messed up interview with competency based questions

[Lobsterinacan]

I find these so hard! am so experienced but always fail and finding good examples to use :( peed off had interview this afternoon and passed all the assessments to fail at the last hurdle.

hate hate hate interviews ((

Do you rehearse your potential answers beforehand? Normally you can work out what is likely to be asked based on the competencies.

yes i just must pick really weak examples

It isn't necessarily the examples you pick. It could be the way you describe them. A lot of people lapse into talking about what "we" did or decided. The interviewer wants to hear about what you did. You should therefore use "I" a lot in your answers - "I decided X", "I did Y with the help of a couple of others". Put your contribution front and centre and make sure the interviewer is clear that this is what you did.

I know how you feel OP. I am being re-interviewed for a promotion that someone else got but ended up not wanting. I've been told my answers need to be 'more strategic' but I don't really know what that means or how I can improve on my examples.I know all about the STAR technique but like you, my answers seem to be weak. Plus the actual questions asked are not the same questions you see on all the competency interview websites, they are much harder.

This page has some good ideas as to how you can make your answers more strategic.

thanks for the link looks helpful. am awake musing over my mistakes again! :(

That link is good, similar to what I would say.

I interview with competence based questions. The STAR technique is vital, but remember the interviewer only needs enough Situation and Task to get context, it's Action and Result that are important. What did you do, and what was the impact of you doing it?

Also, do you have access to the competences you're being assessed against? It's really helpful if you can learn what they want. For example, in civil service, people think 'delivering at pace' means 'staying late and getting it all done' and 'making effective decisions' means 'getting it right' - but actually they're a lot more complicated.

I hope that's vaguely helpful, interviews are so hard, and it can be so easy to lose your way, or give an answer that's not quite what they're looking for. Hopefully you'll get some proper feedback to work on.

Delivering at pace certainly does not mean staying late! Just get the competencies from the department to which you are applying. Also, do make use of the word limit in the application.If you are given 250 words, use them. Of course, check your spelling and grammar. Spellcheck, print, proofread, then paste, then check again (and get someone else to check too).

I have used examples that weren't strictly true