PART A – PLEASE RESPOND TO CLASSMATE DISCUSSION WHETHER YOU AGREE OR NOT & A DETAILED WHY: Two types of questions that job seekers often encounter are behavioral and scenario questions. A behavioral question relates to how you approached some situation in the past. A scenario question relates to how you would deal with an imaginary future situation. From the hiring manager’s perspective, which type of question do you think reveals more about the candidate? Why?

It depends on the role and the type of candidates you are sourcing for that role. According to this week’s Lecture 2, “When a candidate has some relevant experience, the behavioral approach is preferable, as it focuses on facts rather than on speculation and offers an opportunity to probe more deeply into a candidate’s actions and choices in a similar situation. When the candidate has no relevant experience, the situational interview is often the better alternative.”

Therefore, for roles that are entry-level, a situation interview will be a better predictor of success. Similarly, some candidates may have the appropriate skills but lack direct experience. Often, you can identify these candidates through their use of functional resumes instead of the standard chronological resume. For a job that has selected candidates to interview that have and do not have direct experience, hiring managers should be prepared to use both. Suggests using three categories of questions: preparation, opened-ended, and directions. Open-ended questions lend themselves to being behavioral questions, and directions lend themselves to being scenario questions.

PART B – PLEASE RESPOND TO CLASSMATE DISCUSSION WHETHER YOU AGREE OR NOT & A DETAILED WHY: I am currently not in a hiring position at my current company, but I did hire many employees when I was part of Verizon. As a retail store leader, I had the opportunity to be in many different interviews and pick candidates during my 5 years with Verizon. One of the questions that I used the most was – How would you handle a conversation with someone that you might not like? – This question allowed me to explore how they would handle conversations with customers in the store that was not the friendliest, also how they would work with people that might be difficult. It is essential to remember that employees with experience will focus on the facts rather than on speculations.

Since I was hiring for retail, we will only do one interview, and sometimes we pick the right and something we did not. I am proud to say that my success rate was really high, and I still have many people I hired working for Verizon. Another question that I would ask was to explain to me how was their last job. Often, they will share how bad an experience they had, how bad their boss and colleagues were, etc. This kind of behavior would be something that they will be bringing over to my team. As a result, most likely, I will not select them for the position. From the manager’s perspective, I will consider that open-ended questions about their past job experiences and past colleague relationships will provide me the most information about the employee. Skills can be tough, but attitude and energy cannot, and that is why I would focus on how they talked and expressed their thoughts about past experiences and situations where they were under stress.