Competency-based Interviews

[Deleted User]

soccermom wrote: »

TBH I did a lot of googling competancy based interviews tried to research as many questions as I could.

From what it sounds like you would have been well suited, there are a few there with your kind of background.

The 4 weeks training would have seen you right hard work but worth it in the end.

Theres lots of appraisals and coaching and help is always on hand plus lots of benefits and great pay.

Thanks by the way.


Good luck with your interview.

It does sound like a fantastic job, kind of wish I'd gone for it now! Perhaps they'll recruit again in the future, I'll keep my eye out. Hope you enjoy your time in the job and thank you for your good luck, I'm going to need it!

dizzyrascal

Hi goldilockz
There are different ways of helping with CBI questions but you could try remembering your answers using s.t.a.r. or situation, task, action and result. It helps to break down your answers into easy to remember blocks.
I would work out an answer to each competency, based on a real life situation. Does not have to be a work one. Could be from uni, working on a project for instance, or a team situation. Did you do any voluntary work? Or live in a shared house, organise a holiday or an event? Were you in any societies?
You can use a situation from any of these to back up your answer as long as it relates to the question.
You can plan out your answers before hand then put the edited or bullet point answers on a card for reference to help you
For problem solving it might be:
your situation - you were given the task of planning a holiday for a group of uni friends
The task might be to find a time that everyone could go/afford/wanted/venue they would agree on
Action could be how you overcame specific problems, arguments, last minute changes etc. and then distributed tasks and sorted the plans.
The result would be how you had a successful holiday and that you successfully managed any issues or problems that arose by being organised and by delegating jobs.
This is a simplified version but it is the essence of what they want.
Be aware that they may find different ways to ask the same questions but you can always ask for clarification if you're not sure what they want.

elsien

Another thing to watch out for is slipping back into the "we the team" as opposed to your specific role as an individual. I quite often find that people start saying "the team did xyz" and when you ask them to clarify exactly what their part in that was, they start to flounder a bit. Not always easy if you're not used to blowing your own trumpet, but you do need to stick to your role without embellishments if possible.

[Deleted User]

Thank you Dizzyrascal and Elsien, some terrific advice there! I'll definitely be using the STAR technique and focusing on 'me' as opposed to 'we'. I find this kind of interview a lot more complex than the standard 'so, what are your strengths and weaknesses' but fingers crossed I do well given all your advice!

littlewillow

Looks like you got plenty of advice already but I would recommend looking at the job description and having a look at what the requirements are of the role, usually the competency questions are reasonably predictable. Also I'd write down the kind of questions you would expect them to ask, prep and practise I drive my housemates crazy doing that...a couple of them also ask me to expand and things and it helps to practise being put on the spot

[Deleted User]

littlewillow wrote: »

Looks like you got plenty of advice already but I would recommend looking at the job description and having a look at what the requirements are of the role, usually the competency questions are reasonably predictable. Also I'd write down the kind of questions you would expect them to ask, prep and practise I drive my housemates crazy doing that...a couple of them also ask me to expand and things and it helps to practise being put on the spot

Thanks Little Willow (lovely name btw!)

The job description has been extremely useful in building my competencies. I will be driving my boyfriend mad by asking him to practice being my interviewer and asking probing questions, eek! One competency I'm currently struggling with is the 'flexibility/change' one. Not really sure what kind of information I could give for that...

littlewillow

Deleted_User wrote: »

Thanks Little Willow (lovely name btw!)

The job description has been extremely useful in building my competencies. I will be driving my boyfriend mad by asking him to practice being my interviewer and asking probing questions, eek! One competency I'm currently struggling with is the 'flexibility/change' one. Not really sure what kind of information I could give for that...

Flexibilty/change...you could talk about where you've gone into a new situation or had to deal with new people? The example I gave in my most recent interview was going from having jobs in a small company to suddenly moving to a corporate company with hundreds of employees. Before I'd had a job I talked about moving from a little school in the country to a college with hundreds of students in a city which had much less of a laidback approach haha.

Also, perhaps, dealing with different groups of people...age groups, different backgrounds. I think you need to find a reason they'd believe you are able to adapt to new situations comfortabley and willing to take on a challenge.

Thanks by the way the name is because my Taid (Welsh for Grandpa) planted trees in his fields when I was younger, one of them being a 'little willow' which was for me

[Deleted User]

littlewillow wrote: »

Thanks by the way the name is because my Taid (Welsh for Grandpa) planted trees in his fields when I was younger, one of them being a 'little willow' which was for me

That's very sweet!
I suppose for the flexibility question, I could talk about when the old company I worked for underwent a takeover and many things changed overnight, including the manager, the name, the premises etc. which was pretty heavy going. Not really sure how to really show my flexibility and adaptability other than to say 'I dealt with it well'.

littlewillow

Deleted_User wrote: »

That's very sweet!
I suppose for the flexibility question, I could talk about when the old company I worked for underwent a takeover and many things changed overnight, including the manager, the name, the premises etc. which was pretty heavy going. Not really sure how to really show my flexibility and adaptability other than to say 'I dealt with it well'.

Well what did you do to adapt to the situation? How did you deal with it well...did you help anyone? Did your work pattern or responsiblities change? You can talk about how you made provisions about the premises changing and how did you deal with having a new manager?