Competency based questions are becoming more widely used as a way of screening and interviewing candidates. They aim of them is to assess skills and abilities rather than focusing solely on the experience on a candidates CV and producing empty answers. A candidate that aces a competency based interview will show that they have capabilities for the job and often employers will invest in training for these individuals. Understanding how to answer these questions may come easier to a graduate because they follow a similar pattern to an undergraduate essay question. Use strong argument and logic and present your answers in an articulate manner. It helps some people to respond to the questions by remembering a system to structure their answer. Examples are the CAR and STAR system:
Context
Action
Result
Or
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Typical questions will ask you to describe a situation from your personal experience. They may not even relate to work. Skills in logic and argument will give you an addition edge.
Relevancy is the first key point to consider – again think if you were structuring a written argument you would leave out anything that wasn’t relevant to your argument unless it was essential for context; the same applies here. Also consider ambiguity and presumption as elements that may weaken your answer. It is worth drafting answers to some common competency based questions so that you can go over them before you interview. An example of a question might be something like:
Tell me about a time that you achieved something impossible by making it possible, how did you go about it and how did you feel afterwards?
There are three key parts to the question highlighted in bold. This gives you the structure to the answer. If you need time to think ask the interviewer for a moment; they appreciate that you are on the spot. Set the scene by describing the seemingly impossible task, then go on to explain how you went about making it possible and how you felt when you achieved this feat. The question assessing your ability to overcome barriers, how you handle them, if you can think laterally and ultimately how you respond to your own achievements. The key skills are resourcefulness and creativity in relation to challenges. The interviewer will get a better sense of your character by asking these types of questions.
You may be asked a negative question such as:
Tell me about a time you failed to meet a deadline?
In that case keep the language as positive as possible. This is not an open invitation to make excuses for poor performance. Again set the scene and explain why the missing of the deadline was necessary and a benefit in that instance. For instance during a project something that would add value to it may have come to light in the later stages, delaying the completion but providing advantages that outweighed the detriment of late delivery.
Some useful links for more on this:
