Competency Based Questions

What Are Competency-Based Questions?

Competency-based questions are interview questions that require candidates to provide real-
life examples as the basis of their answers.

Candidates should explain why they made certain decisions, how they implemented these
decisions and why certain outcomes took place.

Why Are Competency Questions Used in Interviews?

Recruitment professionals believe that the best way to assess a candidate's potential future
performance is to question candidates about their past performance.

How to answer: what is your greatest accomplishment?

However, graduate candidates don't usually have any experience of the industry to which they
are applying.

Consequently, it is impossible for interviewers to discuss previous job roles.

Instead, interviewers use competency questions to have candidates show how they have
performed in various situations in the past, revealing individual personality traits.

These are a great help for interviewers interested in finding out exactly who a candidate is and
how they may act if employed.

Question format can vary.

Sometimes the interviewer will be looking to gather non-specific information, rather than
evaluating any particular competency or skill.

More normally, interviewers will isolate key competencies that they believe suitable
employees should possess, and tailor questions to focus on those skills.

When considering how to answer competency questions, candidates should not talk in broad
terms, be too general or use their imagination when replying to interviewers.

Instead, candidates should use specific situations from their life as examples.

What Competencies Do Recruiters Look For?

These are 10 of the key competencies which interviewers often focus on:

1. Communication. Regardless of the position or industry, the way we interact with

others is crucial and you need to be able to build and maintain excellent relationships
 with clients and colleagues. Example question: ‘Tell us about a time you had to adjust
your communication approach to suit a particular audience.’

2. Decision making. Good decision making will help you solve problems, devise
solutions and make efficiencies. Example question: ‘Give an example of a time when
you had to make a difficult decision.’

3. Leadership. Valuable for many reasons – such as showing that you can coordinate,
motivate and lead a successful team. Example question: ‘Describe a situation when
you assumed the role of leader. Were there any challenges, and how did you address
them?’

4. Results orientation. Being focused on results is a skill that will help you excel in your
career. It can be anything from improving a system or process through to hitting
targets. Example question: ‘Give me an example of a time when you believe you were
successful.’

5. Teamwork. Businesses don’t work properly without good teamwork. Collaborative

working can achieve results, improve productivity and boost performance. Example
question: ‘Describe a situation in which you were working as part of a team. How did
you make a contribution?’

6. Trustworthiness. Good employees can be trusted to get things done. Example

question: ‘Would you report on a colleague who you knew was taking money from the
company illegally?’

7. Responsibility. Employees who take responsibility for and pride in their work are
highly valued. Example question: ‘Describe a situation when you were responsible for
the completion of a task.’

8. Commercial Awareness. A skill that illustrates intelligence, professionalism and

commitment to the firm. Example question: ‘Describe a situation when you have had
to use commercial awareness.’

9. Professional Development. Being open to enhancing your skills will always help you
succeed at work. Example question: ‘Describe a period where you enhanced your
skills effectively.’

10. Technical Skills. Ever more important, technical (and particularly digital) skills are
highly sought after because so many businesses are using them to grow. Example
question: ‘Describe a situation where you have used technical skills in your work.’

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How to Prepare for Competency Questions
Preparation for any type of interview will help increase your chances of success, but with
competency interviews it’s especially crucial.

You must be able to recall scenarios that demonstrate your key competencies, when asked to
do so by an interviewer. 

To adequately prepare, you should:

 Explore the skills and competencies that you will be asked about. Although this
sounds obvious, it’s surprising how many people fail to carry out the correct research
to ensure the answers they provide are strong enough.

As an example, if the person specification states that you require good communication
skills when dealing with customers, the role is likely to involve complaints handling –
so you will need to highlight skills such as empathy, and understanding while being
assertive.

Alternatively, if you’re applying to a consultancy, they may look for evidence of

communicating complex issues in a simple manner (without as much empathy).

 Conduct some personal brainstorming to help identify a range of examples

relevant to the role. Write these examples down and then select those which can be
most closely linked to the specific competencies.

Think carefully about examples that best demonstrate your skills and attitude, and
which are most likely to impress the panel.

