Succeeding at Competence Based Interviews
Category: Tips and Advice
Publish date: 31/10/2014
Interview Formats
Interviews range from a ‘go with the flow’ style to a deliberate strategy where the interviewer asks broad and general questions. Where some interviewers may be more interested in your experience or previous qualifications, a competence based interviewer wants to know whether you have the right skills to fulfil the requirements of the position.
Competence-based recruitment is a process of recruitment based on the ability of candidates to produce anecdotes about their professional experience which can be used as evidence that the candidate has a given competency.
Competence based interviews are usually carried out in pairs – one will ask the questions while the other records the evidence. The interviewers’ aim is to gather evidence about their required competences. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reports that competency-based interviews are now used 78% of the time.
Competences
In a competence based interview, questions are asked about real situations and you are asked how you have reacted or have dealt with them in the past. The rationale in asking for past examples is that past behaviour is a strong predictor of future behaviour in similar situations.
Competencies are very similar across organisations and fall into a number of different styles:
- Commercial
- Leadership
- Work
- Reasoning
- Interpersonal
Refer back to the ‘Career Transition for Service Leavers’ workbook that you received during your Career Transition Workshop for examples of competences within each of the styles above.
Interviewers will generally adopt a behaviour-based assessment technique and focus on what you have done in the past. Questions focus on specific examples of your past performance as indicators of your future performance.
During the interview
The interviewer will focus on each competence individually. Opening questions will be provided as a starter follow probing questions asking appropriate supplementary questions.
You must be able to relate stories that link your experience and skills to the potential position and employer.
Using the
CAR approach – Challenge, Action and Result – go back to your achievements and re-examine them.
Challenge: What was a specific challenge you faced?
Action: What actions did you take to address the challenge?
Result: What were the results of your actions? Did you meet a goal? What was the timeframe?
This formula for answering questions during an interview will display your confidence in your own abilities while keeping the conversation flowing.
Detailed notes of the evidence provided will be taken covering what the situation was, how the behaviour was demonstrated and what the outcome was.
Maximise your performance
You can maximise your performance by good preparation.
Tips- Try to obtain the list of competencies for the job you have applied for- always ask
- Examine your track record thinking of examples and evidence of the required competences
- If in doubt, ask others- they may be able to help with job analysis and suggest examples
- Practise – you want to sound confident and reasonably fluent
Finally, remember that you do not have to be perfect at everything but do have ideas for how you would compensate for or develop any gaps or weaknesses.