Behavioral vs. Traditional Interviews: Which Suits Your Organization?

The quality of your organization’s productivity and revenue starts with how you select employees. Interviews play a major part in that process, from the day a candidate is shortlisted to the day they become a permanent member of staff. This article compares behavioral and traditional interviews and gives example questions for each.

How do organizations use interviews?

Organizations approach hiring differently. Some put most weight on the interview to judge a candidate’s skills. Others treat the interview as a shortlisting step and rely more on training, deciding whether the candidate stays based on performance.

What is a traditional interview?

Most companies that rely on interviews to shortlist candidates use the traditional format. Traditional interviews are seen as more structured and have been used for a very long time.

They give a general picture of the candidate, covering background such as education and work experience. More recently, however, some companies have found that other interview methods work just as well, raising productivity and building a work culture based on trust.

What is a behavioral interview?

Behavioral interviews have proven to be a strong alternative to the traditional approach. They focus on how a candidate has actually behaved and handled situations, while education, skills and professional experience come second.

A traditional interview tries to build an overall picture and decide whether the candidate fits the job. A behavioral interview examines the candidate’s practical knowledge and how they use their skills to solve real problems.

Examples of traditional interview questions

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why did you leave your last company? Were you fired?
• What have you been doing since May 2018?
• Where do you see your career in 5 years? How about 20 years?
• What’s your biggest weakness?
• Why should we hire you?
• How did you like your last job?

These questions have shortcomings. They can be closed-ended, may not draw out more information without further prompting, or may invite hypothetical answers that do not reflect how the candidate really behaves.

Examples of behavioral interview questions

• Give me an example of a time when you held back from speaking or deciding because you did not have enough information.
• Give me an example of a time when you had to make a decision quickly.
• What is the toughest group you have had to get cooperation from? How did you win them over?
• Have you ever had difficulty getting others to accept your ideas? What was your approach? Did it work?
• Give me an example of a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.
• Describe a situation when you had a positive influence on the actions of others.
• Tell me about a time when you had to speak up to get an important point across.
• Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers or group? How did you do it? Did they “buy” it?
• What have you done in the past to contribute to a teamwork environment?
• How do you decide what gets top priority when scheduling your time?
• What do you do when your schedule is suddenly interrupted? Give an example.
• Give me an example of an important goal you set in the past and tell me how you reached it.

Which interview style is best?

Behavioral questions do more than find out what a candidate says they would do. They give the candidate a chance to describe concrete examples from their work history that helped them succeed. Many organizations get the best results by using traditional questions for background and behavioral questions to see how a candidate actually works.