Behavioural Interview

In nearly all of the pilot recruitment interviews I have attended there has been a component of the behavioural type interview included in the process.

What is a behavioural interview?

A behavioural interview is one where you have to demonstrate your competencies, (knowledge, skills, and abilities), by giving examples from your past experiences.

Behavioural interviewing asserts “the most accurate predictor of future

performance is past performance in a similar situation”. It is important to note that the experience can be considered as a success or as a failure. What you did to respond to the success or failure and how you addressed the failure in particular is as important as the experience itself. Make sure that you can show that you learnt from the failure and in doing so show that you can make it a positive experience.

As I have already stated, every interview has its unique focus and requirements, however some questions are asked so often, it makes sense to do all you can to prepare for them. In order to be successful, you need a strategy - not scripted answers. Your goal should be to emphasize the experiences in your background and by the use of your USP’s that best fit what each interviewer is looking for.

Take a look at some common questions and think about you should consider when formulating your responses. Work through each potential question, creating your own responses based on your research for your own ‘guide to the successful interview’, and you will be in great shape for your next interview.

Hint: Practice aloud with someone.

Behavioural interviews are interviews conducted along the lines of -

• Describe a situation where you have had to use CRM…

• Give me an example of the last time…

Fill in the blanks with one of your competencies (knowledge, skills or abilities).

Draw from an experience which highlights your USP. You can then expect to have follow-up questions seeking further responses and clarification of the depth of your knowledge.

Note: A good pneumonic for behavioural interviews is S.A.R. (easy for a pilot to remember)

S is for Situation

A stands for Action which you took to solve the problem

R stands for the Result of your actions

“Tell me about a time you had an ethical dilemma?” is a good example of a question with which to use SAR.

Intent: The interviewer is looking for evidence of your ethical standards and honesty.

Context: I picked this question because I found it difficult to answer, and because

I believe that no matter who we are, we all have our ethics tested at some point.

Response: Without naming names, describe the situation and how you dealt with it. The response may focus on you, or it may involve other people. Remember, your political acumen is being tested.

Situation: Early in my career I was rostered to fly a camera crew out to their shoot. After loading their equipment I went across to the briefing room and

updated my weather I was gone for no more than 15 minutes. The flight out to the destination was uneventful. As I was unloading I noticed three extra boxes in the nose locker. I queried the film crew and was told they had turned up while I was at the briefing room and that they had loaded these extra boxes themselves.

Because I was concerned about the aircrafts’ maximum take-off weight I On a Personal Note

rechecked the weights and although I had not taken off overweight I found that because of the short sector and low fuel burn I had landed overweight.

Action: I checked the company paperwork for information on overweight landings. I then notified the company and gave them all the details as required.

Result: The aircraft was subsequently inspected and returned to line. I met with the Chief Pilot and discussed the incident. He phoned the film company and made sure that they were aware of the requirement to not load anything without flight crew permission. At my suggestion we added the possibility of overweight landings occurring due to short sectors and low fuel burn in the company route manual.

Note: It would have been easy just to pretend that I had never noticed the ‘extra’

boxes and ignored the possibility that I had exceeded a weight limitation. The moral of the story is that although I was sweating bullets at the time I look back now and understand it was a learning experience and that I did the right thing notifying the company.

Behavioural Interviews are an opportunity for -

• You to demonstrate your knowledge and to showcase you and your USP and thus your store of quality. As given in the example above, honesty and integrity are quality attributes, and the ability to demonstrate them is an excellent USP.

• The panel to interact with the candidate in an almost normal conversational process that allows them to have a look at the candidate and to delve into his or her character. It allows them another means of assessing the quality of the candidate. It allows them to find the magnitude of quality by seeking an understanding of the depth of the candidates’ responses to the questions asked and to find the candidates USP.

don’t have an answer for so be prepared to tell them that you don’t know the answer.

My way of viewing the point where I hit the wall is, “I know what I know, now is an opportunity to expand on that and grow my knowledge.”

Extremes in character are signposts to the interviewer of possible problems, so don’t go to the interview ready to show them what an extremely great person you are, rather what a normal everyday great person that you are and that you are the candidate who has the skills and the positive attitude they are looking for and at some point in the future you would like to take on a Captaincy or possibly a management role. In other words you have a component of quality which they will benefit from. You have this component of quality because not only do you meet their minimum requirements but you also have a USP(s) which you know and understand thoroughly and can easily relate it to others.

The Eastern Australia Airlines interview is based around the Behavioural interview style. As Todd puts it – “it is not a ‘gotcha’ type of interview.” They want to know that you have a good understanding of yourself. One way they may question how well you know yourself is to use the information gained from your psyche profile in the pre-testing and then to ask questions from your profile. An example Todd gives is that he will tell the candidate about three areas of the profile, two areas they performed well in and the third area they performed not as well. Todd will then ask the candidate “which area do you think that might be and why.” Todd says that this type of question allows them to analyse several things like the individuals self awareness, “it allows us to corroborate the psyche test by giving the candidate the opportunity to demonstrate his/her knowledge of themselves and if the candidate is aware of his/her weaker areas.” “If the candidate can then state that they are aware of these weaker areas,” rather than marking them down Todd says that it is seen as a positive for the candidate – “self awareness is integral to knowing your limitations and capabilities.”

CAUTION

Eastern Australia Airlines Insight