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Interviews are a crucial part of the recruitment process for all organisations. Their purpose is to give the interviewer(s) a chance to assess a candidate’s suitability for a role and the candidate to demonstrate his/her abilities and personality. One of the frequent ways organisations assess candidates’ suitability is in the use of competency-based questions.

Faced with a pool of candidates who on paper may all have similar or equal attributes for the job, a hiring manager will have to make a decision based on a meeting with the candidates. He/she may decide to use competency-based questioning as a technique to identify previous performances in key areas, analyse them and determine if the candidate has the required experience, behavior and potential to fulfill the new role. The focus of the interviews will be determined by the competencies required to perform the job.

Competencies relate to the job role and values of the company and can be found in a job description. Key competencies for a job may include: decision making, leadership, problem solving, conflict resolution, customer service skills, management, project management, budgetary control, commercial awareness and team work. The key to answering related questions is to be specific in your response and avoid generalisations. One of the recommended ways to achieve this is using the STAR technique (S – Situation – describe the background of a particular situation when you used the key competency in question, T – Task – describe what your particular task was in relation to this, A – Action – describe the action you took, R – Result – describe the result of the action).

Using the STAR technique will help you stay focused on the question; demonstrate your suitability and present clear evidence to show you are capable of fulfilling the role. It is also important that you only use examples that end positively or your learning from the situation. For every interview, remember to also research on and identify the mission statement and values of the company as you will probably be questioned on these too. Interviewers always look for a fit for the company as well as the role.

Finally, any interview should be a two-way process; it is also a good opportunity for you to ask relevant questions that can help determine if the organisation and position are right for you.

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