There are several advantages to utilizing behavioral interviewing techniques in selection processes.  The dialogue drills down to a level of detail that provides key insights regarding a candidate's strengths and experiences.  Exploring questions and answers specific to actual experiences enhances authenticity.  In other words, it is not easy for candidates to bluff their way through behavioral interviews.

"Traditional" interviews were often less structured and typically involved a walk-thru of a candidate's resume, some closed-ended trait questions (e.g. "Are you a good listener?"), and maybe even some amateur psychology questions (e.g. - one of my favorites:  "If you were a box of cereal on a store shelf, how would you be packaged?").  Many organizations and recruiters have gravitated away from those approaches and toward behavioral interviewing techniques such that they have become somewhat standard in practice.

Organizations believe they make more effective and consistent hiring decisions using behavioral interviewing techniques.  Many candidates actually emerge from the experience believing their capabilities and skills are understood at much deeper levels - which is a good thing!  There is nothing worse than leaving an interview thinking that the interviewer does not really understand and appreciate the full depth of your experiences and competencies - how great you really are!  Everyone wins when a thorough competency-based interview is conducted.

The fist time you either conduct or are on the interviewee side of a behavioral interview can be a bit of a jolt.  It is different; it is very specific.  But, as is the case with many skills, you gain confidence and competence with practice.  Interviewees: don't forget to formulate your own IMPACT questions! - most interviewers will reserve time for you to ask them toward the end of an interview.

Following is an example of a behavioral interview questioning line:

"Please describe for me a specific example of a time when you faced a teamwork challenge at Company X."

Interviewees may initially offer up a somewhat general response such as:  "I was always a team player at Company X.  I think my only challenge was when other people didn't do their fair share of the work."

An experienced behavioral interviewer will follow up - perhaps several times - in an effort to get the interviewee to share a very specific example from which he/she can then ask specific probing questions.  The interviewer is trying to get to very specifically what the interviewee did (i.e. his/her behaviors) for purposes of candidate assessment.

Probing questions might then include:

"What specifically did you do to address the issues you faced?"

"How did others respond?"

"What might you have done differently if given the opportunity to do it over?"

"Was the team ultimately successful?  How were your contributions recognized?"

"What did you do differently on your next team assignment as a result of that experience?"