 Prepare your answers based around solid examples from your work,
volunteering or academic studies. The most common competencies that are asked
include problem-solving, team working and being results-driven.

Identify examples from your past experience which demonstrate that you possess
those skills. You do not have to find hyper-complicated examples.

In particular, the outcome of the story does not have to be extraordinary; what matters
most is that the role you played in reaching the outcome was substantial.

 Learn to narrate using the STAR method. This means setting the scene, explaining
how you handled the situation by placing the emphasis on your role and detailing the
outcome/result.

How to Answer Competency Questions

Interviewers using behaviour-based interviewing techniques such as competency questions
are likely to probe for additional details during your responses.

Always make sure you provide concise, highly specific answers that are well explained,
thought-out and detailed.
Questions can relate to past failures as well as to past achievements.

You must adequately explain why you failed to complete tasks; when such questions are
posed, don't avoid mention of past failures altogether, but demonstrate what you have learnt
from them.

If you find yourself struggling to think of any prior experiences which are relevant to the
question asked, give a hypothetical answer and describe what you would do if a similar
situation were to occur in the future.

A classic question is:

"Tell me about a time when you failed to complete a task or project on time, despite intending
to do so."

Your interviewer will want to find out how you manage your time during difficult tasks and
the reason why you failed to meet your deadline on this occasion.

An effective answer would develop a positive justification for a past failure, as with the
following example: 

"During my final year at university, I failed to deliver my dissertation by the due date. This
was because I was heavily involved in cutting-edge research right up until the end of my
course and was waiting for imminent results from surveys being undertaken by researchers at
other academic institutions.

"Considering this was my final piece of academic work, I wanted to ensure it was based on
the most accurate and up-to-date sources of information available, even if this meant a delay
in production. To ensure no marks were deducted from my dissertation, I contacted my
course director and personal tutor two weeks before my dissertation due date to discuss my
particular situation. I argued my case, and was consequently allowed an extra two weeks to
produce my work.

"Although my work was delayed, I feel that this delay was justified in that the work was of the
highest quality it could be. Furthermore, I organised myself so that all relevant people were
aware of a possible delay in the production of my dissertation."

Weaker answers rely on negative justifications:

"During my final year at university, I failed to deliver my dissertation on the due date. This
was because I was ill for a couple of weeks during my final term."

Aim for positive justifications rather than negative ones.

Tips For Answering Competency-Based Interview Questions

In order to give clear, effective and varied answers, consider the following pointers:
  When answering competency questions you can give examples from work, study or
personal life, but make sure you give a wide variety of examples and a different
example to answer each question.

 Don't go into too much background detail when answering competency questions.
Your interviewer only wants to know about your past behaviours. Further detail is
redundant.

 Make sure your answers and examples you use are the most relevant to the questions
asked, rather than the most impressive or elaborate.

 Carefully evaluate the person specification. One of the most important elements in a
competency interview is assessing your suitability in terms of core competencies.
Take time to read and understand the spec, highlighting skills, experience and
knowledge that’s important.

 Explore the company’s website. Understand what the company does and what
attributes current employees might possess.

 Evaluate industry intelligence. Find out everything you can about the industry the
company exists in and the types of people in that industry who are influential.

 STAR technique. Think: Situation, Task, Action, Result. This will help you to tell a
story in a clear and concise manner while showing evidence to support your answers.
See below for more detail.

 Don't make your answers up! Your interviewer will find this very easy to spot.

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Techniques for Answering Competency Questions

Each of the following techniques will stand you in good stead during the interview.

The STAR Technique

This is also sometimes known as SOAR, where Task is replaced by Objective.

 Situation: Describe the situation.

 Task: Describe what task was required of you.
 Action: Tell the interviewer what action you took.
 Result: Conclude by describing the result of that action.

Be positive about your actions throughout your response and do not make up an example, as
you will not come across as believable.

If you cannot think of good examples instantly, ask the interviewer for a moment or two to
think about the question and then give your answer.
Read our full article on how best to use the STAR technique.

