Competency questions / waffling

[sthitch]

I have a really important interview coming up that will be competency based questions- what kind of questions should I expect?

I’m really bad at waffling in order to think of an answer- I have lots of examples in my head but my brain is all over the place having been on maternity leave for a year - do you think it would be ok to take a notebook with me with a few prompts of situations? I’m really concerned they are not going to come to mind. My brain is so foggy at the moment.

I never see a problem with notes in an interview - it's not a memory test. Just make sure you look at the interviewer, not your notes, while answering.

I regularly interview competency based interviews and there is no issue in taking in notes. As PP said just make sure you look at the interviewer and use them as prompts.

In my sector, competency questions are the "tell me about a time when you..." ones. A good answer describes what you did and the difference that made.

Do you want to say what sort of role it is?

The 'STAR' format is a commonly used way of answering these - framing your answer as

situation
task
action
result

Get about 3 rock-solid scenarios in your head and let everything flow from them.

Yes taking notes in is fine. We always suggest candidates use STAR technique for competency based questions. “Tell me about a time when...” STAR gives structure to the answer and prevents waffling. Situation, Task, Action, Result. Remember to use “I” in your answers not “we”. Google competency interview questions for loads of examples.

If it's a civil service competency based interview notes are absolutely fine - just don't read from them word for word. If you aren't hitting the competency criteria a good interviewer will ask follow up questions to coax the points out, so may attention to the questions/prompts they give.

Remember to use “I” in your answers not “we”

Exactly what I was going to say.

If you say “we did...” then you might be telling me a nice interesting story about something that happened once, but you are not telling me about your competencies. Give the minimum context necessary and the rest should be “I” statements.

Questions might be “Tell me about a time when you had to manage change / deliver change to customers / negotiate your team through change”, “Tell me about a time when you have demonstrated good leadership skills” that kind of thing. Look at the skills the job ad lists as essential and prepare yourself to give examples of when you’ve done those things.

Tape yourself giving those examples, watch it back, and discount every sentence which doesn’t start with “I”. The most common mistake I have seen in these interviews is people not explaining what they specifically did themselves.

It’s a banking role based in complaints, I’ve been told to keep end to end in mind and “end to management of problems” ??

What they're probably getting at is that it doesn't necessarily end when the customer goes away happy - you need to take steps to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again to other customers.

Look up the FCA complaint regulations. Use the STAR method, and when it comes to complaints, the outcome should be fair and reasonable.

Have a look at the Financial Ombudsman's Website which includes case studies of how banking complaints were resolved (also info on general complaints process in financial services)

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

It’s a banking role based in complaints, I’ve been told to keep end to end in mind and “end to management of problems” ??

Think about the sort of competencies, skills and qualities you need to convince the interviewers that you can bring to the role to add value in the team:

• calm under pressure
• shows empathy for customer's frustration
• resourceful in trying to resolve the customer's problem
• tenacious, don't give up at the first barrier, keeps persevering
• a "finisher", taking the customer's complaint through to its conclusion, so lessons can be learned (dealing with other depts/teams in the company)
• understands importance of procedure, following correct compliant process.

That sort of thing