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March 24th, 2010
The Typical Interview
A typical job interview is laid out in the following format:
- Intro/welcoming ice-breaker – This usually starts with a simple “tell us about yourself” some variations include some creative style questions. Some creative style questions include “if you were a piece in a salad what piece would you be and why?” or “how would you improve on a yoyo?”
- Meat and Potato questions. – Four main types of question that can be asked here. Behavior based, Creative Based, traditional, and Logical thinking.
- Job Specific Questions -
Behavior Based Interviews
Behaviour based interview questions can be the hardest type of interview questions to answer if your not prepared for them. These questions usually require you to come up with an example from your past and explain how you resolved a conflict or problem. The most popular method of answering these questions is by using the STAR(R) method. STARR is just an acronym for the questions you need to answer when resolving the problem.
Situation – Explain the problem in as many details are required, try to keep this simple
Tasks – What were your goals, objects, or duties required to resolve this problem.
Actions – All the actions you took to resolve the problem. Use ‘I’ to describe only your actions. This portion usually requires the most detail.
Results - As a result of your actions what transpired. Were you successful or not?
Relate – The last R is the most important section of all, this is where you speak about how you abilities to resolve the fore mentioned problem relates directly to the job you are applying for.
Today in class each student will choose a behaviour based interview question from these samples http://blog.emurse.com/2007/05/21/complete-list-of-behavioral-interview-questions/ and your task is to try and answer it, later you will present the answers to the class and write the answers up so you can publish them on the school forum.
Please post your answers to your interview question in the STARR format in the comments section of this page.
Interview Assignment
Your job is to conduct a mock interview with a partner. Begin by choosing a job you would like to apply for. Have a friend ask you a series of question. Video tape the interview. Format for the interview will be as follows:
Question 1: Tell me about yourself and what skills you have.
Question 2+3: Any two behaviour based interview questions;
Question 4: A job specific question.
Question 5: Anything else you would like to add. (Talk more about your skills).
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“Tell me about a recent situation in which you had to deal with a very upset customer or co-worker.”
I often have to deal with irrate people while collecting for my paper route, and one of the most aggravating cases was after only doing my route for a week without any new information, a costumer refused to pay me because I hadn’t put their paper in the mailbox. In this case, putting a costumer’s paper into their mailbox is a special request they have to make, otherwise it is just assumed that they are just fine with having it on their porch. At that point in time, this costumer had not made that request and yet he still refused to pay. Instead of making a bad impression right off the bad, the only thing I could do was to apologize for something that wasn’t my fault and say that it won’t happen again in the future. At this point, the customer thanked me and then went back inside. The next collection period, after making sure his paper was in the mailbox, he came out and tipped me for my services. He continues to be one of my top paying customers to this date, and it taught me the importance of an old adage, “The customer is always right.”
Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done?
Well one time I planned on being an excellent hockey player. I thought that it would be a good sport to do, but the only problem was that I had trouble skating. I tried my hardest to skate and become a hockey player, but it always just fell apart every time I went to practice. The goal was to be able to skate and keep my balance on the ice. It sounded like just a simple task, but it was harder than it looked. I did everything I could to skate. I tried moving around getting used to it, holding on to someone’s hands, and also standing up on the ice. Standing up on the ice seemed like the easiest thing to do, but I was still falling over. In the end, I decided not to continue skating and playing hockey, I chose to stick with just soccer. Before I started skating, It was around my first or second year of soccer. I was thrilled in the fact that I might play two sports. I figured out that I was designed to move around and talk to people a lot. So that gave me the idea of being a cook or a chef. Now this is something that I want to do to go above and beyond the call of duty.
Question: Please discuss an important written document you were required to complete.
