Please, Please Stop With “Tell Me About A Time When…” Interviews Can Be So Much More.

We wonder aloud why we don’t “get A-Players” and have to deal with turnover. Part of it is because interviews are so hideous and generic.

My friend sent me this article overnight. I’ll be honest with you: I did not read the entire thing, but there’s a section about the prevalence of “Tell me about a time when…” questions. Those are utterly rampant in interviews. I was doing this relatively meaningless, still-in-debt-from-it graduate school program at University of Minnesota from 2012 to 2014. I think 2012-ish was the absolute height of “thought leadership” around the “behavior-based interview,” so everyone was obsessed with “Tell me about a time when…” questions. I’ve been interviewing for gigs much of the last 3–4 months too (I’m a broken man professionally) and while I hear/see that format of question less than in 2012, it’s still prevalent, yes.

Logically this type of question somewhat makes sense, because the recruiter/interviewer/whoever wants to see previous accomplishments of yours. I get it. But there are a couple of notable problems with that type of question, including:

1. It’s incredibly easy for the candidate to lie about it; there are pre-scripted…