How to Stand Out in a Competency Based Interview

Many people dread competency based interviews, and struggle to provide great competency based examples.

This article provides interview skills help by explaining what interviewers are looking for during competency based interviews and how to provide stand-out STAR based interview examples.

What are competency based interviews

Competency based interviews assess the underlying skills and behaviour required to be successful in a particular role. They look at how well you do your role; the behaviour you demonstrate, what you did, why you did it and what it achieved. A competency based interview typically includes one or two questions on each competency (or main area) of the role, alongside other interview questions which explore your skills and experience.

Questions ask for a specific example of how you have demonstrated a specific skill, because research proves that our past behaviour accurately predicts our future behaviour. Asking for a specific example is a much more accurate predictor of your future behaviour than asking what you would do in a particular situation.

What makes a great competency based answer

The best competency based examples provide clear and concise evidence demonstrating the required skill and behaviour and showing you have made a large impact for the company.

Your best examples are usually your biggest achievements, which may include: performing above the level expected in your role, making a large impact to metrics such as revenue, sales, customer satisfaction, costs or waste, managing high profile projects, introducing new processes which have been rolled out across the company or receiving recognition such as winning an award. If you use average day-to-day examples, you will appear as an average performer. If your examples highlight your top 10-20% of achievements, you will come across as an extremely high achiever.

Competency based answers must refer to a specific event which occurred in the past. Many people have a tendency to say what they usually do, wish they had done, or would do in the future, however this doesn’t provide the evidence the interviewer is looking for, which will severely limit your interview score, some companies may score these answers as zero.

Focus on answering the specific question which the recruiter is asking, as they assess each competency separately. If you provide an example of communication skills rather than team work, this will be scored as a providing little evidence of teamwork.

What is the STAR interview technique?

The STAR method is a way of structuring your interview answers to ensure you provide a full answer. The STAR technique is a storytelling technique which helps you to communicate your example clearly and concisely, providing the information required with little or no prompting. Imagine listening to someone telling a story in a social setting who doesn’t explain who they were talking about, so you miss part of the story whilst you try to work out if the story was about their partner, child, colleague or pet. Perhaps they leave out part of the end of the story, so you’re left wondering what happened or why they told the story in the first place. The STAR method helps you to structure your answer to include the essential parts of the story and avoids these issues.

STAR is an acronym which stands for Situation and/or Task, Action and Result which are the essential parts of every story.

Situation or Task

The situation or task briefly outlines the issue, providing the context required for the interviewer to understand why you acted in the way you did. You may not always have both a situation and a task, either is fine. It typically includes details like who, what, where, why, when. It is typically two or three sentences long and needs to be tailored to your interviewer. An internal interviewer may understand the aims and objectives of a particular project, however the name of the project will mean nothing to an interviewer at another company, instead they need you to explain this was a process improvement project, rather than simply naming the project.

A good opening is “Whilst working at…” “In my current role at…” “Last week…”

Action

The action outlines how you resolved the issue you explained in the situation or task. Depending on the question, it may include details like what you did and what you said. This section will form the majority of your answer, most people find the action, the easiest part of the answer to provide.

Result

The result is the most important part of your answer because it shows what you achieved. The best answers will demonstrate that your actions made a substantial impact and provide metrics to back this up. It concludes everything you mentioned in the action, and outlines the wider impact for your customers, the business, your colleagues and yourself. This is typically a few sentences long.

Your answer should be clear and concise, typically lasting two or three minutes, let the recruiter prompt you if they would like additional information. Anything which doesn’t fit into one of these areas is irrelevant.

How can I improve my competency based answers

  • Identify your stand-out examples
  • Refer to the job description or person specification and identify your best examples of each competency.
  • Practice using the STAR interview answering technique.
  • Improve the delivery of your answers, ensuring you provide clear and concise interview answers.

You may also find it helpful to read some of the other articles in this section for further interview skills help, including advice on improving your interview skills.

Do you need professional assistance in improving your interview skills? I provide interview skills help via interview skills coaching sessions where I can teach you how to stand-out in competency based interviews, by choosing your best examples and teaching you how to deliver your answers as effectively as possible. Please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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