Competency Based Interview

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stclair
stclair Posts: 6,844 Forumite
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in Employment, jobseeking & training
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could give me any ideas on how long your answer should be to a competency based interview.

All the questions will be “give me an example of when you” etc
Im an ex employee RBS Group
However Any Opinion Given On MSE Is Strictly My Own

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  • Nebulous2
    Nebulous2 Posts: 5,116 Forumite
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    Have you googled for competency based interviews and the STAR system for responding?

    There is a balance between getting across what you want to get across and being concise. Different questions and different posts will require shorter or longer questions.

    My organisation has an overall time limit for all the questions and they point that out at the beginning of the interview. So lengthy responses to each question may result in the interview being terminated without all the questions being asked. I've never heard of it being used though.
  • BorisThomson
    BorisThomson Posts: 1,721 Forumite
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    When using the STAR approach, place emphasis on Action, what you did. The other stuff is important, but you'll be assessed on your contribution.
  • stclair
    stclair Posts: 6,844 Forumite
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    Yeah I am using the STAR technique for each of my responses.

    I just was not sure if I should limit the answer to say 2-3 minutes.

    I do not want to come across as waffling etc.
    Im an ex employee RBS Group
    However Any Opinion Given On MSE Is Strictly My Own
  • shortcrust
    shortcrust Posts: 2,697 Forumite
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    It’s a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. My advice would be to keep on going for as long as you feel you’re adding quality information to your answer. Competency based answers are a bit like a story and you’ll probably find that you just know when you’ve reached the end. If you’re repeating yourself, stop!

    Pay attention to the interviewers. You can usually tell from their body language etc whether you’re on the right track. If they stop nodding and put their pens down, stop!:)

    I also think it fine to say ‘I wonder if I’m starting to waffle a bit on this answer now’. They’ll either use it as way of moving on or they’ll encourage you to continue.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
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    Whenever I hear this type of interview mentioned, in my mind I always want to allow at least 45 minutes to an hour for the whole interview to last.

    This was one of the interview schedules from a professional company recruiting earlier this year:
    "The interview should last no longer than 1 hour and will consist of the following:

    - Strength Based Interview
    - Role Play Exercise
    - Interactive Exercise
    - Numerical Exercise

    All exercises are designed to assess your skills and behaviours and will last no longer than 10 minutes each." I'd ask if an itinerary was available? if you eh get the sort of feeling it's this type of organisation. :o
  • Rummer65
    Rummer65 Posts: 32 Forumite
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    Apart from STAR they could also be using KISS
  • Amara
    Amara Posts: 2,172 Forumite
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    edited 20 April 2018 at 10:58PM
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    I'm looking on this thread, as I'll have another interview this Tuesday. It's really hard for me to answer competency questions. "Demostrate, how did you resolve a problem". "Tell me about time , when you showed an integrity". Seriously. Problems are just problems, just get on with them. How to answer such question?
  • Nebulous2
    Nebulous2 Posts: 5,116 Forumite
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    Amara wrote: »
    I'm looking on this thread, as I'll have another interview this Tuesday. It's really hard for me to answer competency questions. "Demostrate, how did you resolve a problem". "Tell me about time , when you showed an integrity". Seriously. Problems are just problems, just get on with them. How to answer such question?

    If you look at the competencies then you can think about situations that matched. If the competency is leadership - when did you show leadership? Did you get a project to lead on? Cover when the boss was ill? What happened?

    For integrity- Were you overpaid? Do you have to handle cash? Did someone ask you to lie to cover something up?

    Think through all the competencies and come up with real examples to match. After years of interviewing other people I have had to go through some myself in the last year or so. It was tougher than I expected but it is a transparent process and you can prepare by laying out some scenarios using the STAR system.
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