Competency Based Questions – Advice from Career Trotter

The interview will usually flow with 3 types of interview questions, Personal, Motivational and lastly the Competency based questions.

These interview questions are asked so that the employer can see whether your skills, motivations and personality match up to what they are looking for when it comes to fulfilling the job spec.

Many people dread these type of questions but the truth is, once you have an answer prepared all you need to do is tweak it depending on the job you are applying for. Here competency questions are broken down into 2 easy steps.

How will I know it’s a competency based interview question?

This is simple, when you hear questions starting with:

• How would you…
• What would you do if…
• Can you explain how you would…

Then you know it is a competency based question.

What are they looking for?

When answering this type of interview question you will need to:

• Explain how you would handle the situation normally giving them a step by step answer.
• ALWAYS GIVE AN EXAMPLE:You give an answer based on a past work experience situation, where you mention the company you worked for, how you managed the situation and give them a rough timeline of when it happened.

– Stick to the point, describe how you actually handled the situation step by step.

Trotter Note:

You should always give an example, whether the interviewer asked for one or not. When in doubt give an example. The reason for this being, the employer wants to see how you have previously handled such a situation, so now is your time to shine, show them what you’ve got.

What can they ask me?

What they can ask is different based on the industry you want to work in. But not to worry, we have created a list of possible competency based interview questions for the sectors that we have jobs in, simply click on the links below and get interview ready for:

• Customer Service Interview Questions
• Marketing Interview Questions
• Finance Interview Questions 
• Sales Interview Questions 

Once you know how to answer Competency based interview questions you can prepare well and actually look forward to them in the interview.