Recalling Anecdotes

[rosemma]

I have been trying to go over some behavioral interview questions and was hoping some of you could help me out. My problem is I have a very hard time remembering specific anecdotes for various questions. Example: Tell us about a time when you exhibited leadership skills... or tell us a time when you resolved a conflict... etc.

I have been in MANY leadership roles and experienced a lot of conflict resolution. However, I can't remember good anecdotes for the life of me. Any ideas how to try to go about recalling this information? Any help would be great! thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Kara31191]

Incase you didn't see it, the stickyed thread at the top is useful!

 

[Emio]

I have been trying to go over some behavioral interview questions and was hoping some of you could help me out. My problem is I have a very hard time remembering specific anecdotes for various questions. Example: Tell us about a time when you exhibited leadership skills... or tell us a time when you resolved a conflict... etc.

I have been in MANY leadership roles and experienced a lot of conflict resolution. However, I can't remember good anecdotes for the life of me. Any ideas how to try to go about recalling this information? Any help would be great! thanks!

oh man, cornell's application just about killed me last year for this very reason. i found that asking friends and family brought up some good stories. together, my best friend, brother, and mom were able to come up with some decent stories that i never would have specifically recalled on my own. so if you're on your own, i'm no help, cause i couldn't do it.

 

[rosemma]

I did, thank you Kara. However, it's not really the specific questions I am interested in, it is the tactics people use to remember their own anecdotes when asked those questions.

 

[banditalfi]

oh man, cornell's application just about killed me last year for this very reason. i found that asking friends and family brought up some good stories. together, my best friend, brother, and mom were able to come up with some decent stories that i never would have specifically recalled on my own. so if you're on your own, i'm no help, cause i couldn't do it.

I feel ya! For a long time a lot of my answers were "think of something" or "make this sound like it doesn't suck." A problem I experience with a lot of conflict resolution questions is that, though I have had my fair share of leadership roles, the conflicts I resolved seem childish, ie how do you tell someone you don't want her to represent your organization at a regional event because she's a box of crazy?

 

[rosemma]

Banditalfi - exactly! I can remember a lot of anecdotes when I think about it, but they all seem so trivial and unimportant. What did you do in this situation?

 

[VAgirl]

Banditalfi - exactly! I can remember a lot of anecdotes when I think about it, but they all seem so trivial and unimportant. What did you do in this situation?

Try talking about your experiences with others. Perhaps someone else can help you see how the examples you're thinking of are not trivial and give you the confidence that you need to talk about them.

I'm going to bet that examples don't need to be earth shattering...they just need to show that you've experienced a variety of situations and are able to reflect back on them and gather lessons learned.

 

[banditalfi]

The Cornell questions I was eventually able to answer, but I still worry that on the spot I'd have some questions I can't answer. I've looked up a few lists of questions and there are so many of them! It's pretty overwhelming.

Really, the big ones that I'm going to prepare ahead of time are:
- conflict resolution
- making a difference
- making tough decision
- placed in a non-ideal situation
- learning from experience
- using creativity

There used to be a really good list of questions on Illinois' site, but I can't find it. Instead I found this, which has some helpful tips: http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/vcrc/behavioral_interview.htm

 

[Kara31191]

I did, thank you Kara. However, it's not really the specific questions I am interested in, it is the tactics people use to remember their own anecdotes when asked those questions.

Oh, sorry!

 

[hoodle]

Hey guys! I totally agree - Cornell's app really took me a while, dredging through various scenarios and trying to remember events that might have been relevant. I'm at my parents' right now, and I'm driving them crazy asking them questions like this! "hey mom, when did I resolve an interesting conflict?" "hey dad, tell me about moments in my life which showed leadership..."

Anyhow, I'm doing what Banditalfi said - trying to think about key moments in my life which seem important and moldable enough to be answerable for lots of questions, and thinking about specific incidents that might answer the most "stock" of the behaviorable questions.

I'm also worried about recalling specific anecdotes about my work or vet experience... I haven't been at the clinic for a month (break) and so much of what really sticks in my head are horrific abuse cases, not interesting medical cases (in part because I don't know enough about the medical specifics at any one time). I'm going to get a veterinary emergency and critical care book and look over it, reminding myself about diagnoses I've seen and what they actually mean, medically. I have a much greater grasp of techniques I've helped with than with the details of each case. A little nerve wracking.

 

[BobDog]

For my Iowa interview I prepared by listing the details of different aspects of my life (for example: the things that I have done at work). I then picked the most interesting situations and started to list details. This is the point where even the best story seems a bit mundane. I think that is fine. Don't overembelish your experiences. I then practiced answering questions using this set of experiences. Most questions could be answered using these experiences. My answers in my Iowa interview weren't earth shattering experiences. They were just examples of what they were looking for, and the interviewers seemed to be pefectly happy with that (especially considering the outcome of the interview =o) )

 

[philomycus]

UF runs the same style of interviews. I hated it. I'm a public school teacher...I deal with lots of conflict, creative opprotunities, etc. but I felt they all sounded so stupid to use as examples, or b/c I deal with it all the time, it's not a 'situation', it's just another day at work.