Beyond the Resume: Uncovering High-Potential Early Career Talent Through Behavioral Interviewing
How do you evaluate the potential of early-career talent? While individuals early in their careers may lack technical experience or hard skills, soft skills like communication, teamwork, and adaptability often predict long-term success within an organization.
The importance of soft skills for long-term outcomes makes evaluating them through behavioral interviewing critical. While traditional interviews focus on technical skills and qualifications, behavioral interviews aim to assess a candidate’s potential. However, this assessment remains a challenge for hiring managers and recruiters.
Behavioral interviewing helps hiring managers assess candidates by exploring their past experiences and behaviors. These techniques enable us to predict how candidates are likely to behave and respond in workplace situations.
What is Behavioral Interviewing?
Behavioral interviewing is a technique that focuses on a candidate’s past experiences and behaviors as indicators of future success. Instead of hypothetical questions, it emphasizes real-life scenarios to assess how candidates have demonstrated specific behaviors and skills. This approach operates on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future performance.
Traditional interview techniques typically focus on qualifications, hypothetical scenarios, or general competencies—methods that remain useful for evaluating candidates. However, with early-career candidates, experience and qualifications are still developing. Behavioral interviewing enables hiring managers to assess these candidates by examining how they have handled situations relevant to challenges they may face on the job.
Types of Behavioral Interviewing Methods
Several behavioral interviewing methods are effective for evaluating candidates, with the STAR Method being one of the most popular. Let’s explore the various methods before delving into the details of the STAR Method.
| Name | Breakdown of Acronym | Definition |
| STAR | Situation, Task, Action, Result | Tell the story: what happened, what you had to do, what you did, and what happened in the end. |
| SOAR | Situation, Objective, Action, Result | Say what happened, what the goal was, what you did, and what came out of it. |
| CAR | Context, Action, Result | Describe the situation, what you did, and what happened. |
| PAR | Problem, Action, Result | Say what the problem was, what you did about it, and how things turned out. |
| CARL | Circumstances, Action, Result, Learned | Explain what happened, what you did, how it turned out, and what you learned. |
| PARADE | Problem, Action, Result, Analysis, Decision, Evaluation | Talk about the problem, what you did, what happened, what you thought about it, your choices, and how it all went. |
| SCARF | Situation, Challenge, Action, Result, Feedback | Say what happened, what was hard, what you did, what happened, and what people said about it. |
STAR Method in Behavioral Interviewing
The STAR method is a well-regarded approach in behavioral interviewing because it helps both candidates and interviewers structure responses to experiential questions. STAR stands for:
- Situation: Describe the context for a task or challenge in a past job to set the scene and provide relevant background.
- Task: Explain the specific task or challenge to clarify what needed to be accomplished.
- Action: Detail the specific actions taken to demonstrate skills and abilities.
- Result: Explain the outcomes, including any lessons learned that are relevant to the situation.
The STAR method is useful because it offers a structured approach to the behavioral interview process. It keeps both the interviewer and candidate focused on essential details, helping interviewers gather relevant data while enabling candidates to provide clear, concise responses.
Benefits of Behavioral Interviewing for Early Careers
If you're looking for a comprehensive, accurate way to evaluate early careers candidates, then behavioral interviewing is worth consideration. Behavioral interviewing is particularly effective for early career candidates because it allows you to focus on potential and soft skills versus trying to evaluate nascent technical and hard skills. Here are a few reasons why behavioral interviewing is effective for early careers talent:
- It can help predict future performance by having candidates detail how they've performed in previous, similar scenarios
- It focuses on soft skills that are essential for success in early career and helps to bridge the gap between experience and potential
- It can reduce bias and prevent favoring candidates with more polished resumes, and provide an even playing field by basing evaluation on actions and results
- It encourages candidates to reflect on past experiences and how they've grown and developed skills over time
- It can be a consistent, fair practice that ensures standardization across all interviews with early careers candidates
Behavioral Interview Questions for Early Career Talent
The questions you ask provide the foundation for assessing candidates – their answers will be influenced by the type and quality of questions you ask. You can break questions into five categories:
- Adaptability Questions
- Teamwork Questions
- Problem-Solving Questions
- Communication Questions
- Handling Pressure and Prioritization Questions
- Leadership and Initiative Questions
Let's take a deeper dive into each category, some sample questions, and what it reveals about candidates.
Adaptability Questions
Adaptability questions seek to evaluate how candidates adjust to new situations as well as how they learn from feedback and cope with change. Early careers candidates are going to experience change on a daily basis, so evaluating their resilience is beneficial.
Sample Adaptability Questions
| Question | What It Reveals About the Candidate |
| Tell me about a time when you were asked to do something you had never done before. How did you react? What did you learn? | Shows how the candidate handles unfamiliar tasks and their ability to learn and adapt quickly in new situations. |
| Describe a situation in which you embraced a new system, process, technology, or idea at work that was a major departure from the old way of doing things. | Indicates the candidate’s openness to change and ability to adapt to new methods or technology in the workplace. |
| Describe a time when you had to adapt to a significant change. How did you handle it? | Demonstrates the candidate’s resilience and flexibility when dealing with unexpected changes. |
| Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to a colleague’s working style in order to complete a project or achieve your goals. | Tells how the candidate adjusts to different working styles to achieve goals. |
Teamwork Questions
Determining how effective early careers candidates will collaborate with others and how they manage conflicts is a key to long-term success. Teamwork questions evaluate a candidate's communication style and their ability to adjust to team dynamics.
