Struggling at interview

[IncaAztec]

I got a rejection from my fourth interview today. How do I match the job description and person specification to compentancy based questions? I just can't seem to manage this and get a decent score. Help!

Sorry to hear that OP. Have you been getting feedback from the recruiters and have they identified this as an issue?

Use the person spec to identify the skills they are looking for. Use the JD for the specific setting these skills are going to be relevant for - and then think of your own examples which track these most closely.

e.g if person spec says ‘highly organised and adept at prioritising requests’ and the JD says ‘complex diary management’ think of your own examples of managing a complex schedule and staying organised with it (either from your own experience or work up a scenario - both are useful as these types of interview questions can often be phrased as ‘tell me about a time when you did x’ (give an example from your experience) or ‘what would you do in x scenario’ (respond to the scenario))

I think with competency based interview questions, it's better to prepare the other way round.

So think of 6/8/10 (depending on how long your interview will be scenarios about where you've done something that demonstrates your capabilities.

Then cross reference each thing in the job description to 1 or more of your scenarios.

So, for example, if you have an example where a customer was very angry but you managed to calm them down and work with your team to make them happy, you can use this as an example of conflict resolution, working with a team and also possibly things like negotiation and stakeholder management. And if you demonstrated a particular skill when you fixed their problem, you can cover that as well.

Then (in theory) whatever question they ask, you can pull the best fit scenario out your back pocket and talk about it (make sure you tailor to fit the actual question).

Often helps to visit the company before if you can too, helps to get a better idea of what the job really is

Even times when you got it wrong, realised and fixed it can be very enlightening. I often interview people who are terrified to admit when they got something wrong, no matter how much I prod they are determined to present themselves as someone who does things perfectly, first time, every time - it's just not realistic and I worry they behave like that at work - can never admit a mistake - it's a personality type we won't employ, if we can help it.

Sorry to hear about your rejection OP. I had my 5th interview today- and was expecting to hear from HR regarding next steps (even if it was just to say hang fire for a week while we conduct other interviews) but they've not been in touch.

So sadly I can't offer you advice, other than to say has anything in particular come up with your feedback?

Are you going for roles which aren't an exact fit? (That's what I'm doing and I'm worried it's not working).

I've got a first interview tomorrow with another company and my mojo is going as it is hard to keep being rejected. But I'll need to give it my best shot again.

I actually had a couple of sessions with a career coach to see if that would help- it hasn't so far- but I may well continue with him for the time being.

The feedback has been different each time. I think I'm not answering in depth enough possibly. So difficult!

Here is some advice I got from a former colleague - when you have finished answering the question, ask them if you have covered everything and given a full enough answer/if they want more detail. Some will prompt you anyway if they want more, but it can be really helpful if you’re not sure whether you’ve said enough.

Another thing to try (if you haven’t already) is doing mock interviews - either filming yourself or get help from someone you trust. It’s super cringey but once you get past that such a good way to spot issues with how you are answering questions.