Actuarial Interview Questions II

Behavioral Interviewing (or Topgrading)

A new standard for actuarial interviewing is now common in the industry.  Sometimes referred to as Topgrading, Behavioral Interviewing is a comprehensive, thorough interview protocol designed to uncover your cognitive style, problem solving ability, and professional priorities by eliciting information regarding your work behavior.  Your ability to perform actuarial functions competently is necessary, but not sufficient, to Earn the Offer at these companies. 

The reason for the adoption of this interviewing methodology is that employers are attempting to reduce turnover and improve staff morale by hiring Candidates who have a high likelihood of fitting into their existing organization.  If you’ve ever worked in a dysfunctional environment, you will appreciate the effort to minimize the friction that can become pandemic when workers don’t collaborate in a courteous and efficient way towards achieving the goals of the department.  The best way known presently to avoid this situation is through the implementation of a behavioral approach to interviewing. 

Examples of Behavioral Questions:

• Give me an example of your collaboration skills.
• Describe a situation in which you used persuasion to convince someone to see things your way.
• Describe a time when you were faced with a stressful situation that demonstrated your coping skills.
• Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem.
• Tell me about a time when you had to use your presentation skills to influence someone's opinion.
• Give me a specific example of a time when you had to conform to a policy with which you did not agree.
• Please discuss an important written document you were required to complete.
• Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.
• Tell me about a time when you had too many things to do and you were required to prioritize your tasks.
• Give me an example of a time when you had to make a split second decision.
• What is your typical way of dealing with conflict? Give me an example.
• Tell me about a time you were able to successfully deal with another person even when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa).
• Tell me about a difficult decision you've made in the last year.
• Give me an example of a time when something you tried to accomplish and failed.
• Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead.
• Give me an example of a time when you motivated others.
• Tell me about a time when you delegated a project effectively.

Questions may be asked in the following run-on manner:

• We’ll need to know the employer, location, dates of employment, your titles, and salary history. We would like to know what your expectations were for each job, your responsibilities, and how they were handled.
• What were your most significant accomplishments as well as mistakes? What were the most enjoyable and least enjoyable aspects of each job? What was each supervisor like?
• How would you guess they rated your strengths and weaknesses? Finally, what were the circumstances under which you left each position.

Asking questions in this manner forces the candidate to prioritize their answer, giving the Interviewer information about cognitive style, problem-solving orientation, priorities.

Answers

The key to a successful answer starts with specificity.  These questions are not theoretical and cannot be answered generally.  You need to dig deep and find real-life answers.  People, events, and circumstances are what is being asked for in order to find out what makes you you. 

As you can imagine, there are typically no right answer to these questions.  The rightness of the answer depends on the organization and position you are interviewing for: the culture, marketplace position, as well as the individuals you will be interacting with.  Research done in Step #3 should prove highly informative to crafting answers to behavioral questions. 

Behavioral Interviewing requires more preparation than a normal interview.  Even when prepared, however, Candidates report feeling inadequate and adrift.  This is a normal reaction to stress and is reported by Candidates Earning the Offer, so shouldn’t be considered a sign of failure by any means.