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In the attempt of bias removal, interviewers now want to ask the same question to everyone and leave the effort to the interviewer. Take for example, the standard behavioural question which is expected to answer in a STAR format [0]. The question will go as "Tell me about a time you did .... ". Now, it all sounds fine and dandy but you are basically offloading everything to the poor interviewee. You want them to (1) think of an instance in their past and (2) think of a good, relevant instance in their career and (3) follow a format for your convenience. I'd say that's a lot of pressure. Even if you want to stick to the STAR format - you can still be consistent and ask the same question with a twist.

"Did you have any conflict at work? Tell me about such situations"

"What was the impact of the conflict?"

"What steps did you take to resolve it?"

"What changed after you took those steps?"

Well, it's the same line of questioning and addresses all needs of the interviewer. Yet, most of them wouldn't do that. It's still a discussion format and win-win.

[0] https://careercenter.lehigh.edu/node/145




Don't experienced candidates know that behavioral questions is bs and just make things up on the fly? You ask them about a conflict in past, they invent a story about a small disagreement with coworkers that got resolved in a model textbook way, leaving everyone better and wiser? It's not a deposition under oath, after all.


You're probably right, but it pains me to admit it. I would never make up some BS just to get through an interview, it's not in my nature.




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