Competency-based Interviews: what interviewers are looking for
Tips and Techniques in preparing for a Competency-based Interview:
Professional interviewers should expect the interviewee to be nervous and take time to help the interviewee to feel at ease in order to best use the interview time for mutual benefit.
In helping the interviewee to understand the procedure, rules and timing, it is good professional practice for the interviewer to cover the below introductory information:
- “This interview is to help us to get to know how you behave in professional situations.”
- “In the course of the interview I will ask you to describe professional situations where you played a significant role; try to choose situations from the most recent past 2 to 3-years as much as possible.” Please take time to pause and reflect on each questions so you can think of a suitable response.
- “Please lead me through the situation by describing as many aspects of your behavior as possible. We are interested in learning about what youwere doing, thinking, how you felt and what you said in certain situations. Avoid generalizing or using ‘one/you/we’. Speak in the first person ‘I’. In situations where you are working with others, be specific about the different roles and responsibilities e.g. maybe you were a contributor to the team or took a leadership role.”
- “Be as precise as you possibly can in your remarks and explanations.”
- “Be prepared for interruptions. I will keep asking questions to learn as much as possible about your activities in each of the situations. Please do not think that my doing so is any intention to be rude, I just want to keep the interview on track. This is not a stress interview, we want you to feel comfortable.”
- “All of the information gathered from the interview will be treated confidentially.”
- “If you don’t understand something at any time, please ask.”
- “The interview will take 60 minutes.”
The interview can start as soon as the participant has given the explicit permission for the interviewer to take notes and if the interviewee has no further questions.
During the Interview
The interviewer will be looking for real-life specific examples of your actual behavior in professional situations to assess if you have the competencies that are needed for the job role. These will differ for each job, however, examples of competencies include: influencing skills; strategic thinking; customer-relationship skills etc.
In preparing for a Competency-Based Interview, make a list of the specific competencies that you think the employer will be looking for the job role to which you have applied. Then prepare specific examples of your actual past experience in relation to these. Avoid giving too much information – aim to be brief in getting to the main details that you want to give to the interviewer. Time is tight.
You are looking to bring the interview to life by the interviewer gaining a mental picture of you at work.
Typically the interviewer will start each question with:
- “Tell me about a time when ….. /or
- “Describe an example of an event or situation where…..
E.g. “Describe a time when you had to influence internal stakeholders?” / or “Tell me about a time when you had to handle a customer complaint.”
First:
Give an Overview
E.g. “I was responsible for driving a change management strategy”
Briefly explain:
- How the situation came about?
- Who was involved.
Give Information about Actions
- What exactly did you do?
- How did you approach the work?
- What exactly was your role?
- When saying that you convinced people, describe how.
Give Information to describe how you influenced others
- Relay conversations – “I said…. , he/she answered… “
- Talk about challenges you faced and how you overcame them
Give Information about Thinking
- Explain why you chose to act in a certain way.
- What thoughts were crossing your mind before/when/after you …. ?
- Describe why you reached a particular decision and what alternatives you considered.
Give Information about Outcome
- What was the result/output/outcome?
- What was the impact?
- What was the consequence
Give Information about Learning
- What did you learn from what went well and from what went wrong?
- What would you do differently if you faced the same situation again?
- Be prepared to show what you have learned from tasks and situations that have failed as well as from those that have been successful.
- What is the one specific piece of learning that you took away from the situation that you described.