Competency-based interviews

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Pulse

Original Poster:

10,922 posts

220 months

Friday 4th July 2008
quotequote all
Anyone able to help me out here? I've got an interview coming up, and it's competency-based.

I have only ever been to one or two interviews which have been competency-based, and I am crap at it. Can anyone provide common questions with some example answers, or something?

Dave_M

5,486 posts

226 months

Friday 4th July 2008
quotequote all
Hiya, once you get used to them they're fine. They're better than the old fashioned spurious current affairs based interviews or whatever.

Pulse, tell me about a time you had to make a difficult decision?
How did you arrive at that?
What was the impact?
What might you have done better?

When interviewing suspects, we used to use the 5WH technique and it's not really different. Think about scenarios and then What? Where? Who? When? Why? How?

The nature of the job and your history should determine competence questions. For example, as a supervisor/manager I would expect decision making, leadership, development and such like to feature. It sounds obvious, but think about what they will a) need b) would like. Always tick box a) try and tick box b) or demonstrate a willingess to go there / learn.

Good interviewrs will use open questions for you.

Don't forget, it's 'I facilitated' 'I led the team' etc. It often goes against the grain, but interviewers want to know about the most important person in the room - you. If you do things via team work (like I do) then don't be tempted to say 'we', but focus on your role, e.g. 'the team had x skills, so I choose y for task n as they had the experience/qualications/personality - whatever. That way you can celebrate team success and make it about you.

Have a back up to every competence you expect. I like to hear a different answer to show breadth. That is I have managed a number of counter fraud teams so they tend to give similar examples. Therefore, I use one from that part of my life and another from my work with professional organisations. When interviewers see you have a depth of knowledge, it can make life more interesting to OFFER them a change of scenario (they may not want a change, but it's good to offer) you become more interesting to them.

All IMHO.

Most importantly, Good Luck!