An increasing number of employers are using Competency-Based Interviewing techniques. If you apply for a job and are told that the interviewer will use this technique, this article will explain what a Competency Based Interview is, and how you should prepare for it.
Well done – you’ve been invited to an interview. But here’s the rub. They’ve told you that they use “competency based interviewing”. How should you prepare?
First, it helps to understand a little about this technique and why employers use it. In a traditional interview, the interviewer will ask you questions designed to let you show that you have the skills and knowledge needed to do the job. However, it is also important that you fit in with the team, and with the employer’s culture and style. A competency-based interview is designed to ask you additional questions about your character, soft skills and personal attributes that let both you and the employer determine whether you fit their needs. These are called “behavioural competencies”.
This is in your interests – you wouldn’t want to work in a place where you stick out like a sore thumb.
A competency-based interview will spend about half the interview on your job skills, and about half on your behavioural competencies. The interviewer will assess these by looking for evidence of how you have acted in real situations in the past. Here are some steps to help you to prepare for the interview, and advice to keep in mind when you are actually at the interview.
Before the interview:
1. List out all your attributes and characteristics that you think will be important both to you and to a future employer. For example, are you good at handling detail or are you a strategic thinker? Are you good at creative problem-solving or do you develop and follow careful procedures? Are you a logical thinker or are you intuitive?
2. For each attribute, think about one or two real situations in your current or recent jobs which demonstrate how you have used this attribute. The interviewer will want real evidence of what you did to prove that you have this attribute, so having some prepared before you get to the interview will show that you have thought ahead, and will save you from those dreaded “mind’s gone blank” moments.
At the interview:
1. Be honest about your attributes. If you were to convince an employer that you love precise detail because that’s what they are looking for, when really you are a big-picture person, you would soon be caught out once you’d started the job.
2. Take time to think before you give your example. Don’t just rush in with one of your prepared situations if it doesn’t show that you have what they’re looking for. Ask yourself whether this is the best example you can think of to illustrate the attribute they are interested in.
3. Be willing to ask the interviewer to clarify. If they ask you a vague or ambiguous question, rather than asking them “what do you mean?” you could say “do you mean such-and-such?” and show that you have at least tried to interpret what they’ve said.
4. Take time to ask the interviewer about the environment and the people. This process is as much about you evaluating their attributes as the other way round.
Most of all, take a deep breath, relax, smile and show that you know your own strengths and are prepared to illustrate them with real examples. Good luck!
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