Competency-Based Interviews
Competency-based interviews may sound unique, but they are not. Competencies are becoming a more common foundation for interviews. They allow you to showcase your ability, based on specific examples from your career.
Literature suggests that past behaviour and experience are accurate predictors of future job performance, making competency-based interviews one of the most widely used approaches for many organizations and recruiters in Ireland and the global job market landscape.
A competency-based interview allows employers to know more about who you are rather than suffering through some boring recital about why you are very nice. The United Nations uses a competency-based interview approach and offers its online tutorial for potential candidates, to ensure the quality of its staff.
H-Training is a firm dedicated to providing strategic training and systematic coaching to ace your competency-based interview and lands your dream role. Ciarán Hourican, H-Training’s managing director and certified coach and mentor, has had extensive experience in preparing candidates to make a brilliant impression in various modes of interviews. Here are some of his expert insights regarding competency-based interviews.
What are Competencies?
Very simply, competencies are a combination of skills, behaviours, and attitudes that a given organisation sees as important to a role. The types of competencies vary, but generally, they form a family tree.
Attitudes
- Drive for Results
- Commitment to providing a Quality Service
- Customer Focus
Soft Skills
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Interpersonal Capacity
- Influencing or Persuading
- Leadership/ Leadership Potential
Performance & Capacity
- Delivering Result
- Planning and Organising
- Problem-solving and decision-making
Organisations tend to tweak or amend these depending on the role they are hiring for. However, if you prepare a robust competency example you will move to the top of their list very quickly.
What is a Competency-Based Interview?
The goal of a competency-based interview is to assess whether the interviewee has the exact knowledge, skills, and attributes needed to be successful in the role they are interviewing for. More than the informal interviews that aim to get to know you better and learn about your personality, competency-based interviews focus on your strengths and weaknesses along with the key competencies required by the role.
In most cases, this approach uses structured questioning focused on extracting information on how you approach specific problems, complete tasks, and overcome challenges. The questions are aimed at understanding how you use your skills and knowledge in your past experiences to the interviewer could determine how well you fit in the role they are trying to fill.
Competency-Based Interview Example
So, what does a good example of a competency-based answer look like?
Put simply, it tells a story. A story where the hero is essentially you:
There was a ‘sticky’ situation. John and Mary were at loggerheads. Team morale was low.
Then ‘I’ showed up!
This is the rule. State that something unfortunate had happened, and you took steps to fix it. But of course, you need to elaborate:
“First I listened to Mary. I remained calm, clarifying and empathizing where necessary. Then I spoke with John. He was very aggressive but I continued to remain calm.
I told him that I understood how difficult the situation must be for him. He appreciated this and began to calm down. Eventually, he acknowledged his part in the situation and took ownership.
Mary still wasn’t happy, but the team continued with its work without any further difficulty.”
This is a broad strokes account, but you get the idea. It can be summed up in what we call the STAR Method. Read more about this approach in the next section.
Top 5 Tips for Competency-Based Interviews
1. In preparing for your interview keep it light and have some fun.
Tell your girlfriend or boyfriend how amazing you are atsolving problems and making decisionson the couch in between episodes of your favourite series.
Regale the cat upon the merits of yourInterpersonalCapacity.
On your way home from work, solemnly address the window wipers in traffic on the myriad ways in which you were born a leader.
The hope here is that some of this playfulness will accompany you into your interview and lighten the load.
2. Don’t put yourself under too much pressure.
Try and remember thatit is not the end of the worldif you are unsuccessful.
No matter how dead set on a role you are,there will always be other opportunities, so give it everything you have on the day and rest assured that you did your best.
Your life does not depend on you getting this job, no matter how much you convince yourself that it does. Interviews are very competitive and there are lots of resources available now to help you succeed at them. For instance, try H-training’s Interview Coaching services for more in-depth training on how to ace your interview.
You will recover if you are unsuccessful. It is not personal, there was just someone else more suited to the role. Remember, competency-based interviews are all about finding the perfect fit, being unsuccessful in your competency-based interviews does not mean you are any less capable than your competitors.
