HRinmotion Blog – Career advice from HR Pros

Recap

In our last post, Find Romance with Behavioral Dating Questions Part 1 (BDQ), we explored the application of hiring techniques in dating. Specifically, we looked at applying the behavioral interview technique to dating, an interviewing methodology that is widely used in recruitment and selection to better assess job applicants and predict future job performance. Behavioral Interviewing is based on the theory that by assessing how someone behaved in a certain situation in their past you can predict how they will react to the same situation in the future. Applying this premise to dating, by assessing how someone behaved in a past relationship situation, you may be able to better assess how they will behave in a similar situation with you. In part 1, you learned first hand just how easy and fun it was to use behavioral dating questions on your next date. So you if you haven’t already done so, check out our post, BDQ Part 1 before proceeding.

After publishing BDQ 1, we received overwhelming feedback from our readers requesting a follow up post on dating tips and techniques to handle BDQ’s. Here at HRIM, we do feel responsibility to our loyal readers now that we have let the proverbial “genie out of the bottle” and “released” the BDQ’s into the blogosphere. For this reason, this post will focus on how to answer these type of dating questions. Below are a few dating tips on this topic.

How to Answer

So how do you answer behavioral dating questions? Like a true HR consultant, I will say that the answer depends. How to answer follows a very complex, highly scientific method and depends on many factors. It depends on if you want the job? You must ask yourself if you really want an offer? Are you interested in the job? (It is important to note how I refrained from using the word “position”, I am trying to run a family program here). So depending on your interest, your answers will have to be tailored accordingly. Let me illustrate using the questions above. In each example, I will provide an answer that you can use on your next date depending on whether you are interested or not interested.

Behavioral Dating Question 1:

Tell me about a time when your significant other was talking to you but you were not interested. Did you fall asleep? How many cups of coffee did you drink?

Interested: “There has not been a time when my significant other speaks and I was not fully listening. My partner’s feelings and thoughts are important to me so when he/she speaks, I make sure I drop whatever I am doing to be fully present.”

Not Interested: “I’m sorry, did you say something? What was the question again?”

Behavioral Dating Question 2:

Describe a situation when you forgot a significant date like your anniversary, her birthday, Valentines Day, and so on? How long did you sleep on the couch? How much did you end up spending to make up for this mistake?

Interested: “There has not been a time that I have forgotten an anniversary, birthday and so on. Those dates are important to me and I make sure I plan our day ahead of time and get her a gift that is so well-thought out not even she could have chosen better.”

Not Interested: (If it is a birthday) “I didn’t really forget her birthday. Even though I cannot cite which culture, in some cultures one’s official age and “date of birth” includes gestation period. And if we consider this, it is really difficult to pin point the actual “birthday”. As for Valentines Day, I treat him/her so well that every day is like Valentines Day. As for how much did I end up spending, not much, fortunately I was able to mega-size the meal for only 49 cents. And about anniversaries, not sure why but I never made it to one.”

Behavioral Dating Question 3:

When you are in a relationship, sometimes you are asked to attend an event with your partner’s family and/or friends but you do not really want to go. Give me an example of when that happened to you. What excuse did you make up to get out of your responsibilities?

Interested: “I have not had a time when I did not want to attend a function with my significant other’s family or friends.”

Not Interested: “I usually come down with a strange illness and state in the interest of public safety it is best that I do not attend. I regretfully decline and valiantly suggest that event continue despite my absence. I then order pizza and go out with my friends.”

As you can see for yourself, your response depends only on your imagination and interest in the “candidate”. So until next post, where we cover dating reference/criminal background checks (I prefer to call it finger painting at the police station), biometrics (yes, you guessed right, that involves a plastic cup) and much, much more, we wish you continued success in your career and romantic search. Well I should probably wind this post up but before I do, maybe we should play a song. So many songs, so many choices, so difficult to choose.  Did you say, Space Age Love Song?  (From only one of the greatest 80′s bands with only the best coiffure) Sure I wont object to playing that.

