Although there has been a recent shift towards the use of strengths-based interviews, competency-based interviews remain incredibly popular with employers. You never know what questions will come up, so in this post I'll share my top tips for how to answer competency based questions in an interview.
A competency based interview (sometimes referred to as a behavioural based interview) requires a candidate to give examples of past situations and experiences in order to evidence pre-determined competencies an employer is looking for. These competencies tend to focus on skills.
Competency interviews are based on the assumption that past behaviour is the best predicator of future behaviour. Typical competency-based questions commonly start with:
‘Tell me about a time when…’
‘Describe a situation in which you…’
‘Give an example of…’
You may have come across questions like these in written application forms, and the good news is that your approach for how to answer competency based questions is broadly the same verbally at interview as it should be when applying in writing.
Want to know how to nail a competency based interview? The key is to anticipate what questions might be asked. This is a lot easier than it sounds, especially when you know what to look for.
Competency based interview questions are based around the skills, experience, knowledge and other attributes the employer has said they are looking for. These can often be found under a ‘Person Specification’ or ‘Essential Selection Criteria’ heading in the job description, but they may also be found in the job advert. If you can’t find the competencies look for phrases such as ‘We are looking for someone with…’ or ‘Our ideal candidate will have….’; the list that follows this heading or phrase is what you need to focus on.
If you can’t find anything like this or are interviewing outside of a typical recruitment process use job profiles. Find the job profile that closely matches the one you’re interviewing for and find a list of typical skills required.
Although the questions asked in a competency based interview will depend on the role you’ve applied for, according to research by NACE the top 10 competencies employers look for are:
1. Leadership
2. Ability to work in a team
3. Communication skills (written)
4. Strong work ethic
5. Initiative
6. Analytical/qualitative skills
7. Flexibility/adaptability
8. Technical skills
9. Interpersonal skills
10. Computer skills
There are a few different frameworks you can use when decidinghow to answer competency based questions. One of the most popular ways to structure your answers is to use STAR:
If you find the STAR framework difficult to remember you can use CAR instead (Context, Action, Result). Just combine the ‘Situation’ and ‘Task’ in STAR into ‘Context’.
So there you have it, my step-by-step approach for how to answer competency based questions. Want to take your interview performance to the next level? Take a look at my interview coaching service.