Answer: Two months ago, when I was in English class first semester I was assigned a formal essay on Shakespear’s A Mis-Summers Dream. This essay was suppose to be eleven paragraphs and we were given one month to complete it. We also had to use examples form the text to support our arguments and points. My goal to finish this assignment was to space the work load out over the course of the month of time given for completion. I was also going to write down examples on a separate piece of paper as I read the book. The actions I took were based on organization. I tried to read one act a night and after I was finished I would write down examples I thought were vital to the essay. I also completed the essay planning sheet we were given and organized my thoughts. My results were extremely successful. I ended up getting about 87% on this essay which helped bring up my overall English mark to an 85%. This task helped me to understand the importance of organization skills and self motivation. This would relate to employment because the best job is always done with accuracy and well planned arrangements. This experience would also be useful for motivation to complete an activity and making sure im absolutely precise.
Question: What is your typical way of dealing with conflict? Give me an example.
Answer: When im dealing with a conflict between two people, I usually like to hear both sides of the story, and try to figure out what went wrong & where it went wrong. One time my friends were in a fight, and it was because they were hearing rumors about one another talking behind each others backs. I listened to both of their sides of the stories & came to the conclusion that they were both not talking about each other, but because other people started rumors, it turned into this big fight. In the end, it was resolved & all is good again.
S- the problem was that my friends kept hearing rumors about people talking behind each others backs.
T – my goals were to figure out if the rumors were true, so to listen to both sides of the story.
A- the actions I took to resolve this problem was to listen to both people and make sure that none of the rumors were true.
R- as a result of my actions, my friends were both happy and could trust each other again knowing that they weren’t talking behind each others backs.
R- this could help me because if there was ever a conflict in the workplace, I could get to the bottom of it & solve it quickly & efficently.
Question: Tell me about a time you were able to successfully deal with another person even when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa).
S- during a rugby game in which I was involved there was a fight happening between a couple of players.
T- I Had to break up the fight and calm everyone down on both teams.
A- I ran into the middle of the fight as soon as I could and started to get between everyone who was fighting, then I moved the other team’s players away and tried to calm them down.
R- Because of my actions I successfully resolved a fight and calmed everyone involved in the fight down which stopped further fighting to occur.
R- With this experience I have a better grasp of conflict resolution and can help stop and solve conflicts in a job oriented setting.
“Give me an example of a time where you motivated others”
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The problem is motivating the youth ages 2-7, to be enthusiastic about skating and learning the fundamentals of skating. My goal as a Program Assistant is to keep the kids highly motivated and having fun so that they are wanting to skate and learn, to do this I make sure they are having fun by turning fundamental skills into games and fun activities for them, also by keeping positive and energetic with them. In result the youth love coming back to skate and over the months improve greatly are their skating abilities. I think this applies to the job because being motivational and being positive are great qualities for an employee.
An example of a time when I showed initiative and took the lead:
The situation was that my family, my cousin and I were on our way to our grandparent’s cottage. Every time we drive there we stop at a grocery store to buy the food we need for our stay. Last year, my mom sent my cousin and I off in the store with a list of food to get. The task was to get all of the food on the list and take it back to the shopping cart. My cousin was not familiar with the store at all, so it was up to me to take the lead and get all of the food we needed. I took action and went directly to the first item we needed to get, while planning out a rout through the store to get the most items with the least amount of walking. While we walked, I told my cousin to go down different aisles to get certain foods and meet up with me at different spots. The results of our search was that we got all of the foods we needed back to the shopping cart in an efficient time. This experience relates to the job that I’m applying to because if there is ever a problematic situation, I will be able to take initiative and take the lead to solve it.
Give a Specific example of a time when you used a good judgement and logic in solving a problem.
My grandpa owns a business called Unique Sports. For the first time he was given a huge task to complete, he must complete 10 000 medallions in a short about of time for a dance competition. On top of this he still must be able to complete other big or small orders that come in. In my family we try and help him out as much as we possibly can. The Medals had a deadline of a Friday to be complete, with 3 thousand till left to be completed the night before. My grandpa was very ill around this time and had a very hard time completing this task. He needed to get these done very soon, in order to get this order again next year. I stepped up and stayed up all night helping him get these done. It was a very hard and stressful night, but my family and I got the work done. This experience that I have completed would show that I am very hard working and up to a tough task.
