Why is it Important to Prepare for Competency-Based Interviews?

Competency interview questions showcase the candidate’s skills, abilities, and behaviours relevant to the job. Employers will try to identify these competencies in any interview since these skills are particularly important for organisations and specific job roles. The job description often lists the key skills needed in a particular role, allowing candidates to outline all core competencies in the first few lines of their resumes.

To measure a candidate’s suitability, recruiters ask these competency-based questions to help them draw examples from candidates’ past experiences with examples of when they relied on particular competencies. The logic behind these interviews is simple: the past ability to use a skill in a specific situation is a good indicator of the candidate’s potential to be successful in the new role and the future. These interviews aim to help candidates picture themselves in situations where they can clearly show their skills and how they handle difficult situations or perhaps share their logical solutions for challenges they face.

Competency questions are essential for recruiters since they help properly evaluate candidates and find the right fit for their organisation. Asking these questions makes comparing hundreds of candidates more straightforward and provides hiring managers insight into one’s working style, strengths and weaknesses. The answers recruiters receive can help them predict the future behaviours of the candidates in specific situations.

List of Common Competency-Based Interviews and How to Answer Them

Once you know how to respond, answering these questions is a straightforward task. The answers to these questions should revolve around the candidate’s skills and core competencies, attitudes and behaviours.

Typical competency interviews will determine whether a candidate has the needed skills, such as problem-solving abilities, leadership behaviours, and conflict-resolution skills. Below, you can read about examples and possible ways to answer these questions that can help you succeed in the interview.

Describe a Time When You Worked Under Pressure

This competency-based question is among the most commonly asked interview questions. The goal of the question is to help recruiters assess your performance in a crisis and see whether it is challenging for you to come up with solutions during a crisis. Your example needs to reflect how you manage these crisis situations and the positive outcomes you have reached. Showing your forward planning, initiative, and problem-solving abilities can help recruiters see the evidence of your practical and calm approaches under pressure.

What is Your Biggest Career Achievement So Far?

Addressing your most significant career achievement means adding specific details with as much relevant information and data as possible to make answering competency-based questions more compelling. It is a good idea to explain the challenges you have encountered while on your way to making the most significant achievement in your career, as well as what action steps you took to address them.

This can showcase your problem-solving abilities and your key competency to overcome challenges and obstacles that may arise. For example, if you’ve led a team to launch a new product, explain the steps you took to ensure timely delivery, effective collaboration and communication.

Share a Situation Where You Identified a Problem Before it Became a Significant Issue

Problem-solving skills are always challenging to describe as they are a combination of different soft and hard skills, as well as adaptability, knowledge and innovation.

Problem-solving abilities showcase your leadership potential, productivity, and ability to make effective decisions. The hiring managers will want to know how you recognise obstacles and how you analyse information to overcome obstacles.

For example, suppose you are applying for a leadership role. In that case, you may want to share how you’ve handled interpersonal challenges within a team and how you modified complex processes to improve your team’s productivity. Additionally, suppose you are working in the customer service industry. In that case, you can explain how you’ve solved a customer’s problem and share knowledge on implementing a system to make everyone’s job easier.

Tell me About a Challenging Decision You Had to Make at Work

This question allows you to provide more insight into handling difficult situations and making decisions. It will help hiring managers understand that you can make complex decisions and strive to bring a positive outcome out of every situation. The interviewers want to see that you are ready to approach challenging situations and make difficult decisions logically and clearly.

Describe a Project Where You Had to Work Under Tight Deadlines

Preparing for competency-based interview questions will demonstrate your readiness for the specific role requirements. Adhering to tight deadlines is one requirement in every job role and is an essential component in multiple industries. Hiring managers want to determine how you strive to achieve company goals and approach these deadlines, as it can be a critical factor in determining whether you are ready for the high flow of demands of the job you are applying for.

The recruiters ask this question to assess whether you can complete all tasks when required and how well you will perform in your role overall. When you tell your story, ensure that you address the importance of the deadlines by giving the full context of the situation, including the potential challenges in meeting the deadline and how you overcame these challenges.

Make a List of Specific Situations You have Demonstrated Key Competencies

Key competencies are essential benchmarks for assessing candidates’ suitability for a specific role, and competency-based questions help determine the skills and traits of a candidate. It is essential to identify the situations in which you have demonstrated your abilities in your prior work and education and during your free time.

Key competencies are used to evaluate candidates during the recruitment process. This is why it is essential to identify all situations where you have used your critical competencies and match them to your skills and experience. Some of the key competencies that you should address and provide examples for include:

  • Ethics 
  • Teamwork
  • Responsibility 
  • Commercial awareness 
  • Decision-making
  • Communication skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Trustworthiness
  • Problem-solving  
  • Organisational skills 
  • Time management skills

From an Interview to a Dream Job with Olive Recruit

Olive Recruit is a people-led company that puts candidates at the heart of everything we do. We aim to impact people’s lives through consistent and constant collaboration in supporting candidates to find their dream jobs while also helping clients find A-players for their open positions.

Our team of professionals can guide you on your career journey and support you through the job-seeking process by providing support, advice, and positive results. We can also advise you on how to answer competency questions as well.

Find our office in Bristol to seek more information, or contact us today so we can start your career journey together.