Compentency Based Interview

mshappy

Hi Looking for some advice.I have my first compentency based interview next week.I'm really struggling to think of some examples for the following headings:

• Team work
• customer handling
• attention to detail
• quality and focus
• initiative and drive

Can you take notes into an interview?

brightonman123

notes should be fine- make bullet points of skills, qualifiactions, any successes or 'well dones' received..

if you can think of any time when more than one person was needed to do a job, thats team work- more focusing on your communication skills.

customer handling- understanding what they NEED, as well as what they want. be patient, show that you are listening, and dont take anything personally. when i was in loans business, a (thankfully unfounded) death threat was seen as a badge of honour..!

details- dates, names, amounts..

quality/focus- how would YOU expect to be treated? as a person, or just a problem..?

initiative- alternate solutions, if going by the book' doesnt work?.. also anticipating peoples requests, having info/items ready.

ALSO, if asked for any questions, show an interest in the firm's future plans, opps for advancement, and when decison to be made as to who gets the job?

stay calm, and never admit to any 'weaknesses' (always a tricky one- you are there to prove why you are best for the job..)

good luck! (btw, i am not a recruitment agent!)

apurplemind

Ive had two competancy based interviews in a matter of weeks so I know how hard it is thinking of examples.
For Team Work I got asked about supporting a team ( I talked about how I offered assistance to a colleague, checking on my work coming in and getting other people to help), and building a team (talked about a project i'm in which had already been set up when I joined). For customer handling I would talk about a time when you have taken a phone call from a customer, ensuring you got relevant points,stayed calm,liaised with other departments, agreed a time to come back to the customer, if you couldnt get the info by that time, you rang the customer and gave them another time when you would have the info.

We were allowed to take notes in too.

We were also advised that the interviews would take a STAR form, which is situation,task,action and result. You had to give examples of something you DID not would do in a situation, how you went about the task,what the action was and the final result. They can ask probing questions if you havent fully covered the requirements, and you can also use a negative situation if you have followed procedure and learnt from it and used your knowledge in future situations.

Good Luck

mshappy

Thank you both for your replies its much appreciated
I may ring my recruitment officer tomorrow and see if i can maybe have a mock interview with her..

mshappy

Interview has been confirmed for 10.15 monday

brightonman123

good lick- i may have one soon, too- jobcentre sent me a 'call quick card, with possible vacancy..

more to follow on this, hopefully..

apurplemind

How was the interview? Was this the mock or real one?

A