Competency Based Interview

A competency interview (also referred to as a situational, behavioral or competency based interview) is a style of interviewing often used to evaluate a candidate's competence, particularly when it is hard to select on the basis of technical merit: for example, for a particular graduate scheme or graduate job where relevant experience is less important or not required. However, increasingly, companies are using competency based interviews as part of the selection process for experienced recruitment, as it can give valuable insights into an individual's preferred style of working and help predict behaviours in future situations. Candidates will be asked to do this using situational examples from their life experiences, to illustrate their personality, skill set and individual competencies to the interviewer.

A typical competency based interview will last for one hour. At most major firms competency interviews will also be standardized. Consequently all applicants can expect to be asked identical questions.

What are Competencies?

A competency is a particular quality that a company's recruiters have decided is desirable for employees to possess. During interviews and assessment processes competencies are used as benchmarks that assessors use to rate and evaluate candidates.

In interviews recruiters look for evidence of competencies by asking candidates competency based questions. This style of question forces candidates to give situational examples of times in the past when they have performed particular tasks or achieved particular outcomes using certain skills.

Why are Competency Based Questions Used at Interview?

In the case of applications for graduate jobs, candidates typically have no experience in the industry to which they have applied. Consequently it is not possible to assess their suitability for a job role based upon their CV alone. This has led to the development of competency based interviews becoming the prime way to interview inexperienced graduate applicants.

Key Competencies

A firm will usually isolate several key skills or "key competencies" to look for in candidates at interview. You will be graded in terms of each competency based upon your answers to competency based questions.

Employers typically use some of the following as their key competencies:

•     Teamwork
•     Responsibility
•     Commitment to career
•     Commercial awareness
•     Career motivation
•     Decision making
•     Communication
•     Leadership
•     Trustworthiness & Ethics
•     Results orientation
•     Problem solving
•     Organization

Teamwork

Being able to get on with other people and work with them efficiently (i.e. "Teamwork") is a key competency employers value and often require job applicants to demonstrate at interview. Most jobs require employees to work alongside other people, as part of a team.

Competency Questions: Teamwork

Examples of competency questions interviewers may use to find out about a candidate's teamwork skills are:

• Tell me about a time when you worked successfully as part of a team.
• Describe a situation where you were successful in getting people to work together effectively.
• Describe a time when a team member has annoyed you.
• Tell me about a time when you have had to modify yourself (or a way you do something) to take into account someone else's views.
• Tell me about a situation when you needed to offer constructive criticism to a friend or team member?
• Describe a time when you were a member of a team and witnessed a conflict within the team. What did you do? What were the results? What could you have done better?

Candidates with good teamwork skills are able to see the bigger picture and grasp the concept that employers value the outcome achieved by a group, more than that achieved by any one person.

Responsibility

If an employee has a responsibility then they have been given the duty to make decisions in certain circumstances. Interviewers use competency based questions to find out how candidates have performed in the past when they have been given responsibilities and to find out how candidates may perform responsibilities given to them in the future.
Examples of competency based questions used to determine how candidates have performed their responsibilities in the past include:

•     Tell me about a time when you were responsible for something.
•     How do you perform your responsibilities?
•     Are you a responsible person? Explain why.
•     Do you enjoy having responsibilities?
•     What responsibilities have you been given in the past?

Commitment to career

Commitment to career is a key competency you should be able to demonstrate in job interviews. To test your commitment to a career interviewers will usually try to find out how much you know about the firm they represent, the position you have applied for, the industry you will be working in, and what you will be doing if you are employed.

You should be able to:

• Give a well informed description of what the line of service you have joined does for its clients.
• Be able to describe what you will be doing in your first year at the firm.
• Be able to describe makeup of any qualification to which you have applied, and to understand what work you will have to do to achieve it.
•  Be able to give a rough account of where you imagine you might be in 5 years time. (e.g. a certain position in the firm)

You must be certain to convey clearly that you fully understand the role you are applying for. If you are not able to do this, you will not make it through the interview.
Once you have been employed, a company may invest tens of thousands of pounds in your training and professional development. Consequently commitment to a career is a highly valued competency to employers as it allows them to determine whether a candidate is a good investment.

Commercial awareness
"Commercial awareness" is a term that refers to a candidate's general knowledge of business, their business experiences (or work experience) and, specifically, their understanding of the industry which they are applying to join. It is a key competency for all city job applications.

Commercial Awareness Questions

You will need to know some basic general commercial principles to be able to answer general commercial awareness questions, such as being able to describe private equity or explain the difference between a private limited company and a public limited company. You will also need to know about any current major global economic issues, and their impact, or potential impact, on your employer's business sector.

Typical commercial awareness questions include:

•     Describe a company you think is doing well/badly and explain why you think this is so.
•     What do you think are key qualities for a company to have to be successful?
•     What significant factors have affected this industry in recent years? (The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a key factor for accounting and especially audit.)
•     What do you understand of the role this firm plays in this industry?

Competency Based Commercial Awareness Questions

Like all other competency based questions you will need to use situational examples from your life experiences to form answers to competency based commercial awareness questions. Try to highlight any past relevant work experience you have had to answer these questions, and make sure your you discuss your awareness of things like customer's needs and business targets, i.e. commercial issues.

