Competency based interview training

What is competency based interviewing?

Competency or Behavioural interviews is the most popular method of interviewing for companies. So if you have an interview, it’s very likely going to be a competency based one. Competency Interviews assess key behaviours required for the role (e.g. How Results Driven you are, or How do you Lead a team) and as a candidate you are expected to answer the questions using with an example from your past experience to demonstrate your ‘competence’ for the role. Answers are expected to be structure your answers using the STAR method (Situation/Task, Action, Result).

Situation – Providing the background and the context of the example.
Task – What you were required to do.
Action – What you did.
Results – the outcome of your actions.

How do you prepare for a competency based interview?

To prepare firstly you have to make sure your examples are very clear to yourself, this means either writing them on paper completely then simplifying then through bullet points. It’s important to spend sometime on the situation/task to paint a clear picture, if interviewers don’t fully comprehend the context they will be less appreciative of your answer. Do this by integrating factual information in to your answers i.e. I was managing a team of four including two auditors, one analyst and an administrator. The same applies with the Action and Result. This will require you doing some research in to your past projects or experiences. Once you’ve developed your answers then it’s time to practise, the best way is to do it is out-aloud to help with getting the right tone for your delivery. At Job Interviewology our competency based interview training will focus on ensuring that you’re able to build fantastic example with support from our experts.

How are competency based interviews scored?

From our competency based interview training experience we understand that every industry is and organisation is different in the way they score. However one thing is to be expected that you will be marked in a matrix consisting of competencies required for the role scoring could be from
1- 5, to 1-7 or 1-10. Each questions will assess certain competencies required for the role and when you demonstrate the your competence within your answer it will marked and given a score.

How would you show your best self in competency based interviews?

Like with any interview behavioural (competency) or not, ultimately to show your best self you have to prepare! Prepare your examples has mention in some of the advice mentioned or even reach out for support and train with one of our coaches. However if I was to provide you with a single piece of advice which can help boost your performance in a competency based interview is to not rush in to answering the question. When a question is asked by the interviewer ‘pause’ digest the question understand what is meant by the question, collect your thoughts and then being answering. You will find that your answer will be far more structured and composed minimising any waffle.

How long should your answer be in a competency based interview?

This is dilemma that many people face when preparing for their behavioural interviews and this can lead to a lot of confusion which can have a negative impact on your interview performance. As an organisation we have extensive behavioural interview coaching experience and our advice firstly is to focus on developing a high quality answer irrespective how long it is. You can always trim it down afterwards. However to answer the question directly it should typically be around 3-4 minutes long (smoothly without any waffling).