Chapter 12

Competency-based, behavioural and situational interviews

What is a competency?

The first issue to address is what is actually meant by the word ‘competency’. If you look in a dictionary it will tell you that the word ‘competence’ means ‘the condition of being capable; ability’. The word ‘competency’ is derived from this.

Competency-based interviewing, therefore, focuses on analysing your ability to handle certain specific tasks and situations, drawing on a combination of your skills and your experience. By examining in detail your past performance, an interviewer will be aiming to effectively judge your future potential to fulfil the role for which you are now applying. It helps the interviewer to answer the following two key questions:

• Can you do the job?
• Do you have what it takes?

Competency-based questions

Competency-based questions can take a wide variety of different formats and approaches. Many of the questions I cover later in this book probe and analyse key competencies.

• Can you tell me about a major problem at work that you’ve had to deal with?
• What techniques do you use to get things done?
• Can you tell me about a time when you have failed to achieve a goal?
• Are you able to make difficult decisions and tough choices?
• Can you tell me about a major project you have successfully completed?
• How did you cope with the most difficult colleague you’ve ever had?
• Can you give me an example of when you have successfully coached a member of your team?

These sorts of questions enable interviewers to identify qualities and attributes such as:

• Analytical skills
• Problem solving
• Creativity
• Communication
• Planning and organisation
• Self-development
• Motivation
• Objectivity
• Management
• Integrity

Situational interview questions

In contrast to the competency-based interviews that ask you to reflect on past experiences, situational interviews require you to explain how you would deal with a specific situation if it arose in the future. Again, interviewers are looking to establish if you have what it takes to do the job, but you will not have the luxury of being able to refer to past experiences so these can be more complicated.

Questions in a situational interview are designed to assess how you would handle hypothetical problems without the advantage of preparation. So whilst you do not necessarily refer directly to past experiences in a situational interview, you can certainly learn from them. Think back to problems you have dealt with successfully in the past, recall what action you took and relate this to the hypothetical situation you are presented with.

Examples of situational interview questions include:

• What would you do if the priorities on a project you were working on changed suddenly?
• How would you deal with a customer who is unhappy with the service they have received?
• What would you do if the work of a subordinate or team member was not up to expectations?
• You disagree with the way your supervisor tells you to handle a problem. What would you do?
• How would you handle a difficult colleague who is lowering morale within the team?
• Describe how you would handle the situation if you met resistance when introducing a new idea or policy to a team or work group.
• How would you handle it if you believed strongly in a recommendation you made in a meeting, but most of your colleagues strongly disagreed?
• Can you describe a group situation where you were the only person who disagreed with a point of view or action? How did you handle it? What were the results?
• Tell me about a time when you had to stick by a decision you made even though it made you unpopular.
• Describe a situation where you needed to work with a client or customer who was very different from you.

Answering competency-based questions

You will find lots more specifics in the next few chapters, but there are some important guidelines to consider first when answering competency-based questions. In particular, I need to emphasise the importance of using examples from your own experience to illustrate your answers.

Some questions will specifically demand an example, e.g. ‘Can you give me an example of when you have successfully coached a member of your team?’ Others won’t ask for an example but you’ll be expected to give one anyway if your answer is to have any validity, e.g. ‘Are you able to make difficult decisions and tough choices?’

The interviewer is looking for you to tell a brief story describing the situation, explaining your behaviour and highlighting the benefits of your actions. It’s no good just saying you possess certain abilities; you need to prove it by outlining how you have demonstrated the behaviour. Competency-based questions quickly expose fakes.

Experiences from the workplace, including voluntary work, are generally considered to be much stronger than examples from your studies, hobbies or personal life. But as long as the example you give covers the competence in question, it will still be appropriate.

Examples of situations with positive outcomes are also considered to have more impact than ones with a negative outcome; naturally you want the interview to see you in the best light. If, however, you are required to use a more negative example, i.e. a project that was not delivered on time, then you just need to make sure that your answer demonstrates what you have learned from this particular situation and that you know what you would do differently next time.

The STAR technique

When preparing possible answers to competency-based questions, the STAR technique is a really useful way of ensuring that you give examples that emphasise the contribution that you made and what the outcome was whilst keeping your response concise.

Here is a breakdown of the STAR structure:

S = Situation (set the context with a brief outline of the example you are using)

T = Task (what was specifically required of you, not other people in the team)

A = Action (what activities you engaged in/what you actually did)

R = Result (what the outcome was of your contribution to this specific situation – ideally this will be a positive outcome but if the outcome was negative, you will need to describe what you have learnt from it)

Key to the successful use of the STAR technique is making sure that your personal contribution and actions are clearly articulated at each stage of the process. It is also important not to make it obvious to the interviewer that you have used this technique! Make your answers flow seamlessly.

Identifying required competencies

Competency-based interviewing is now such an integral part of most interviews that, apart from defining it in this chapter, I haven’t treated it separately within this book. I have scattered examples of competency-based questions throughout my lists of the most popular interview questions.

However, my examples are necessarily generalised. In order to prepare properly for your interviews, you will need to identify the specific competencies your prospective employer requires. This applies to both competency-based and situational interviews.

Back in Chapter 2: Researching the job, I emphasised how important it is to thoroughly study any job description or person specification you have. This should enable you to identify most, if not all, of the key competencies for which an interviewer is going to be seeking evidence. And you should try to establish the perfect example (preferably more than one example) for each and every one of their criteria.

Follow-up questions

Whilst you should always endeavour to answer each question comprehensively, you can expect a skilled interviewer to hit you with a number of follow-up questions. There are only a certain number of different competencies required for the average job and your interviewer is going to want to question you very thoroughly on each one. But if you’ve carefully prepared and thought through your examples in advance, then their follow-up questions should be easy enough to tackle.

A level playing field

Whilst competency-based questions can – and will – crop up in almost any interview, some employers will have a very formal policy of competency-based interviewing. It’s an increasingly popular technique.

This usually means that they will establish in advance what the key competencies are that they are looking for, and they will design a series of questions to help them determine which candidates are best able to fulfil these. In such interviews, all candidates will normally be asked exactly the same set of questions in the same sequence (often with a variety of follow-up questions). It’s considered to be one of the fairest – and most thorough – selection techniques available.

Whenever you hear someone referring to a competency-based interview, this is generally what they mean.

Not so complicated after all, is it?