Competency Based Interviews

What is a competency based interview (CBI)?

Competency based interviews is a questioning technique used by interviewers which are designed to
find out whether:

 You have the relevant experience for the job you are interviewing for
 You can handle different situations and how you have done/can do this
 You can cope with pressure
 You can fit inline with their policies and expectations or have the transferrable skills to do so

How to recognise a competency based question

Competency based questions are open questions which let you detail a real-life work situation, these
questions generally start with:

 Can you tell me about a time when …

 Give me an example of when …
 Have you ever …
 Explain when …

How to prepare for a CBI

 Determine all your skills and abilities prior to the interview

 Assess how those skills and abilities can be transferred to fit their needs and expectations
 Research some questions specific to your sector and think of how you would answer this
during an interview

How to answer a competency based question

A common technique in answering competency based questions is the STAR technique – a potential
employer will be looking for to hear the whole situation from beginning to end when asking these
questions.

Situation – give a background of the situation and all the necessary details
Task - what was your responsibility in this situation?
Action - Explain what actions you took to resolve the situation
Result – What was the outcome did you achieve?

Example of a competency based question with answer

Question – Can you tell me about a time you have had to deal with a difficult situation?

Answer – I once had a customer call through who had returned an item of clothing but the refund
hadn’t gone back in to her account after three weeks and she was really unhappy as she needed the
money (situation)

I went through security checks with her and then looked into her account and could see the refund
had already been processed (task)
I communicated with the customer and explained that I would need to look into this further and
asked the customer to confirm her bank details that we would have registered on the system but
upon cross referencing, the details didn’t match. I communicated this to the customer to keep her
and she then confirmed she had changed accounts and no longer had access to the old account. I
updated her bank details on the system ensuring that these were confirmed for accuracy and to
ensure there were no further delays in payment and arranged for the refund to be processed
(action)

The customer received her refund 3 days after calling (result)

What if you have never been in the situation you are asked about?

If you haven’t been in the situation you are asked about that’s ok, you can explain that you have
never dealt with that type of situation before but answer with what you would do if you were and
use the STAR technique to answer this. Reiterate the situation, what would your responsibility be,
what action would you take and what would be the desired outcome of this.