The CAR Technique

One way of dealing with this type of question is to use the CAR approach. CAR stands for
Context, Action, Result. It helps you to structure your answer like a mini-essay.

Context is your introduction, where you describe the scenario you faced, the date and the
place.

The Action forms the main body and should be the longest part of your answer.

The Result is the conclusion and, like the introduction, should be quite short.

 Context: Describe the situation and the task you were faced with. When, where, with
whom?
 Action: How? What action did you take? Sometimes people focus on what the group
did without mentioning their individual contribution.
 Result: What results did you achieve/conclusions did you reach/what did you learn
from the experience?

Four Example Competency Questions

These four questions are all ones you can expect to come across in a competency-based
interview.

1. "Describe a situation when you had to complete a piece of work to a high standard
while meeting a strict deadline."

Structured Answer:

Situation: As part of the final project for my degree, I completed a quantitative research
project to explore whether customer loyalty increased or decreased with businesses who use
social media as opposed to those who don’t. I worked with a creative agency who sponsored
my project to allow me to gather the information I needed.

Task: To provide useful information for the agency, I needed to carry out thorough research
and draft the report within a three-month period.

Action: To ensure the project was delivered on time, I had to become fully conversant with
quantitative research techniques. I therefore studied this extensively, which improved the way
I gathered data for the project. I also managed to complete this project while fulfilling my
other volunteering commitments and assignments for other courses.

Result: Even though the workload was significant and I was under a great deal of pressure, I
achieved a pass of 80% for my final project and my work was published in a respected
journal. The agency who sponsored the research also published the findings of their project,
and I secured an internship with them over the summer.
2. "Provide an example of when you used effective time management and achieved
success."

Structured Answer:

Situation: While working in an internship programme with a team of four other interns, two
of them decided not to continue with the internship.

Task: As a group we had been asked to assist with a major client project, helping to formulate
a digital strategy before the end of our first month on the internship.

Action: Although the company were going to reduce the workload that had been allocated to
the group, I spoke with the manager and the remaining intern and we agreed to take on all of
what had been originally agreed for the four of us. I reviewed the work schedules, allocated
new responsibilities and worked two hours longer each day unpaid.

Result: We managed to make a significant contribution to the client’s strategy and delivered
all of our obligations as agreed. I was commended for taking on additional responsibilities
efficiently and professionally. 

3. "Describe a situation when the cause of a problem was not immediately apparent."

Structured Answer:

Situation: While working as an intern for a digital agency, data analysis showed that there
had been a 15% drop in traffic over a period of 12 weeks. Analytics also showed that a lot of
customers were abandoning the shopping cart before completing the purchase, and the bounce
rate on the landing page was increasing.

Task: I was asked to conduct some research to find out the possible outcomes of this drop in
traffic and growing bounce rate, and provide recommendations for addressing the issue.

Action: Using a variety of tools such as Ahrefs and Google Analytics, I conducted an analysis
of competitor performance and the effectiveness of our content strategy.

Result: Using these programmes, I identified that a group of blog and website owners had
stopped linking to our content. Once the problem was identified, I worked closely with the
SEO and marketing teams to win many of those links back, which helped to restore traffic and
engagement to previous levels.

4. "Describe a situation which required the use of your creativity."

Structured Answer:

Situation: In the HR business where I interned, a client was experiencing high employee
turnover without an obvious cause.

Task: I was asked by a manager to carry out some data analysis, to identify any trends or
patterns that would reveal the likely causes.
Action: I decided to develop an anonymous staff questionnaire which all employees could
complete online.

Result: A significant proportion of staff completed the questionnaire. A key finding was that
many felt that their training and development wasn’t taken seriously. Furthermore, staff felt
that it was difficult to speak to management about change. These suggestions were passed
onto the management team, who made improvements to training and development,
established more effective channels of communication and began an open-door policy.
Turnover in the next six months showed a marked decrease.

Further Reading
 What is a competency-based interview?
 What are competencies?
 Key competencies
 What is a psychometric test?
 General interview advice
 What are your strengths?
 What are your weaknesses?
 Answering the interview question: what motivates you?
 Situational interview questions & answers