Interview Preparation

by Michael R. Neece, CEO InterviewMastery.com

It is widely believed that Behavioral Event Interviews (BEIs) and STAR Interviews are the best interview format for identifying top talent for a specific job. In practice, BEI questions often exclude top talent. This article reveals ten (10) ways in which behavioral interviews fail to select the best candidates.

1. EIB questions alone: Interviewers falsely believe that just asking BEI questions makes them adept at gathering evidence and accurately assessing candidates’ talents.
2. the wrong questionyes: Most interviewers are not trained or prepared to ask the correct BEI questions and follow the initial questions with a structured probing sequence.
3. Technical Interviews: Behavioral questions are misused for technical interviews that require a detailed technical conversation. Wide whiteboard sessions have proven to be most effective in learning the depth of a person’s technical knowledge and their ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly.
4. No grades or evaluation: Not taking notes and not documenting candidate evaluations is another indication of an interview process that is out of control.
5. No polling sequence: Exceptional interviewers use a structured probing sequence after hearing the candidate’s response. A best practice probing sequence is “What, How, What, How, Why.”
6. unprepared candidates: Even when candidates are not prepared, it is the responsibility of interviewers to ask the correct opening questions and follow-up probing sequence that helps the candidate provide the interviewer with the data they need to conduct an assessment.
7. The interviewers are sure they have special powers: Interviewers spend 30 to 45 minutes talking to a stranger, then make a guess about the candidate’s future job performance. Unqualified interviewers falsely believe their conclusion is correct and fail to check the accuracy of their assumption-based assessment with the candidate at the end of the interview.
8. STAR formula: Interviewers assume that the candidates who best follow the STAR method are the most skilled at doing a job. This just means that the candidate is the most skilled at interviewing.
9. prewritten questions: The use of pre-defined questions limits the evaluations to only the competencies that the interviews focus on.
10. wrong interviewers: Many times interviewers are chosen for convenience or because they work in the same department as the open position.