Sample Teamwork Questions
| Question | What It Reveals About the Candidate |
| Give me an example of a time when you worked on a team. What was your role? | Shows the candidate’s ability to function as part of a team and their role within that team dynamic. |
| Tell me about a time when you had to collaborate with someone with a different working style. How did you make it work? | Highlights the candidate’s interpersonal skills and ability to work with diverse personalities to achieve a common goal. |
| Tell me about a situation where you had to balance competing priorities. How did you determine what was most important? | Assesses the candidate’s ability to juggle multiple responsibilities and make informed decisions about prioritization. |
| Describe a time when you contributed to a project outside of your assigned duties. What prompted you to take initiative? | Reveals the candidate’s proactive attitude, leadership potential, and willingness to go above and beyond to contribute to the team. |
Problem-Solving Questions
What's the candidate's approach to solving challenging problems? Critical thinking and creativity skills are a key success factor for any position, and early careers individuals can reference previous experiences to clearly demonstrate these skills.
Sample Problem-Solving Questions
| Question | What It Reveals About the Candidate |
| Describe a time when you saw a problem and took the initiative to correct it. | Demonstrates the candidate’s initiative and problem-solving skills when faced with challenges in the workplace. |
| Tell us about a time when you solved a problem at your job that wasn’t part of your job description. | Highlights the candidate’s ability to think critically and address issues outside of their designated role, showing flexibility and resourcefulness. |
| Give me an example of a time when you had to solve a problem with little guidance. What did you do? | Shows the candidate’s independence, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities when resources or support are limited. |
| Describe a situation where you had to be creative to solve a problem. What was your solution? | Reflects the candidate’s creativity and innovation in approaching and resolving workplace challenges. |
Communication Questions
Asking questions to gauge early careers candidates communication skills is important. How candidates communicate – including written, verbal, and active listening skills – is a good indicator of how well they will do in the workplace. Are they prepared to adapt to multiple interaction styles in a diverse workplace?
Sample Communication Questions
| Question | What It Reveals About the Candidate |
| How would you assess your writing and communication skills? | Provides insight into the candidate’s self-awareness of their communication abilities and how they view their effectiveness in conveying information. |
| Describe a situation where you taught a concept to a co-worker or classmate. | Evaluates the candidate’s ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and their teaching or mentoring capabilities. |
| Tell me about a time when you had to communicate a difficult message to someone. How did you handle it? | Demonstrates the candidate’s ability to handle challenging conversations with tact and clarity, indicating strong communication and conflict-resolution skills. |
| Give me an example of a time when you had to explain a complex idea to someone unfamiliar with the topic. How did you ensure they understood? | Reflects the candidate’s ability to simplify complex information and ensure clear understanding in their communication with others. |
Handling Pressure and Prioritization Question
How well does a candidate handle pressure, prioritize tasks, and meet deadlines? The workforce can prove to be a challenging environment, and these types of questions aim to evaluate if candidates are prepared to succeed in this environment.
Sample Handling Pressure and Prioritization Questions
| Question | What It Reveals About the Candidate |
| How do you prioritize projects under pressure? | Reveals the candidate’s ability to manage time, stay organized, and remain calm when handling multiple tasks under pressure. |
| Give me an example of a time in which you handled a looming deadline. | Shows how the candidate manages stress, pressure, and deadlines while still delivering results in a timely manner. |
| Tell me about a time when you had to manage stress or pressure. How did you maintain your performance? | Assesses the candidate’s coping mechanisms under stress and their ability to maintain productivity and focus in high-pressure situations. |
| Describe a time when you worked under a tight deadline. How did you manage your time and resources? | Demonstrates the candidate’s organizational skills, time management, and ability to deliver results when time is limited. |
Leadership and Initiative Questions
Even early in their career, candidates that demonstrate leadership qualities are highly valued. Do candidates take charge, inspire others, and drive projects or ideas forward? For interviewers, these types of leadership and initiative questions can reveal a lot about a candidate, such as if they are self-starters or if they exhibit leadership potential.
Sample Leadership and Initiative Questions
| Question | What It Reveals About the Candidate |
| Describe a time when you took the lead on a project. How did you motivate your team? | Reveals the candidate’s leadership skills, their approach to motivating others, and their ability to drive a project toward success. |
| Give me an example of a time when you had to persuade others to see things your way. What approach did you take? | Highlights the candidate’s influence and persuasion skills, as well as their ability to present ideas and bring others on board. |
| Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond what was expected. What motivated you to do so? | Shows the candidate’s work ethic, internal motivation, and willingness to exceed expectations to achieve better results. |
| Give me an example of a time when you had to make a difficult decision. What was the outcome? | Reflects the candidate’s decision-making abilities, including how they weigh options and take responsibility for the outcomes of their decisions. |
Integrating Behavioral Interviewing Into Your Early Careers Program
Behavioral interviewing is a structured, formal approach to a qualitative interview process. It's designed to help interviewers use a solid framework to compare and fairly evaluate candidates. By the same token, it's also designed to give candidates the opportunity to answer questions in a way that fairly evaluate their current skills and their future potential.
Getting started with this approach, however, requires expertise and experience. That's where an early career and campus recruitment partner like AMS is valuable. We have the experience and expertise to follow best practices to deliver great results for your organization. Our track record with early careers programs includes award-winning services with clients like Rolls-Royce.
Ready to use behavioral interviewing in your early careers program? Get in touch with us today.
