Behavioral Phone Interview

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Seany-izzle

Member
Anyone else taken one? I just got off the phone a little while ago with a woman from Progressive. The lady had me on the phone for about an hour asking questions then i asked her questions for about 30 min. But god damn these things are long!!!! Apparently, from what i read on the net, this is a new form of interviewing that many more companies are adopting. Thank god i prepared for mine and made a list of particular instances, experiences, and conflicts from my education/work experience background. If i didnt, id be so screwed.

Just wondering if anyone else has ever done this? :D since its kinda dead.
 
Thats a big negative, I have only had face to face interviews. So they gave you heads up on what kind of interview you where going to have? I would imagine that would be a big surprise if they didn't.
 
the only way i'd take a phone interview would be if it was a job far away that i was considering moving for.

other than that, i'd want to actually meet my boss. I'm a pretty good judge of character, and I can tell who i won't get along with as a boss.
 
i had a phone interview last month for a job in florida...it didnt go bad at all...the only thing that sucks is that the company runs on contracts and they dont have the funds for the contract yet so i havent heard anything yet
 
on another note, I will NEVER work for a woman.

not sexist-- they just get too bitchy and mood swing all the time for no reason. did it 3 times while working at the restaurant, and won't do it again
 
They did. Thank god they did too, because if they didnt i would have looked like the biggest asshat ever. This isnt the end all interviews either, if this went well (like i think it did) then ill have to go for not one, but two face to face interviews. Damn, getting a real job takes long enough!!!

The lady told me that they are really liking this new interview strategy, it helps weed out people ahead of time. Plus it really shows how people think, react, behave, etc. She also told me that this is a pretty new interview process, it has been around, but now MANY companies are starting to do this and a lot of people dont know what it is.

They ask a lot of behavior type questions, obviously. They ask about your past experience, what you liked the most, disliked, learned, skills/habits you can take and apply to other jobs. They also ask you a LOT of questions regarding situations that may have come about in the past. For instance, "Describe a time when you dealt with a real upset customer. What was the problem, what did you do, and what was the outcome?" Other things regarding negotiating, sales, fast-pace environments, customer service, organization, and problem solving. Its weird to, they just wont come out and say "tell me about some problem solving experiences" more like "tell me about a time when you had two conflicting tasks/objectives that required a lot of your time and what was the result?"

She was a recruiter at a central office, not the Vermont branch. She wont be the boss, i guess shes more of an HR person.
 
Behavioral interviews are tough at first, but once you get used to them, there not so bad. The idea is to judge your future behavior by how you handled situations in the past.

And yes, your definitly right, A LOT of companies now use them. I'm in my 4th year of college and I recently went through fall recruitment for jobs next fall. I know all the big-4 accounting firms and most consulting firms and I-banking firms use them for their 1st round interviews. After that, its a combination of behavioral/conversational for 2nd rounds.

I think the best way to approach them is to find a huge list of questions and prepare answers for them. Try to find out what qualities they'd be looking for in the situation (ie leadership, time-management, problem-solving, etc) and prepare an answer that illustrates you have and have used those skills. It worked out very well that way for me.
 
This is nothing new to me. I had to do a few of these when applying for Teaching jobs. One of the schools called it a "perciever test". Basically over the phone you answer questions and based on your given answers they determine if you are going to make it to the next step of the hiring process. I looked around a little bit and now it seems like they are doing the same thing but web based.
 
They ask a lot of behavior type questions, obviously. They ask about your past experience, what you liked the most, disliked, learned, skills/habits you can take and apply to other jobs. They also ask you a LOT of questions regarding situations that may have come about in the past. For instance, "Describe a time when you dealt with a real upset customer. What was the problem, what did you do, and what was the outcome?" Other things regarding negotiating, sales, fast-pace environments, customer service, organization, and problem solving. Its weird to, they just wont come out and say "tell me about some problem solving experiences" more like "tell me about a time when you had two conflicting tasks/objectives that required a lot of your time and what was the result?"


I think if I were ever in an interview, and someone started asking me these questions, I'd stand up, offer my hand, and say thank you for your time and split.

Perhaps it's different in my field... but to me, that is an outright waste of my time.
 
Yeah, every interview I've ever had is this stuff.

Nothing new here. Although, I do see that anyone that said "No way, I would walk" has a shitty attitude to begin with - and I wouldn't hire you :)
 
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