[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfDnmOV5Sko&feature=related /]

Note to reader:

Behavioral Dating Questions (BDQ) and related answering techniques are still under research and rigorous testing here at the HRIM lab. Please use the suggested techniques at your own risk. As such it is strongly advised that you wear the standard personal protective equipment (PPE) such as goggles, helmet, shin pads, and so on when using our answering techniques (shin guards especially with the one about forgetting birthdays and anniversaries).

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Check out this funny job interview story!

Investing Time Only to Find Out He/She is Not the One

Are you single and tired of the dating all the wrong people? Are you tired of investing a lot of time dating someone only to find out that they are not a good fit for your requirements? Well if you feel this way you are not alone. The dating scene can be very challenging at times and finding the right person is not always easy.

Being an HR nerd, I was wondering if we could apply techniques used in hiring to help assess a potential “candidate” in dating. After all, there are many similarities between dating and staffing. Fundamentally, at the core, both activities are focused on finding the right fit with the right person. Specifically, I was wondering if we could apply behavioral interviewing techniques in dating. Before we proceed further, it is important that you understand the basic idea of behavioral interviewing questions.

Behavioral Interviewing

Behavioral interviewing is based on the premise that past behavior is a good predictor for future behavior. In HR, behavioral questions assess required job competencies (traits, skills, and abilities needed to perform a job well) by asking you to describe your past behavior in a work situation. Here are some examples of questions to illustrate the difference between behavioral questions versus traditional interview questions in assessing the competencies of rapport building and conflict resolution.

Building Rapport

Behavioral: Building rapport is sometimes a very challenging thing to do. Give an example of a time when you were able to build rapport with an individual group member, even when the situation was a difficult one?

Traditional: What is the best way to build rapport with people?

Conflict Resolution

Behavioral: Give me an example about a time when you dealt with a difficult customer. What was situation? How did you handle it? What was the final outcome?

Traditional: How would you deal with a difficult customer?

When compared to traditional interview questions, studies have found that behavioral questions better predicted job performance. Again, this technique is based on the theory that past behavior can predict future job performance. Thus, in job interviews, the thought is that it is better to ask how someone did behave in a certain situation rather than how they think they would or should behave.

Behavioral Dating Questions

So how can you use this ancient interviewing wisdom to help increase your dating success? By applying this theory of past behavior and behavioral questioning techniques, we present the Behavioral Dating Question. Based on the same theory of past behavior predicting future performance, behavioral dating questions or “BDQ’s” assess a person’s past behavior in certain relationship situation as a predictor of how they will behave in a similar situation with you. Below are some examples of behavioral dating questions.’

Successful couples know how to resolve conflict together. What are some best practices when it comes to resolving conflict with your spouse? Tell me about a time when you and your spouse had to resolve a potential relationship ending issue?

Being supportive in is an important aspect of a loving relationship. Describe a situation when you supported your spouse or significant other who was going through a tough time.

Now of course, you can be a bit more creative with the questions for example:

Tell me about a time when your significant other was talking to you but you were not interested. Did you fall asleep? How many cups of coffee did you drink?

Describe a situation when you forgot a significant date like your anniversary, her birthday, Valentines Day, and so on? How long did you sleep on the couch? How much did you end up spending to make up for this mistake?

When you are in a relationship, sometimes you are asked to attend an event with your partner’s family and/or friends but you do not really want to go. Give me an example of when that happened to you. What excuse did you make up to get out of your responsibilities?

I think you get the idea of just how fun and easy it is to incorporate behavioral questions in the dating search process. Incorporate the questions above as part of your first date chit chat and take advantage of the dead time that occurs in the moment after you order drinks and before the appetizer arrives. I can assure you that implementing this technique will not only help you more accurately assess potential candidates and predict “job performance” but it can make the typical boring first date a lot more entertaining.

Oh, as to how to answer these behavioral dating questions or how to score the answers, to examine this thoroughly would require a separate post. Perhaps this could be a topic for a potential future post called Find Romance With Behavioral Dating Questions Part 2. Stay tuned!

Now being a self-admitted 80′s music fan, what post could not really use a good 80′s hit to spice it up. So here is a famous love song by only one of the greatest 80′s bands with the best coiffure.