Question: Tell me about a time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem
The situation one morning was that I was getting ready for school and it was really cold out. So I went outside with my mom cause she was driving me to school, and the car windows were all frosty cause they froze. So tasks were obviously I had to get all the frost and ice off. But we were already late so I just threw my backpack inside the car and then I grabbed my math textbook and started trying to get all the frost off the windows cause I thought it was close enough to a car window scrapper, that was the action. So after spending more time then I actually intended to the result was that the windows were mostly clear, so I got back into the car and when I went to go put my textbook back in my backpack, I saw the car scrapper right there on the car floor near my bag. This shows my ability to use multiple resources to solve problems and it is a good skill that you need to work in most places.
Question: Give me an example of time when you set a goal and were able to meet or achieve.
An example of a time where I set a goal and I was able to achieve that goal was when I started grade 10 and I set a goal to get my average over 80%. I was going to achieve this by studying more and completing all my assignments. The actions I took to resolve this goal was in History, I study for all my quizzes and tests. For English I worked really hard to get perfect on my assignments and essays. For Gym I tried to participate as much as I could. And for Tech I worked hard to get good marks for my posters and photography. As a result I ended up getting way over 80%, I was very happy that I achieved my goal. This shows that I can achieve my goals that I set for mysel
A difficult decision I’ve made last year was buying a dirtbike.
This was difficult because first i had to make money for it and make more money to fix it and make it better. And in order to make money you would need a income so i got a job, doing drywall. Making $50 per day and it went on all summer. At the end of the summer i couldn’t work anymore due to school witch i would rether be working doing drywall then school because its more hands on doing drywall. At the end of the summer though i did get a dirtbike and some add ons for it. This is mostly like any time anyone buys some thing that costs a lot because you need to fine the price, work your way to get the money for it, and get whats needed to make it run its best.
Situation- Christmas related video for film club. Tried putting together a story that hopefully would be good enough to get into Merry M.
Tasks- Tried to write a script and organize group into pulling it off. Assign roles. Ask about costumes/props.
Actions- I wrote a short script for a Christmas special type video for the club to preform. I brought it in and since no one else had a script we went with my idea. I assigned roles and got people to get costumes ready. I didn’t take into account the clubs lack of an attention span. So we got to the first day of filming it. No one got their lines right, including me. It just continued to fall apart from there. I tried to get people to focus but it was a lost cause so I gave up.
Results- It’s on YouTube under the courticefilmakers page. Only members can see it and we ended up calling the worst Christmas special ever. We got a good chuckle out of how bad it was though.
Relate- I don’t know what to put here since you asked for a failure of mine. The only thing I can say is that I learned from my mistakes and if I ever try this again I’m going to plan it out better.
Question Give me a time when you tried to accomplish something and failed.
Give me an example of a time when you had to make a split second decision.
An example of when I had limited time to make a decision was during a rugby game against St. Stevens. The ball was kicked and I was the player designated to catch the ball. I put myself in a safe position to catch the ball as I knew the consequence if I caught the ball in an awkward position and got hit. As the ball started its decent I took a look at my opponents and created options of what I was going to do when the I caught the ball based on their positions. I caught the ball and immediately decided to run with the ball instead of kicking it back from where it came from. I sprung into action as I darted towards a narrow hole in the field of play. I successfully made a good advancement of the ball up the field, later resulting in our team scoring a try. With my intelligent quick thinking, I helped my team prosper and help score important points. This can relate to a job situation if ever a decision needs to be made a short amount of time. This is a very important quality that I excel at.
Give a Specific example of a time when you used a good judgement and logic in solving a problem.
The other night my dad and I were trying to run an extra cable line from the basement to a room up stairs. We had cut out a part of the wall and drill a hole into the floor and then run a wire sown through the whole and come out the cold air return in the basement. When we looked into the air return we discovered that the builders messed up and put a block of insulation in the vent. To make it so the vent works and allows air circulation we had to think of a way to get the insulation out. I thought of the idea of feeding the vacuum hose down the vent and using the suction to pull it out. We managed to get the insulation out and finish running the cable line. This relates to a job because it shows I can think quickly on my feet and come up with a solution to a problem and still complete the job quickly.