It just means that you may have to broaden your search to find what fits you. H-Training’s professional Career Coaching service may help you find the right path where you can flourish in an organization that will value your key competencies.
3. Invest in some professional help.
Most people are willing to pay for results. An interview is a short opportunity to get what you want. It is important to make the most of your opportunity.
By hiring a professional service such as H-Training, you will understand what to expect and be much better prepared to deliver. Many people wing it in interviews. Those who avail of interview coaching have trained or done their homework. You may identify a mannerism or tendency you have that has been costing you or clouding your message. Remember this is an investment in your future.
4. Do your research.
One easy and simple tip you can do to better your chances of proving that you are the right fit for the role you are applying for is to familiarise yourself with the job description and the company’s website. Try to note the values, skills, and qualities that are important to them. List the competencies they are looking for and try to recall instances in your past experiences where you demonstrated such competencies, skills, or qualities.
If you’re having trouble assessing some of your strengths and key competencies, especially your soft skills, H-Training’s Emotional Intelligence Assessment may help you understand yourself better so you can be more confident in answering questions regarding your skills and strengths, and how you can utilise these to improve your chances in landing your dream job.
5. Practice the STAR approach.
The STAR method is a simple yet very effective way of communicating your key competencies and highlighting your strengths during competency-based interviews. It can help you organize your thoughts so you can convey your story in a more impactful way. Just remember:
- Describe the background of the SITUATION.
- Explain your TASK during that situation.
- Elaborate on the ACTIONS you took.
- Talk about the RESULTS you achieved.
Read more about our full breakdown of the STAR method here.
Competency-Based Interview Questions in Ireland
Preparing yourself for the interview will help you feel more confident and appear calm and collected during your competency-based interview. Anticipating some of the questions you might be asked is a good way to keep interview anxiety at bay (more on this in the next section).
Remember that most interviewers would ask more specific questions that would relate to the competencies they seek. Here are some common questions that you may be asked. Practice answering some of these to prepare for your competency-based interviews.
- Describe a situation when you led a team.
- Describe a situation when you worked with a tight deadline and how you managed your workload.
- What steps did you take to achieve a goal?
- What has been an achievement you were most proud of?
- Describe a time when you solved a conflict at work.
- Tell me about a time when you handled a complicated task and how did you complete it.
- What was a big decision you made recently and how did you make that decision?
- Describe a time when you used your communication skills to get the desired outcome at work.
- Describe your strategy to organize your work and manage your time.
- Talk about a time when you have to prioritize multiple tasks. How did you go about doing it?
- Describe a time when you achieved a goal despite obvious challenges.
- Give an example of when you practised integrity in the workplace.
- Describe a situation when you used your creativity to overcome a challenge.
Interview Anxiety
Most people get nervous before or during an interview, especially those who want to do well. Some symptoms that accompany interview anxiety include increased heart rate, sweating, dry throat, breaking voice, and fast speech among others.
Competency-based interviews can be anxiety-inducing simply because of the structured nature of it as opposed to informal interviews that are more conversational.
Need help with interviews?
Anxiety is a big part of Interviews but that does not mean that there is not a way out of it. Here at H-Training, we have worked successfully with hundreds of candidates for thirty years on how to manage these emotions.
You have a range of options from mindfulness practice to simple acceptance to visualisation techniques, all of which we can work through with you.
Our Interview board training and corporate group interview training are just some of the services we offer that can help you be more prepared for all types of interviews so you can banish the anxiety and perform confidently.
When your interview anxiety gets too complex and overwhelming, you may require specific support. H-Training provides tailored approaches to help you deal with your pre-interview anxiety.
How are you better than your competition?Get in touch today and find out!
If you’ve been to many competency-based interviews but still haven’t landed your dream job in Ireland, you may benefit from comprehensive training and mentoring from industry leaders and expert career coaches.
Here at H-Training, we offer world-class interview coaching online and in person. Our goal is to enable job seekers in every phase of their career, from job seeking, to interview coaching to evaluating their strengths to lead management to sales training, and everything in between.
Get customized coaching services to help you land the career that will ensure your future. Contact H-Training now.
