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Competency Based Interview Notes

Competency based interviews focus on assessing a candidate's capabilities against the competency profile for the job. The interviewer will ask the candidate to describe past situations that demonstrate the skills, knowledge, behaviors, and motivations important for the job. The candidate should use the STAR approach to structure their responses by discussing the specific Situation, Task, Action taken, and Result. This format allows the interviewer to evaluate the candidate's experience and determine if they have the competencies required for the role. Competency based interviews provide reliable data on a candidate's abilities and may feel different than traditional interviews because candidates must differentiate their individual contributions and dig into specific examples from their background.

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Supratha Darwin
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274 views

Competency Based Interview Notes

Competency based interviews focus on assessing a candidate's capabilities against the competency profile for the job. The interviewer will ask the candidate to describe past situations that demonstrate the skills, knowledge, behaviors, and motivations important for the job. The candidate should use the STAR approach to structure their responses by discussing the specific Situation, Task, Action taken, and Result. This format allows the interviewer to evaluate the candidate's experience and determine if they have the competencies required for the role. Competency based interviews provide reliable data on a candidate's abilities and may feel different than traditional interviews because candidates must differentiate their individual contributions and dig into specific examples from their background.

Uploaded by

Supratha Darwin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COMPETENCY BASED INTERVIEWS

GUIDANCE FOR APPLICANTS

Introduction

Increasingly, as part of the selection process, managers are using competency based interviews.
They can feel rather different to ‘conventional’ interviews. This note has been prepared to help you
prepare for your interview by explaining:

 what competency based interviews are


 why we use them

and by offering some suggestions about how to prepare them.

What and why?

A competency based interview is designed to assess your capability against the competency profile
for the job for which you are applying. Usually, it will focus on specific parts of this i.e. that is the skills,
knowledge, motivation and behaviours that are important for the job.

You will normally be asked to choose and describe a situation at work which demonstrates the
competencies being sought. For example, if results focus and tenacity were important to the job, you
might be asked to ‘describe a situation when you had an ambitious deadline to meet and where
people or events kept getting in your way’ and then you would be asked follow-up questions about
how you actually tackled the task, what you did or what you said and with what result.

From this example, it can be seen that competency based interviews:

 focus on your experience, motivation for the jobs and behaviours


 focus on relevant experience
 usually ask you to give an overview of a situation, followed by more detailed, probing questions
using the STAR approach (please see below under ‘Format of the Interview’)

As they reflect your achievements and experience, competency based interviews, when used as part
of the selection process, provide reliable data about your ability in certain key areas of the job.

If you are unused to them, they may feel ‘tougher’ than ‘traditional’ interviews, because you are
constantly being asked what your specific contribution to the situation was and, very often, when
describing things we talk about what ‘we’ did - failing to differentiate between our own contribution and
that of other people and because you have to dig into your memory banks about what actually
happened.

Preparation

There are a number of things you can do to prepare for a competency based interview:

 Study the job profile and other information you have gathered about the job. What are the key
competencies?

 Think back over the last 12/18 months. Think of 2 or 3 situations where to have demonstrated a
high level of achievement against some [or all] of the key competencies [ N.B. concentrate on
situations which tested your ability across the whole range of each competency, not just 1 or 2
parts of it]. Avoid using older examples as it is unlikely you will be able to remember them in
sufficient detail.

 Occasionally, the best examples you may relate to your activities outside of work. If, therefore,
your present job does not give you much opportunity to display some of the competencies sought,
think about which, if any, of your other activities do. But always try to focus on examples within the
workplace in the first instance.

 Analyse each situation


 how did it arise
 what were the key stages
 what was your specific contribution
 what was the result
 what did you learn from it

Format of the Interview

The interviewer will read out the description of the competency and then ask you a question based on
that competency.

When you give your answers, the interviewer is looking for STARS, that is, Situation, Task, Action,
Result.

S Detail the specific SITUATION you are referring to.

T Talk about the TASK, responsibility or challenge you faced.

A Give clear indication of the ACTION you undertook, try to incorporate your behaviour in the
situation and your thoughts.

R Don't forget to describe the RESULTS of your action. Did you complete it successfully? What
happened? Detail things that went right and wrong and your learning outcomes.

The interviewer wants to hear about what you did, you need to ensure that you focus on what
specifically you did in, you should therefore talk about “I” not “we”.

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