ABSTRACT
The Critical Incident Interview technique is designed to generate concrete examples of actual past behaviour. As such, it is ideal for investigating characteristics. In essence it is quite simple: candidates are asked to recount past events in their career – the critical incidents – in almost cinematic detail. In fact, interviewers often tell candidates to imagine they are a video camera filming them at work: What is the scene? What do they say and do? Who else is involved? What is their motivation? A typical interview will contain three such incidents, each lasting for around thirty minutes. However, if a single incident is particularly rich in examples of a wide range of characteristics, it is acceptable to pursue this event to the exclusion of others. Richness of data, rather than number of incidents is the criterion for a successful interview.