[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfDnmOV5Sko&feature=related /]

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Check out this funny job interview story!

Well, it’s Friday and I wanted to share this funny job interview video courtesy of Just For Laughs comedy. In this video, unsuspecting job applicants are asked during a job interview to deliver a parcel to another office. What the job applicants see when they arrive to make their delivery is pretty funny. This does remind me of a funny job interview story we posted a while ago….TGIF!

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Hate your job? Has the boss just “voluntold” you for another committee with the world’s most annoying colleague? Have you been seriously considering the very real possibility of death from boredom during a meeting? So you are thinking about a career change but not sure what? Well, I have something that might help you brainstorm new and exciting career options that I trust you have not considered. Who knows, it might just give you a whole new perspective on your current job.

It’s Wednesday so here is a funny video to get you over the “hump day” of the work week. It’s from “Dirty Jobs“, a popular program from the Discovery Channel where Mike Rowe the host, explores careers by doing strange, messy, and sometimes just down right dirty jobs. Whiles these jobs are not considered “dream jobs” for many, they serve a necessary function for our society. Examples of the strange and dirty jobs that Mike has had to do include:

• Shark repellent and shark suit tester
• Worm Dung Farmer
• Roadkill Cleaners
• Chinatown Garbage Collector
• Sewer Inspector
• Salmon Carcass Counter
• Rat Exterminator & Mosquito Control
• Snake Researcher
• Concrete Stamper
• Penguin Keeper
• Bloodworm Digger

In this episode, Mike visits a farm where they produce “castings“. In the agriculture field, “castings” is worm excrement and is highly prized for being a rich organic fertilizer. In this episode, Mike demonstrates the delicate art of collecting worm manure. Observe the “technique” and maybe you can try this at your next meeting.

PS – If you thought this video was funny, check out this hilarious job interview video.

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Another funny job interview clip from the hit British series, “The Office”. In this clip the character David Brent, tries to help a candidate without a forklift driver’s license get a job as a forklift driver.

When it comes to the topic of lying in a job interview, most people think that the only lying comes from a candidate desperate to get a job. This humorous video shows that lying and misrepresentation can come from both sides of the interview table. Unfortunately, it does happen where a candidate gets hired for a job that is significantly different from the one they interviewed for.

There is much research in the area of lying and misrepresentation from job seekers on their resumes and in job interviews. There is not so much research in the area of lying and misrepresentation from employers in their job ads and when they conduct interviews. Depending on the findings, it would interesting to examine the negative impacts of such activity to an employer. Perhaps this could be a side project….anyway, without further ado, enjoy this hilarious job interview comedy sketch.

Post from HRinmotion.

HRinmotion provides you with our online education and career training services , professional resume writing services to help you get more job interviews and more job offers. Use our employment preparation services to give yourself a stand out resume and sharp interview skills. We have made applying for jobs online easier than ever by providing you one of the largest job boards in Canada and US. We have over 1.5 million jobs online, apply today and find the right job!

Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview!

Hire a personal job interview coach and learn from HR professionals

Here is a hilarious comedy sketch from the BBC radio. It’s about a guy going to his job interview with his mother and aunt. So I guess the lesson here is although it makes for great comedy, bringing your mother and aunt to your job interview is not such a great idea.

[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqweaKNuroI&eurl /]

Post from HRinmotion.

HRinmotion provides you with our online education and career training services , professional resume writing services to help you get more job interviews and more job offers. Use our employment preparation services to give yourself a stand out resume and sharp interview skills. We have made applying for jobs online easier than ever by providing you one of the largest job boards in Canada and US. We have over 1.5 million jobs online, apply today and find the right job!

For more information on HRinmotion, please visit our website at www.hrinmotion.com

Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview!

Hire a personal job interview coach and learn from HR professionals

A cult classic with office workers, here is a funny interview clip from the movie “Office Space”. The following interview demonstrates excellent technique on how to interview if your goal is to get fired. Only in the finest corporations would a person get promoted after an interview like this one.

Enjoy.

[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iiOEQOtBlQ /]

Again, we only recommend the approach above if you want to get fired. But if you want to get promoted, then we recommend checking out our online job interview and resume writing courses.

Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview!

Hire a personal job interview coach and learn from HR professionals

So the link you select really depends on whether you want to get fired or promoted (we will leave it to you to decide which outcome is more desirable). For more see our online job interview and resume writing courses. So until our next post, we wish you much luck and success in your career search.

Here is a funny weekly cartoon on the topic of job interview, courtesy of the popular office cartoon, “Dilbert”. In this issue, a candidate asks for luck prior to going to a job interview. While asking for luck is a good, we believe it is even better to prepare. This means, researching the company, knowing the interview details, reviewing your resume, anticipating and practicing your answers.

We have seen so many candidates who are unaware of their opportunity for improvement when it comes to job interviews. Taking the time to prepare will pay big dividends in getting your dream job. There are many career articles, blogs and online resources that you can access to help prepare yourself.

We hope you enjoy the weekly funny below and in the spirit of this cartoon wish you much luck in your career search.

If you enjoyed this post, you have check out this one, classic funny job interview video from Monty Python.

Post by HRinmotion

For job seekers, our online education and career training services will help you get more job interviews and more job offers. Use our employment preparation services to give yourself a stand out resume and sharp interview skills. We have made applying for jobs online easier than ever by providing you one of the largest job boards in Canada and US. We have over 1.5 million jobs online, apply today and find the right job!

Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview!

Hire a personal job interview coach and learn from HR professionals

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A while we posted a funny job interview story shared with us by one of our recruitment and staffing partners, called Flushing the Interview Down the Toilet (which has been very very popular).

Below is a link to a great article on the top ten wackiest job interview stories. This article cites, a survey conducted by Careerbuilder that gathered information from over 3000 HR professionals about common job interview mistakes. Along with practical tips on how to improve your job interview skills, it also contains some very funny job interview stories. While there are some good ones here, the one that stands out for me is this one:

Candidate flushed the toilet while talking to interviewer during phone interview.

A close second is this one:

This one is truly unbelievable, since in some corporations this kind of blatantly unacceptable behavior might just get you promoted . Anyway, here is the rest of the wacky job interview article.

Remember that another good source of job interview questions is your resume. Hiring managers will ask you questions based on your resume. For some people it’s hard to recall what you did last week, let alone what you did at work a few years ago. So it pays to review your resume before you go to your job interview.

For more see our online job interview and resume writing courses. So until our next post, we wish you much luck and success in your career search.

Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview!

Hire a personal job interview coach and learn from HR professionals

Many things are said, seen and done in job interviews. Some become memorable. Others we’d like to forget. The team at HRinmotion came up with this list of our 10 most memorable job interview moments we have encountered over our years as human resources professionals.

#10
Candidate arrives for job interview wearing only shorts, flip flops, baseball cap and tank top.

#9
When asking the candidate if they know about our company, the candidate continues to talk about a different company altogether. After looking at our faces, the individual stops and says, “no”.

#8
Not being able to respond to a behavior based question for the third time, candidate becomes frustrated, gets up and leaves.

#7
The actual candidate is too nervous to attend the job interview. They send a friend on their behalf.

#6
Candidate continues to chew gum and popping bubbles while in the job interview.

#5
Candidate informs panels that they have a “bad stomach” and continues to flatulate or “pass wind”. The job interview ends early.

#4
Candidate brings lunch and proceeds to eat a hamburger and french fries in the room while participating in the job interview.

#3
Candidate answers cell phone while in the job interview and continues to have a personal conversation. After ending the call, the candidate fills us in on the details of the conversation before asking “where were we?”

#2
Asking about the candidate’s interests outside of work the individual informs the panel that they are a vocalist in a band and proceeds to sing a song.

And the #1 most memorable job interview moment….

Last but not least, our funniest job interview story is next. While waiting in the reception area to be called in for the job interview the candidate is feeling nervous and needs to go to the bathroom. Rather then asking the receptionist for directions to the washroom, the individual proceeds outside to relieve themselves in the bushes close to the building. The individual did not realize that the windows were mirrored, where you can’t see in but everyone inside can see out. Security alert!

Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview!

Hire a personal job interview coach and learn from HR professionals

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