Using Stories in Behavioral Interviews

Industrial psychologists are scary. They are those shadowy characters working behind the scenes in order to influence employees psychologically, according to the company's agenda. If you have a few interviews under your belt, you have undoubtedly had to answer a few behavioral interview questions. These type of questions were created by the same industrial psychologists in the 1970's.

Most people get very nervous when it comes to behavioral interview questions. They hit on an emotional level that common interview questions never reach. Typical behavioral interview questions include:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
3. Why are you interested in working for us?
   

These are definitely not the type of questions you want to approach unprepared. Rather than just naming off your interests, places you've worked, your skills, a list of strengths and weaknesses, and the standard spiel on your future ambition with your target company, I'm going to recommend something a little different. I want you to incorporate your answers into stories.

Metaphorical stories can convey messages to the unconscious mind indirectly and in subtle ways. Before you begin preparing answers to behavioral interview questions, think of the messages you want to convey. Make a list of some common traits your interviewer may be looking for. If you make the common mistake of saying, for example, you're a team player and you get the job done under pressure, it may sound good but it won't catch the interviewer's imagination like a well thought out story that really shows you expressing those qualities. Their imagination of what you are saying will stick much easier.

I will be writing later about representational systems and how they can be incorporated into metaphorical stories to have a more powerful impact.