Typical competency based commercial awareness questions include:

•     Tell me of a time when you were given the task of improving a service or product?
•     Tell me about a time you provided excellent customer service.
•     Tell me of a time when you have been responsible for a budget.

Career motivation

Interviewers ask career motivation questions to determine why you want to work for their company and why you want to work in role to which you have applied. Career motivation questions are similar to, but not the same as commitment to career questions and are often used as part of a competency based interview.

You need to logically illustrate your desire to work for the company you are interviewing with. Good answers should make reference to any: training, qualifications and/or experience that you would receive, if you were to be offered the role you have applied for.

Career motivation questions you may be asked include:

•     Why do you want to work for our firm?
•     Why do you want to work in the service line to which you have applied?
•     What can you tell me about us and the service line to which you have applied?

Decision making

Top jobs give employees both power and responsibility. Employees are forced to make difficult decisions as part of their employment, often during times of intense pressure and/or stress.

Employers need to know that the people they hire are competent enough to make good decisions during these times. This is why interviewers test candidates with competency based questions targeted at measuring their decision making skills.

Examples of decision making competency based questions are:

•     What is the toughest decision you have ever made? Why was this so difficult?
•     How do you come to conclusions?
•     Tell me about a decision you have made that has affected other people.
•     Do you find decisions difficult?
•     Give me an example of a bad decision you have made. Why was this a bad decision?

To answer these questions you should give examples of sensible and pertinent decisions you have made during difficult situations either at work, in education or during extracurricular pursuits.

Communication

Employers are looking for employees who can communicate well with other people. Strong communicators make good team members (see teamwork) because they can efficiently and effectively transfer information from person to person, follow instructions and instruct other people.

Strong communicators generally also make good leaders (see leadership) and decision makers (see decision making), which makes communication a key competency.

It is likely that you will need to show evidence of your own communication skills during a competency based interview. Questions you may be asked include:

• Give an example of how you dealt with a difficult or sensitive situation that required extensive communication.
• Give me an example of how you dealt with a difficult customer at work.
• Tell me about a time when you had to explain an issue or process to a colleague (or colleagues) at work.
• Tell me about a time when you taught someone else something.
• How do you explain things to other people?

Leadership

Leadership is a competency employers look for in candidates who are applying for jobs that require them to lead, motivate and/or develop other people, usually team leader and management positions (or trainee positions that lead to management positions).

Examples of competency questions that are used to evaluate leadership skills are:

•     Describe a time when you had to lead a group to achieve an objective.
•     Describe a work based situation where you had to lead by example to achieve an objective.
•     Describe a situation where you inspired others to meet a common goal.
•     How do you motivate team members to do something they decide they do not want to do?

If you have little experience of leading teams in workplace situations, use examples where you have lead people on the sports field or during educational group exercises.

Trustworthiness & Ethics

Trustworthiness and ethics are key competencies employers want to see evidence of in candidates, in particular for jobs in industries that require a high level of confidentiality such as law, accounting and consulting.

Example Competency Questions

Examples of competency questions that are used to find out about a candidate's trustworthiness and ethics are:

• Give me an example of a time a member of a team you were in had a problem. What did you do to help?
• Give me an example of a time you told a lie.
• Would you lie if your job depended on it?
• Do you think it can sometimes be ok to deceive people if this leads to a positive final outcome?
• It's late on a friday afternoon. The rest of your team, including managers, have left the office for the day but you have stayed to finish some work. A client company calls and you are the most relevant person to talk to. They are angry and demand that you shred some key documents immediately, otherwise they will terminate their relationship with your firm. You are almost certain destroying these documents is illegal. What do you do?

Use examples from your life to answer these questions: education, work and extracurricular activities. It is almost always essential that you describe yourself as an ethical and trustworthy person in an interview.

Results orientation

Results orientation is a term used to describe "Knowing what results are important, and focusing resources to achieve them." Interviewers will ask competency questions to determine if candidates are results driven, aware of the importance of results, to find out what kind of results are important to a candidate and if the candidate understands how to achieve results.

Results orientation questions you may be asked include:

•     Are you successful?
•     Give me an example of a time you have been very successful.
•     Why do you think people aren't successful?
•     Give me an example of a time you were not successful. Why do you think this happened?

You need to make it clear that you understand how important results are, that you are a competitive and results driven person and that although you may not always have achieved the desired results in the past, you certainly did aim to do so and have learnt from your mistakes.

Problem Solving

The ability to solve problems is an analytical skill that employers look for evidence of in applicants, particularly for jobs that involve frequent problems that must be solved, such as mathematical problems or managerial problems.

The ability to solve problems can be defined as: the ability to accurately assess a problem and effectively arrive at an excellent solution.

Examples of problem solving competency questions are:

• How do you solve problems?
• Give me an example of a problem you have faced in the past, either as part of a team or as an individual. How did you solve the problem?
• What do you do when you can't solve a problem?

To answer these questions you should give examples of intelligent and useful decisions you have made to solve problems that have arisen either at work, in education or during extracurricular pursuits in the past.

source: wikijob