What Are Competency Based Questions And How To Answer Them?

Job interviews can be elusive at the best of times. What do they want to know? My CV was comprehensive, what don’t they already know from what they’ve read already? The list of potential anxiety triggers in the build-up to the big interview is unlimited. Many people focus far too much on trying to be funny, thinking about some small talk topics, practising well-rehearsed answers to the more obvious questions. But few ever take a moment to sit back and think ‘why are they asking me these questions?’

The first thing to remember is that the content of your answers isn’t necessarily what is important, but rather your critical thinking and manner that you answer these questions. That’s not to say you can reel off irrelevant and useless information about how Abbey Road is your favourite album, the important thing to remember is that there is no ‘right’ answer. These questions are commonly called ‘competency-based questions and they seek to investigate how you would act in certain situations and how you have acted, and there are three key types of these questions to look out for and prepare.

This guide will hopefully give you some insight into why these questions are used and what your potential employer is truly looking for.

Open-ended questions

The most ambiguous and difficult type of competency-based question, the open-ended type. As mentioned before, there are no ‘right answers’ for these, but they are genuinely interested in what you have to say. Whilst you can never anticipate what exactly you will be asked, there is a way to prepare.

Examples;

Why do you want to work here?

What makes you different?

Where do you see yourself in five years?

The purpose of these questions is to gain an insight into how you think. Whilst some employers may actually be very interested in why you want to work in their company, their true goal is to evaluate how you think this question should be answered. Are you going to lack self-awareness and say something damning like ‘Because I can’t get work anywhere else!’, or are you able to articulate your research and prove that you have reflected on your job search, and not simply applied to every opportunity. 

These questions require the previous self-reflection, and this trait is highly desirable in employees and co-workers. The ability to truly self reflect, evaluate, and achieve a level of self-awareness is so vital in maintaining the balance of a healthy workplace. So your answers to these can be as unique as you wish, as long as you can show you have the ability to carefully consider the implications of the questions.

The best way to prepare for these questions? Take the three examples above and really flesh out some answers for them. Even if you are not asked these questions specifically, this exercise will prepare you for any curveballs you may face and take some time to reflect on these ideas will ensure you aren’t clutching at straws on the day!

Behavioural questions

 These questions can really be your chance to shine. Open-ended questions are difficult, ethereal and a little ambiguous, but behavioural questions are a gold mine provided you have prepared correctly. Behavioural questions are investigations into your past experiences and behaviours. Often you will be asked about a situation you have encountered in the past, and these are very likely to be relevant to the job you’re applying for.

If your potential role may involve dealing with sensitive data or documents, you may be asked about times in the past when something has gone wrong involving such information. The aim of these questions is to establish how experienced you truly are in day to day crisis situations, or even establish how you have dealt with teamwork and supervisors in the past. Whilst it is key to remember that how you acted in the past is not necessarily what you’ll do in the future, this is a great way to back up the words on your CV.

Examples;

Give me an example of when you have used creative problem-solving?

Describe a team project that you have worked on, and what was your role?

Talk about a situation where you disagreed with a supervisor and how did you handle it?

In the moment, these may seem and feel like really difficult questions, take a minute to ask yourself one of these now and allow 5 seconds to think of a good response. If you’re anything like me this is really hard to do without resorting to word vomit and beginning a sentence without really knowing where you’re going with it. It’s also really hard to plan for every eventuality and potential question. The key way to prepare for this is to carefully consider all your previous experiences, be they in employment or education, or even in your personal life.

There’s no reason why using your sporting experience, or time spent in a hobby group can’t be valid answers. Think about times when you accomplished something, or maybe failed; flashpoints of conflict and conflict management. Have you worked as a team at any point to achieve something, or did you lead a project? There’s no guarantee these examples can be used in an interview, but if you’ve already set your brain to work on these memories, it makes thinking on your feet during the interview so much easier!

Situational Questions 

These are purely hypothetical questions but very important to establish the character and temperament of a potential employee. The purpose of these questions is to test your critical thinking and ultimately test your understanding of procedure and behaviour in workplaces. Behavioural questions as detailed above focus on what you have done in the past, and how you acted, but these are questions about the past and people learn from the past, adapt and improve over time. There is no true way to know that the way an interviewee acted 5 years ago is how they are going to act today, therefore the solution is to ask ‘Situational questions’. 

Examples;

You have been told by a colleague that they are doing something illegal or immoral at work. What do you do?

Your project has been deleted by accident the day before your deadline. How do you react to this?

A team member isn’t pulling their weight on a project, but your supervisor has not noticed. What would you do?

These are incredibly hard to prepare for because the best answer really is just honesty. Any attempt to ‘blag’ these questions and to carefully construct the perfect, most reasonable, and mature response will likely go down like a lead balloon because people can sense that kind of dishonesty a mile away and it will only work against you. There is such a thing as being too honest if you know your response is going to be terrible.

For instance, if you found out a colleague was doing something illegal, answering that you would ‘join and have fun!’ would likely get you escorted out of the building. The best way to approach this is to rely on your research into the company; what is their work ethic, what values do they hold important, do they engage in charity work and therefore likely to be highly PR focused? The culture of the company should really inform your thought process when approaching these questions.

In conclusion, when you know you are going to be faced with these questions the key approach is to prepare, prepare, prepare. Whilst you are never going to know for certain what questions you are going to be asked, by remembering these three approaches and spending some time beforehand thinking about your own past and your own feelings you will be well equipped to deal with anything thrown at you. Self-awareness is the key trait that these questions are seeking to identify, so get aware of yourself!

If you have any further questions or want to know more, why not get in touch with me here at Kenny Refresh?