If you have a scheduled interview for a medical sales position these days, it would be prudent to expect that there is a very high likelihood that the interviewer will be asking behavioral interviewing techniques.  The only way to make certain that you will perform well in this interview scenario is to prepare in advance for the types of questions likely to be asked, and to actually rehearse the answers you will give, utilizing the SAR method in answering.

While it is difficult to predict the exact questions which will be asked during your interview, you can arm yourself with a group of well-rehearsed SAR answers which are flexible enough to adapt to many types of questions.  It is helpful to think of your responses as stories, with you becoming a great storyteller as you give your response using the SAR technique.

Possible story scenarios which you will want to rehearse in advance may include examples of how you handled conflict with a fellow employee, your sales manager, or a client.  They might also include answers to questions about why you made the choices that you made throughout your life, even going back to your college experiences.  Interviewers are attempting to evaluate the logic which you have demonstrated in the past to structure your life.

These prepared-in-advance answers you will construct may include examples from internships, classes or school projects, hobbies and work experiences………anything, really, which demonstrates your behavior during past situations.  Please remember, behavioral interviewing is all about what you actually did during a given situation, not what you would do if presented with a situation.

Many behavioral questions try to get at how you responded to negative situations in your past; so you will need to have examples of negative experiences ready.  However, try to choose negative experiences that you made the best of, or, better yet, those that had a positive outcome.

NEXT:   Specific Tasks to Utilize When Preparing for Your Interview

The perfect response to a behavioral interview question involves a three-step process.  This answer, which is almost a “formula” for excelling in your answer, and giving you the best chance of performing well on that question, is referred to as the “SAR Response”

SAR is an acronym for 1) Situation, 2) Action,3) Result/outcome

Using the SAR method of answering a question, you will provide the in-depth, logical information which will allow you to score well with the interviewer during the evaluation process.

So, when you are asked to “Describe a situation when……”, you can start your answer by describing a situation, task, or problem that you have faced in the past.  Next, you can describe what action you took to handle or solve the problem, task, or situation.  Finally, you can state what the result of your actions accomplished.

If you approach every question asked by answering using the SAR Response, you will be giving the interviewer the in-depth answers he needs to evaluate you, and your chances of impressing this individual will be greatly increased.

NEXT:   “Preparing for a Behavior-based Interview”

General behavioral interviewing techniques are customized for the particular industry utilizing them.  Medical device companies and pharmaceutical companies might have different criteria for placing value on certain behavioral characteristics.  Thus, each company develops a list of charter traits which they feel are important to help assure success in selling their products.  Some of the traits which may be of importance are:

-    Critical thinking
-    Being a self-starter
-    Willingness to learn medical anatomy/terminology
-    Willingness to travel
-    Self-confidence
-    Teamwork
-    Ability to sell consultatively
-    Confidence in selling in the operating room environment

The employer then structures very pointed questions during the interview to elicit detailed responses aimed at determining if the candidate possesses these character traits.  These questions may not always be framed as a question.  The interviewer may say “Tell me about a time….”, or, “Describe a situation……”.  Many medical sales companies will actually use a grading system to evaluate selected criteria during the interview.

NEXT:   “Candidate’s Guide to Answering Behavioral Interview Questions”

Behavioral Interviewing…. Not Your Daddy’s Interviewing Technique!

Behavioral-based interviewing is touted by many as providing a more objective pool of facts to the interviewer to make employment decisions than more traditional interviewing methods.  In fact, behavioral interviewing is said to be 55% predictive of future on-the-job behavior, while more traditional interviewing is only about 10% predictive.  Older interviewing methods ask general questions such as “tell me about yourself”, while the process of behavioral interviewing is much more probing.  Because of this fact, an individual who enters an interview in which behavioral techniques are used will almost always perform poorly unless he/she understands and prepares for in advance for the types of questions which will be asked.

In a traditional job-interview, you can usually get away with telling the interviewer what he wants to hear, even if you may be enhancing or even fudging a bit about the truth.  Even when asked situational questions that start out with “How would you handle XYZ situation?”, you have limited accountability.  How does the interviewer know, after all, if you would really react to a given situation the way you ay you would?

In a behavioral interview, however, it is much more difficult to give a response which is not true to your character.  The reason for this is that the behavioral interviewer will typically “pick apart” your story as it is told, by asking even more probing and detailed questions in an attempt to get at more specific behavior patterns.  This technique is not unlike the methods utilized by criminal interrogators with suspects during questioning.  By drilling down into your answers with more probing questions, the interviewer can uncover inconsistencies within your answer which can assist him in evaluating actual behaviors, instead of the perceived behaviors you may wish to convey for that question.

The interviewer may probe for more depth by asking “What were you thinking at that point?” or, “Tell me more about your meeting with that person”, or “Lead me through your decision process”.  If you have told a story that is anything but totally honest, your response probably will not hold up through the barrage of probing questions asked after your initial response.

Next…. “Candidate Traits Revealed in Behavioral Interview”

If you are preparing to interview for a medical sales or pharmaceutical sales position, the following discussion is of paramount importance to you!  Things have changed dramatically over the past few years in the interviewing process.  If you have not participated in an interview in several years, you may be totally unprepared for the types of questions you will be asked to answer during an interview now.

Behavioral Interviewing is a relatively new mode of job interviewing that first became popular more than 15 years ago in some industries.  This method of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a prospective employee was developed by psychologists who responded to the obvious need by industry to more accurately predict the potential success of a employee during the interview process.

It is no mystery why companies feel the need to more accurately predict future success.  Hiring mistakes are very costly to companies.  It has been estimated that the costs of employee turnover approximates almost one year of compensation for that particular position!

The basic premise behind behavioral interviewing is that the most accurate predictor of future performance, is an examination of past performance during similar situations.  Tigers rarely change their stripes, so to speak.  Thus, if a company can assess before hiring the past behaviors in given situations of a potential employee, they can more accurately predict how these situations may be handled by that employee in the future.

The following series of entries to this blog will provide an in-depth look at the many nuances of behavioral interviewing in the medical sales interview situation, including providing many sample questions which are likely to be asked of the candidate during the interview process.

Make no mistake about it, if you enter an interview in which behavioral interviewing techniques will be applied, without a previous understand of this method of interviewing, you can be assured that you will not perform well in this interview situation!

So, get ready for some real insights into the world of behavioral interviewing, as it applies to the medical sales environment, and prepare yourself to ace that interview and secure that job offer!