Competency-Based Interviewing: 6 Steps to Success!

Competency-based interviews are intended to bring out the best in you, the candidate, while also meeting the needs of the organization to get the best person for the job. There are a few simple steps to make the most of it and give yourself a much better chance of success.

1. Prepare well, but keep it sensible As long as you know the job you are looking for, ask for details of what will be measured. order a set of competencies. ask for a work description. This sets you up for success, not only because you’re better informed, but also because you’ve asked, which will impress the decision makers before you even get there!
2. Be creative This is the time to use your own experiences to create ‘stories’ that you can use in the actual interview. These ‘stories’ are actual scenarios that you have been a part of, that over a period of days and weeks beforehand, you write about. Maybe you have more than 20 initial ideas.
3. Leverage! Take the best scenarios and write them down, bulleted first. Then complete them, while carefully referring to the competencies you have been given. It’s amazing how you can “tune” your scenario to include many, if not all, of the competitions. And if you can’t accommodate them all, there will be a use for them, later!
4. practice By reading your scenarios (and you shouldn’t have more than six or seven by now) you’ll familiarize yourself with the contents so well that they’ll become second nature to even the terrifying experience of an interview.
5. at the interview Here are some tactics too!

• Using your scenarios, make just three key points about what you have been asked. Make them relevant and with the right “weight”. Neither too long nor too short.
• After that, give them space to ask more questions; that’s what you’re hearing.
• Say ‘me’ a lot – they want to know what your personal involvement and experience was, not ‘the team’ or ‘they’.
• Have fun, even if you are not artificial, smile and make some simple jokes, if you feel comfortable with that, they want to employ happy and capable people.
• You can not answer? It’s okay. Be sure to reflect on your shortcomings by saying things like: “That’s one of the first things I want to develop in my next job; if you did enough in your scenarios and competencies, you’ll have covered 90% of the bases well and you’ll be forgiven for doing it.” not be ‘perfect’ If you’re really stumped, say so!
• Ask questions: relevant, about their culture, focus on their development, opportunities, the positive things about ‘people’ (remember this is your chance to see if you want to work with them!).
• Also ask about current problems they may be facing: you made do your homework on them, right?

Remember that the competencies are there to help you and provide a roadmap for your competency-based interview success!