Competance-based question on discretion

Cottage_Economy

I'm almost positive that I will be asked a question on demonstrating my discretion when i go for an interview tomorrow, as the job is looking after senior members of staff who make very high level decisions and it is in the essential requirements list.

I have two examples of times when I have exercised discretion, although to date have never mentioned them to anyone, and I wondered if they would be appropriate? However, when I think about them I actually feel sick to my stomach, which of course I will not be mentioning at the interview.

1. I knew about the merger of my employers with another sector company had fallen through after being subjected to listening to a loud fight between the CEOs of both companies while I was stuck in a side room unable to escape without being noticed. By the time they realised, I had put on a pair of headphones and appeared oblivious but not before hearing what had happened and the subsequent restructuring that was going to have to happen. For three months I kept this to myself, but felt utterly sick about it. As it happened, I was part of the restructuring but I still felt guilty I had advance warning.

2. At another firm I found the list of people being made redundant on the photocopier - the director had been working late the night before and it was in her hand writing. I took the piece of paper away and slipped it a few sheets down in a pile of papers on their desk. Again I never said anything but felt sick to my stomach. My name wasn't on it and half the company subsequently was made redundant.

To be honest I felt sick for a long time over both because I wanted to tell people but was worried about losing my job if it was discovered the source of the information was me.

Any thoughts?

Obviously confidentiality is a big part of this next job and I won't feel guilt exercising discretion as part of that and I'll be working alone. Neither confidentiality or discretion was a part of the job description with the other two bar what is normally expected from an employee.

Annisele

Both of those examples present some difficulties, in that you found out about something you weren't supposed to know.

Do you have any examples of something you were supposed to know that you were discrete about? I know you say discretion wasn't part of your job description, but maybe you (legitimately) knew something about your own company that it wouldn't have been a good idea to share? Maybe a colleague told you about an illness?

But of course be careful you don't disclose anything you shouldn't in your wish to talk about your own discretion!

Jobseeeker

I always read that one of the golden rules of interviewing is that you never say anything bad about former boss/company. For this reason I wouldnt say number one.

Number 2 might be OK but I wouldn't mention the name of the company

Cottage_Economy

Annisele wrote: »

Both of those examples present some difficulties, in that you found out about something you weren't supposed to know.

Do you have any examples of something you were supposed to know that you were discrete about? I know you say discretion wasn't part of your job description, but maybe you (legitimately) knew something about your own company that it wouldn't have been a good idea to share? Maybe a colleague told you about an illness?

The only thing I can think of is our team (of 2!) won a contract for work and I was asked to keep it quiet so my boss could announce it at a staff meeting and surprise everyone, which he duly did.

Otherwise this place is a hive of gossip and politics and most people know about other's illnesses and flash the info round before the ink on a GP's sick note has dried.

Cottage_Economy

Jobseeeker wrote: »

I always read that one of the golden rules of interviewing is that you never say anything bad about former boss/company. For this reason I wouldnt say number one.

Number 2 might be OK but I wouldn't mention the name of the company

I'm leary about number one too as that's my current company.

The other one is ten years in the past.

I'll try and think up some more examples, even if they are small ones, and weave something together.

Annisele

Cottage_Economy wrote: »

The only thing I can think of is our team (of 2!) won a contract for work and I was asked to keep it quiet so my boss could announce it at a staff meeting and surprise everyone, which he duly did.

I think that's much better than your other examples - it also brings in the fact you won a contract, so presumably you were doing something else well at the same time.

Otherwise this place is a hive of gossip and politics and most people know about other's illnesses and flash the info round before the ink on a GP's sick note has dried.

I'd keep quiet about that at your interview!

ValHaller

"Oh, yes, I have had to be discreet many times - but examples? I couldn't possibly divulge any .... "

Cottage_Economy

ValHaller wrote: »

"Oh, yes, I have had to be discreet many times - but examples? I couldn't possibly divulge any .... "

:rotfl:

Well I had the interview today, lovely lovely people, but I doubt whether I got the job and not sure if I'm right for it either. I was not asked much relating to the person specification so I had to think on my feet. One hour and fifteen minutes of rapid fire questions from three people and the more questions they asked the more I'm thinking "Good grief. This job is starting to sound really awful!!"

Oh and a computer test where I had to summarise the main information in a 10 page academic report down into 1 side of A4 so the future boss could take it into a meeting and talk with knowledge about the subject.

I was a professional copywriter for 10 years and have a science-based PhD but even I couldn't read, understand and summarise a complex report he report in that time. I queried the time available for something like that on the job and was told that wasn't typical - it's usually about an hour :eek:

I got the impression I was the wildcard...done and do an awful lot, has lots of transferable skills, which makes for a great CV, but as soon as someone else comes in with qualifications it trumps me. That's the trouble with working for small companies all the time - no money available for decent training courses so you teach yourself and if you can afford it pay for the courses yourself. Eventually you end up going for more senior roles in bigger organisations and find out how far behind you really are.

Anyway it's all experience. Certainly made a difference from my past interview experiences - they were all comfy chats over a coffee so a competence-based one seriously challenged the boundaries of my comfort zone

No bad thing...dusted off my cobwebs...

By the way, what is your opinion of online sites that train you to be able to answer interview questions confidently like this one:

http://www.interviewgold.com/competency-based-interview.html

For £60 if it helps me get a job I'm thinking not a bad investment??

andrewjf

Cottage_Economy wrote: »

:rotfl:

By the way, what is your opinion of online sites that train you to be able to answer interview questions confidently like this one:

http://www.interviewgold.com/competency-based-interview.html

For £60 if it helps me get a job I'm thinking not a bad investment??

Well from my experience, 90% of interviewers don't really know what they are doing/looking for
As for competency based interviews, then I've found that there's a pattern, and provided I prepare answers to commonly asked questions, I can do pretty well, so I personally don't think I'd benefit much from that training course.

However the big caveat here is that it probably varies across different industries, and yours is likely different to mine (technical, IT arena), so the competency based questions might be more tricky.