career resource manual - UC Davis / Internship and Career Center

Tips for the Behavioral InterviewBehavioral interview questions assess how you have acted in past situations,with the idea that past performance is a key indicator of yourfuture efforts.How to Prepare✓ Review and select some challenging experience that reflects positivelyon your behavior including work situations, project-based orteam work, campus activities, community service and leadershipexperience. Employers are investigating how you deal with problems,failures, difficult teams or supervisors.✓ Focus on your strengths and positive attributes, withoutcomplaining or criticizing others.✓ Jot down ideas about each experience and examine your role. Howdid you handle problems, show initiative and contribute to theoutcome?✓ Use the S.T.A.R.T. method to help you form an example:• Situation • Task/Problem • Action • Result • Tie to Job✓ Expect the employer to ask an open-ended question about a pastexperience and then continue to ask questions that reveal any of thefollowing:• communication skills, leadership and organizational ability• analytical and problem solving skills• your decision-making process• cooperative and/or competitive nature• initiative • flexibility • creativity✓ Be honest. Don’t exaggerate. Your answers will be reviewed forconsistency.✓ Practice. Draw from several types of experiences to show depth.✓ Turn any interview question into a behavioral answer with anexample.✓ Examples of behavioral interview questions can be found aticc.ucdavis.edu/students/careers/interviewtips.htm.Example of a Behavioral Interview Question and Response:Question: “Give me an example of a time when you took the initiative toimprove a project.”Response Using the S.T.A.R.T. Method: “As a peer advisor at theInternship and Career Center (Situation), students often asked me howto find job opportunities in business (Task/Problem). Since I was alsocurious about my future in this industry and had taken a Web-authoringclass, I asked my supervisor if I could create a website linked to ourhome page discussing many of the different business options (Action).After developing the site, I shared the online resource with the professionalstaff at the ICC. They were so pleased with the resource that theynow refer students to the site during their advising sessions (Result). IfI’m hired, I’ll work to make information accessible at this job. (Tied tojob).”Expect additional questions such as: “How did you prioritize this additionalwork load? How did you decide what options to include? Wherecan I see this webpage?” Be prepared to back up your statements.Salary• Wait for the interviewer to bring up the topicof salary, benefits and sick/vacation time.• You can ask about salary if you have beenoffered a job without the salary packagebeing disclosed.• If asked how much you expect to earn,state the market range, not a single figure.Visit Salary.com, glassdoor.com orcacareerzone.com to find this information.When researching, take into account differentaspects such as location and years of experience.You can also discuss salary questionswith the ICC staff.• If you are offered a salary that is unacceptable,respond with a counter offer andsupport it with market salary figures and yourqualifications. Know in advance if you arewilling to walk away from the job offer if yourcounter is not accepted.• Always approach negotiation with tact andintegrity.See examples of thank-you and apologyletters on page 39.Illegal Interview QuestionsIt is illegal to ask questions regardingrace, gender, sexual orientation and identity,religion, marital or family status, age,disabilities, ethnic background and countryof origin. Visit the U.S. Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission website ateeoc.gov for more information. Please discussany illegal questions to an ICC Staff Member.Interviewing for Employmenticc.ucdavis.edu 47