As a hiring manager, and when I was a recruiter, I often asked questions that began with “Give me an example of…”.

There was and is, a method to my madness, and very few of the candidates I spoke with answered satisfactorily.

So in the spirit of “Processes for Success” April, I thought I would share the logic behind what I am asking for.

When you are in an interview and someone asks how you would handle some situation or task, they are offering you an opportunity to make your personal experience relevent to the position you are applying for.

Let me say that again – you have the chance to tie in your experience to the answer in order to show that you can do the job – even if that experience is not exactly the same situation.

I give more clues about what I am after than most interviewers, with my “Give me an example of…”.

My questions often sound like this: Give me an example of how you have handled an unhappy customer.

This is a straightforward request for YOU to tell ME how you dealt with this or a similar situation.  I do not want to hear what you WOULD do, I want to hear what you HAVE DONE.

The distinction may be subtle. But it is a distinction that tells me whether you have experience that I can use or if you are only theorizing, based on classes or what you have read.  Not that there is anything wrong with that – but if I had two candidates with fairly equal qualifications, my choice will always go to the one who has DEMONSTRATED their experience, rather than someone who has a theory about how they MIGHT handle something.

It also tells me about the candidate’s confidence level and whether their comprehension of questions is strong or if they are making assumptions.   The most successful candidates know how to get more clues to what I am after in a question, by asking me a question while they are thinking about their answer, and then leaving some silence while they formulate their answer.

You don’t have to talk non-stop.

It makes you sound more nervous rather than allowing the interviewer to consider what you have said or have a chance to take notes.   In the above: Give me an example of how you have handled an unhappy customer.  You might answer with “Are you asking about a situation where the customer was unhappy with my performance or with the performance of the company I was working for?”  In other words, you are asking me if the customer was unhappy with something YOU did, or if you are the person taking a random unhappy issue.  That tells me you are thinking about my question, and searching your memory for experience that fits the situation.  I will then tell you that it is an unhappiness with the company.  You can then formulate an answer that addresses that.

Counter questions, when they are thoughtful and probing, or restating questions to be sure you understand what is being asked, are both win/win processes.  As an interviewer, I win because I am given the impression that what I am asking you has importance to you, and that you are giving careful consideration to my questions, and that the questions are thought-provoking.  You win because you are presenting yourself as a confident, intelligent and insightful potential employee.

If you are applying for an entry-level position, and have only college work or summer jobs to draw from, listen to the intent of the question. You may be applying for a research position, and when given the question about how you have handled research for something obscure under a deadline you should be able to apply your experience to that question without hesitation.  “Yes, in my last semester of X class, we had a particularly difficult X subject to research for the paper due on X date.  That left me with 3 weeks to find the data, confirm it, cite the references, and build the paper – which I did successfully and received an A for…”

I hope this helps. I’d love to hear examples of this in action for you.