Rant: behavioral questions/interviews

rpsychnurse · Jan 20, 2015

What do you mean by behavioural questions?

In my psych interviews there were lots of "what would you do if..." and explaining how I would deal with different specific situations that might come up in psychiatry.

I think some personality questions are important but I think it's equally important for the interviewer to know how you will react in certain situations and what kind of assessment skills and knowledge you have.

elkpark · Jan 20, 2015

"What are your strengths and weaknesses" doesn't work anymore because everyone has a prepared, predictable answer that doesn't really tell the potential employers anything useful or meaningful. Same with "chit-chat" and general conversation. Especially in the current employment climate, employers get lots of applicants for open positions, and they are under a lot of pressure to be fair and objective in the interviewing/hiring process. Having a prepared list of questions focused on actual scenarios involved in the job that is available, and asking each applicant the same questions, provides a more fair process and gives the employer a better, more objective basis for comparing/considering all the interviewees.

But I sympathize -- I don't like those kinds of interviews, either. But it is what it is ...

RunBabyRN · Jan 21, 2015

I have had a lot of interviews with behavioral questions. I think they want to hear how you handle these types of situations, how you handle your mistakes, how you handle miscommunication, how well you communicate, how you tolerate stressful situations, and so forth. I have heard from several managers that they can teach a monkey to do Task X, but they can't teach them how to think critically, how to be kind, how to think on their feet, how to read people, etc. Those are the kinds of things they are trying to suss out in these interviews.

pinkiepieRN · Jan 21, 2015

I have had a lot of interviews with behavioral questions. I think they want to hear how you handle these types of situations, how you handle your mistakes, how you handle miscommunication, how well you communicate, how you tolerate stressful situations, and so forth. I have heard from several managers that they can teach a monkey to do Task X, but they can't teach them how to think critically, how to be kind, how to think on their feet, how to read people, etc. Those are the kinds of things they are trying to suss out in these interviews.

The problem primarily occurs when I *HAVEN'T* had that situation happen before. Interviewers look at me after they said the question 10 seconds ago and want an answer. I get it but it seemed like the questions never stopped. I knew how to respond to maybe half of them. Unfortunately, I can't remember them now because I'm trying to block it all out (it felt like my worst interview ever).

pinkiepieRN · Jan 21, 2015

What do you mean by behavioural questions?
In my psych interviews there were lots of "what would you do if..." and explaining how I would deal with different specific situations that might come up in psychiatry.
I think some personality questions are important but I think it's equally important for the interviewer to know how you will react in certain situations and what kind of assessment skills and knowledge you have.

No "what if"s but a lot of "tell me about a time when xyz happened and how you handled it." Is it tactful to bow out of a question or is that an automatic dealbreaker?

pinkiepieRN · Jan 21, 2015

Having a prepared list of questions focused on actual scenarios involved in the job that is available, and asking each applicant the same questions, provides a more fair process and gives the employer a better, more objective basis for comparing/considering all the interviewees.

This I get. I never thought of it that way. I've had coworkers before where I swore they must have just charmed HR to get the position because they couldn't critically think their way out of a paper bag.

elkpark · Jan 21, 2015

No "what if"s but a lot of "tell me about a time when xyz happened and how you handled it." Is it tactful to bow out of a question or is that an automatic dealbreaker?

Part of the point of these kinds of questions is to see how quickly you think "on your feet." When I'm in that situation and I've truly never had xyz happen before in my career, I come up with the closest example of something like xyz that I have dealt with, and speak to that. In my experience, the questions have been kind of general, e.g., "Tell me about a time you had a significant conflict with a coworker, and how you handled it." Frankly, I think someone with any significant length of nursing experience claiming that s/he had never had a significant conflict with a coworker would sound pretty fishy ... ;-)

RunBabyRN · Jan 21, 2015

It might be time to jot down some of these kinds of questions while some of them are still fresh in your mind, and then try to think about experiences you had that you could use as examples. Like elkpark said, sometimes, you just plain haven't had that exact example, but you can say, "Well, it's not exactly that, but..." and answer with something similar. These are tough questions to answer for sure, but thinking on your feet is definitely important, and showing how you've learned from mistakes or handled challenging situations is really important. Bowing out of a question, unfortunately, doesn't generally reflect well.

littlehoneybee · Jan 22, 2015

I agree that these types of questions show how you think on your feet and handle stressful situations. I remember one interview I had in which the manager's first words to me were, "I don't even know why you applied to this job. What are you hoping to get out of it?" I think she was trying to see how I would handle stress. I stayed calm and gave a pretty good answer, I think. She offered me a job, but I ended up accepting another.

MrChicagoRN, RN · Jan 23, 2015

Relating actual situations that you experienced are better predictors of performance than "what would you do if...?"

The best way to prepare is to write down some examples of what you have actually experienced. "Tell me about a time when you..."

...had to deal with an aggressive patient, had a conflict with your team related to patient care, had an intrusive patient harass you the whole shift, had to deal with splitting behavior, had to deal with a violent patient, disagreed with a doctor over the plan of treatment...

tell me me about a patient you made a difference to, now one that was very frustrating.

how do you deal with the person who insults your race, gender, appearance, possible sexual orientation....

have your our patient stories ready.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Jan 23, 2015

Maybe it's me, but I find the behavioral questions easier than "what are your weaknesses?" type of questions.

I have enough experience to have stories even stretching back when I was a Tech where it helped shaped my nursing practice and presentation.

Draw from your experiences and find a way to sell them strongly.

Best wishes.