Understanding Behavioral Event Interviews (BEI)
Just as non-blind interviews can be more comprehensive and delve deeper into applicants’ candidacies than traditional blind, résumé-based interviews, they also often incorporate questions that stray more from a recap of or drill down into your résumé. These are known as behavior-based or behavioral event interviews (BEI).
Although, to be fair, many schools actually combine elements of both. Yale SOM is one such example. “Ours is a blind, résumé-based interview that covers several areas,” Yale SOM’s Delmonico says, adding that it does include a few behavioral-based questions as part of the process. “We’ve always used behavioral questions to get a sense of how an applicant would handle various situations. Those kinds of questions have been validated as being predictive of professional performance, which is why we include them,” he says.
Stanford GSB, too, views past behavior as a reliable predictor of future behavior and tailors its interviews accordingly, whether blind or non-blind. During Bolton’s tenure at Stanford GSB, he wrote: “Because the Committee on Admissions believes that previous behavior is often a good predictor of future conduct, the interview focuses on past actions rather than hypothetical situations.” Stanford’s primary questions, therefore, revolve around behaviors, skills and attitudes the school thinks will help ensure a good fit between a candidate and the Stanford community, he adds.
Perhaps nowhere is the non-blind Behavioral-Event Interview (BEI) more prominent than at MIT Sloan School of Management. At Sloan, interviewers may break the ice with a few questions about your background, but in short order they’ll get down to the business at hand: in-depth behavioral questions designed more to get at your personality and communications skills than to go over points included in your résumé or having to do with your career goals or interest in the MBA.
On its website, MIT Sloan ticks off several ways it sees the BEI interview as different from more traditional interview formats. First, it will be a structured process concentrated on areas important to the interviewer—rather than on areas that you may feel are important. “Instead of asking how you would behave in a particular situation, the interviewer will ask how you didbehave,” the website continues. Interviewers will question and probe your answers, ask you to provide details, and discourage you from theorizing or generalizing about multiple events. “You may not get a chance to deliver any prepared stories,” the school adds.
So, what’s the best way to prepare for a behavior-based interview at MIT Sloan—or for behavior-based questions at schools that may otherwise lean more toward resume-based interviews?
