Behavioral Interviews
One of the most annoying (yes…I said it…annoying) types of interview is the behavioral interview. These questions begin with “Tell me about a time when…..“ These questions are designed to see how you think under pressure, determine how you handled a past situation, and decipher how you can weave a story. A popular method for answering behavioral interview question is the C-A-R method. C-A-R (also known as S-A-R or S-T-A-R) stands for Challenge, Action, Result. Let’s look at an example:
“Tell me about a time when you had an impossible project deadline.”
Challenge
Simply describe the challenge that you faced. Maybe there were challenges with the team, technology, or timing. Explain the challenge you faced. For example, “In July our team was asked to deliver a brand new order management system by the beginning of November. The system needed to be built from the ground up, and the new project team worked remotely from multiple countries in multiple time zones.” The challenge is the timing, a new project team, and multiple languages/time zones.
Action
What action did you take to achieve the results? Maybe you used a new methodology, leveraged a technology, or made special adjustments to achieve your timeline. For example, “We used virtual meeting software to have critical design sessions and virtual face-to-face meetings. We asked the overseas project teams to adjust to the U.S. hours, and implemented a plan to break the project down into smaller chunks to better divide the tasks.” The action used was a virtual meeting (like GoToMeeting or LiveMeeting) to do the design sessions, adjusted overseas teams hours, and broke the project down to smaller chunks.
Result
This is where the sizzle happens. What results did you achieve? Of course you want the results to be positive - it doesn’t have to be great, but certainly the results should show you achieved your goal. You’ll also want some quantifiable and measurable metrics as well. For example, “We actually delivered the new order system in October ahead of our scheduled deadline. We turned the order system live, and processed 1500 orders on the first day! The system worked great, and the feedback from our call center agents was overwhelmingly positive. Testing proved the new order management system increased order entry efficiency by 17% .” The results are positive and testing showed in increase in efficiency. Positive and quantifiable through metrics.
C-A-R will help you with any interview question, but is especially useful with the behavioral style of interview questions. One thing to keep in mind is that you still play by the interviewing “rules”. Answers should still be between 20 seconds and 2 minutes, so practice some of the common behavioral interview questions for clarity and timing. Walden University has a listing of some of the most common types of behavioral interview questions. Prepare by practicing your answers to those questions. Write down the key points to your C-A-R statement in your portfolio, and refer to your points in the interview.
