When Minna Kim Mazza, a website designer, went to a job interview last fall, she expected to field questions about her strengths, weaknesses, and accomplishments. She also figured she'd be asked how she would handle certain situations that might arise--the hypothetical "what if" questions that job seekers have been answering for generations.

Instead, the hiring manager for Type A Learning Agency, a Chicago firm that creates e-learning campaigns, courses, and communities for corporations nationwide, asked questions that caught Mazza by surprise. Among them:

"Describe the most challenging work situation that you ever faced. How did you respond?"

"Describe the most ideal project and working atmosphere that you ever faced. What did you learn from this situation?"

"Describe a task that was particularly challenging. How did you persuade others to help you with it?"

"It was difficult at first, because I had to take some time to think about my experiences," recalls Mazza, 32. "But since I'd spent the majority of my career as a freelancer, I had exposure to many different companies and people, so I was able to come up with examples." She got the job.

Back to the future

As Mazza discovered, job interviews aren't the personality contests they used to be, when being a smooth talker went a long way toward helping a candidate land an offer. "In the past, people got hired because the interviewer felt comfortable with them," says Leigh Branham, founder of Keeping the People, Inc., a human resources consulting firm in Overland Park, Kansas. "Basic questions--'Tell me about yourself' and 'Why should I hire you'--didn't uncover whether the person could do the job, and the answers were too easy to fake."

Today, so-called "traditional" interviews are increasingly being replaced with "behavior-based" interviews that emphasize competency over personality. An estimated 40 percent of companies nationwide are now using them. In a behavior-based interview, hiring managers measure skills related to the job function--everything from teamwork and motivation to adaptability, creativity, and leadership--by asking candidates to describe times in the past when they demonstrated those skills, rather than explain how they'd act in the future.

"Behavior-based interviewing forces candidates to offer concrete answers, and that levels the playing field for everyone," says Branham, author of The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It's Too Late. "If I ask, 'Can you deal with angry customers,' it's easy to say, 'That's one of the things I do best.' But if I ask, 'Tell me how you handled an angry customer,' and you discuss a specific problem you resolved, there's more substance behind it, and that makes you a less risky hire."

Victoria A. Hoevemeyer, author of High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions to Find the Right Person for Every Job, agrees: "Behavior-based interviewing is about finding out whether the candidate has the right competencies for the job. It comes from the premise that past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior."

Finding the perfect fit

Once, behavior-based interviewing was limited to the hiring of senior executives at big companies. But over the past few years, it's become more widely used at all levels, across all industries, and in organizations large and small, according to Branham. Hiring managers say that by tailoring questions to the skills needed for success, they're better able to hire and then retain the right people.

Since 2003, Shea Coughlin, program manager for AmeriCorps Project YES! in Chicago, has used this method to hire 85 recent college graduates to be full-time members of AmeriCorps and serve for 10 months as tutors and mentors in the public schools. Only three have left early; she attributes the program's high retention rate to behavior-based interviewing.

"It allows us to see who will be able to survive with little pay and supervision," Coughlin explains. "If I ask, 'What have you done in the past when you weren't formally trained in all areas of responsibility,' and a candidate answers, 'I brushed up on my computer skills and took a crash course in Excel from my cousin,' I can trust that he'll handle the array of unexpected tasks that surface. The seemingly harmless answer, 'I asked my supervisor to teach me' sends up a red flag."

Stefond Harris is another advocate of behavior-based interviewing. As a human resources manager for UPS in Hodgkins, Illinois, Harris interviews about 180 applicants annually for positions ranging from sales professionals to drivers. "The behavior-based interview is a great tool to find qualified candidates who will be successful in our environment--and for whom our environment will be the right fit," Harris says. "Many candidates come in prepared for these questions, but others are not. The folks who are prepared do a much better job of marketing themselves, their strengths, and their accomplishments, and that puts us in a better position to make a great selection."

Getting prepared

Unlike a traditional interview, where it's hard to predict what will be asked (and nearly anything goes except for illegal personal questions), a behavior-based interview is highly predictable. And that's good news for job seekers. Here are seven tips to help you ace the interview:

• Find out what type of interview you'll have. When you're invited to an interview, ask the hiring manager whether it will be traditional or behavior-based. "That question will probably come as a shock, but it will show that you want to be prepared," Hoevemeyer says. Then obtain a copy of the job description--either from the hiring manager or the company's website--so that you can determine what skills are needed for the position, check your resume to see when you've used those skills in the past, and brainstorm behavior-based questions related to those skills.
  
  
• Follow the "SAR" process to prepare answers. Branham, who teaches hiring managers how to conduct behavior-based interviews, recommends that job seekers frame responses in terms of the "SAR" process--"S" stands for the situation you faced; "A" is for the action you took; and "R" is for result of that action. Here's a hypothetical answer to a question about motivating employees: "When I was promoted to supervisor, I inherited a work group with low morale. So I listened to my employees' concerns, calling each one into my office and asking for suggestions. I implemented a number of them, and pretty soon, everybody was motivated again."
  
  
• Practice out loud. "An answer can sound just fine in your mind or read just fine on paper, but it might sound terrible when you speak it," Hoevemeyer cautions. "By practicing what you want to say out loud, you'll hear the words and phrases that flow easily--and the ones that you trip over." You might role-play with a friend or use a tape recorder and critique yourself. Are there holes in your stories? Are you mumbling or using distracting fillers, such as "uh" and "um?" Are you conveying the appropriate emotion? "If you tell an exciting story in a monotone," Hoevemeyer says, "there will be a disconnect that will raise some concerns for the interviewer."
  
  
• Be focused, but brief. Answer each question in a minute or two of uninterrupted storytelling. (Stray beyond that time limit, and you're rambling.) Describe the magnitude of the challenge you faced, so the interviewer can appreciate the outcome, and don't be afraid to pause a few seconds to collect your thoughts. "Human beings are not robots; we don't have all the answers readily available at the touch of a button," Coughlin says. "Pausing is perfectly acceptable--and preferable if it means that you're taking time to create a solid response."
  
  
• Be a self-promoter. "Most people hesitate to use the word 'I,' because they've been trained to be team players, and they don't want to sound like they're bragging," Branham says. "But if you say, 'We did this' and 'We did that,' the interviewer won't know the difference between what you did and what the rest of the team did." Strike a balance, using "I" statements to explain your contribution and giving credit to others when appropriate.
  
  
• Give current examples. You may have a decade's worth of experience resolving conflicts with customers, but when the interviewer asks you to describe a particularly challenging customer problem, choose one that occurred in the last few months or year. "The more recent your demonstration of a competency, the more likely you will be to repeat it," Hoevemeyer says.
  
  
• Tell the truth. Can't think of an example? Ask to return to that question later. Never fabricate an answer--even a bad outcome that resulted from your actions. "You shouldn't be afraid to say, 'Unfortunately, it didn't work out right. This is how I got it back on track,'" Hoevemeyer says. What's more, most hiring managers can spot a fibber, and if not, you could end up in the wrong job. "If you're honest about each question, there is little room for error, and the interviewer will know whether you're a good fit," Coughlin explains. "If you successfully lie your way through the questions and similar situations arise after you're hired, you may find that your 'ideal' answers blow up in your face."

Cynthia Hanson's articles about career strategy have appeared in numerous national publications. When it comes to questions--behavior-based or otherwise--she'd rather ask than answer them.