. Before you do your first interview, give some thought to how you do things. It is helpful to write your approaches out so you have them firmly in your mind. You don’t want to stumble over these types of questions. Every word you say and how you say it will be creating an impression of you. Take time to prepare and rehearse.