Would it be advisable to take a moment to think about some behavioural interview questions in the interview itself? Specifically very tricky questions that one has not given much thought. For instance a question like: “when has your personal sensitivity protected a project from failing?”
I understand structure is very important here as well thus I am quite curious. At the same time I know that taking a moment in such an instance could make the answer seem insincere, so I am a bit uncertain.
Hi there,
this is a good question! From my point of view, most of the questions are just variations of the let's say 10 key topics that you will encounter during the FIT interview. I would thus prepare well in advance for these topics allowing you to answer without taking time and still provide a structured answer.
If you get questions completely out of the box, then it is OK to gain time with some comments like “I didn't think about it from this perspective…. ” or something like that, but taking longer than just 5-10 sec time to think feels strange.
Good luck!
Lucie
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Hello!
Yes ofc, 100%! You also need a couple of seconds to “link” the question to your prepared stories, and this is a critical pieces to success.
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Short answer: No.
Longer answer: The less you leave your interviewer waiting for your gear to roll, the better it is.
The fact that people ask for time to think is another whimsy from Cosentino's book. In real life, you don't ask for time before answering a question - in particular a behavioral one.
PS: I landed offers from 10 top consulting firms, investment banks, and PE funds always without asking for some time to think about how to answer.
Hi there,
It is best to prepare for the most common behavioral questions in detail and in advance.
Make sure you have example stories for a variety of situations ready that you can pull from different work experiences.
If the question is catching you completely off guard, then earn some time paraphrasing the question to confirm that you understood it correctly (e.g. Do you mean a situation like xyz? etc.).
Good luck!
Let's assume a question catches you off guard i.e. you haven't got an example prepared. What your question boils down to is whether you should think before you speak in this situation. I think we all know what the answer to that should be ;-)
You should always have a portfolio of examples that can easily be adapted to most types of “standard" questions. But if they don't work, you should absolutely ask for a moment (a moment being 10-15 seconds, not 2 minutes).
Just make sure to not ramble, be top down, and employ some form of framework i.e. STAR, SCORE, etc.
Best of luck!
Yes, it's fine. Of course, ideally you already have a large breadth of potential answers that it only takes you a few seconds to figure out which one to tell and how to adjust it.
It is ok to take some 20 seconds to figure out which story to tell. To be honest, if you have none ready, it isn't really taking 20 vs. 120 seconds that makes the difference.
Hi there,
Look, ultimately my view is that if you'll give a bad answer by not taking time, you need to take time!
In addition to taking time, also think about “buying” time. What I mean is you can say a few “intro” sentences without starting your story yet.
For example, “Wow, that's a really tough one. You know, to be honest I find myself as a pretty resilient person but in the earlier days of my career I was probably more impacted by this sort of thing. One period that particularly comes to mind is…”
Make sense?
Lucie's answer is spot on!
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