Competency Based Interviews

To survive in this world of growing business competition, organizations are always in search of the best candidate. Generally, the basic expectations of any organization from a candidate are honesty, loyalty, smart working ability, logical thinking and the capacity as well as intelligence to handle duties and responsibilities independently. In order to fulfill these expectations, the human resource management personnel and the operational heads of the organization come up with such competency based interviews, that judge the candidate's usefulness to the organization and also bring the best out of him.

During the process of your job search, your duty is to keep yourself ready for such challenging interviews, that are going to be tough enough to rack your brains and decide whether you are fit to work in the organization or not. I know you are wondering what exactly does a competency based interview consist of and keeping yourself ready for such interviews is understood, but how to do it? Read on.

Parameters of a Competency Based Interview

Leadership Skills
Organizations always want candidates who can lead a team and in turn lead the organization towards achieving the organizational objectives and goals. Competency based interviews, therefore consist of questions and situations that judge the leadership skills hidden in you!

Responsible Nature
Gone are the days of schools and colleges where everything was taken care of by your parents and teachers. You have now applied for work and you will be held responsible for certain things that come under your scope of work. It is serious business that you are going to deal with from now onwards and therefore you have to learn to be responsible at the professional front.

Communication Skills
One of the most important skills that you need to develop to survive in the corporate world are your communication skills. Competency based interviews are comprised of interviews with the senior management and also written tests to check whether you are competent enough on the parameter of effective communication skills.

Teamwork
Being a team player is the basic necessity of working in a professional environment. Competency based interviews would check your ability to work in a team by conducting group discussions, by referring to some situations wherein your answer and solution will decide whether you are fit for teamwork or not.

Decision Making Capacity
Are you able to make decisions or you rely upon others to make decisions for you? Well, today's business environment needs a person who can independently take decisions in the company's favor. Therefore your decision making capacity also will be looked for.

Career Orientation
Many a times, organizations would ask you to rate yourself from 1-10 to check your career orientation and how much you are concerned about your career. This also helps them in understanding how loyal and honest this person would be, while working in the organization.

Problem Solving Quality
There would not be a single day in your professional life, when you will not face any problems. On such instances, it is your problem solving quality that will help you in dealing with different situations. Organizations usually opt for situation handling capability and therefore make out whether a person can solve problems on his own or he would require someone's help to tackle the situation. They also look for whether he is assertive or biased while solving problems.

Apart from the above mentioned ones, other parameters of competency based interviews are general awareness about the corporate world, result oriented nature, personal goals in life and expectations from the organization.

Grooming Yourself for Competency Based Interviews

Pre Interview Activities
Your appointment for an interview is fixed and you will be going for an interview shortly. But what to do in the due course? Gather some information about the organization, browse through its website, try to determine what exactly the organization will be expecting out of you. The best way to find out this thing is to understand the objectives, mission statement and the long term goals of the organization. You can visit a library and try to read something on competency based interviews and also read books on most frequently asked interview questions. Be ready with your answers. Browse through some commonly asked situations in the interview. Try to find out a solution by yourself.

Actual Interview
The first thing I would like to mention over here is to be confident. Have a winner's body language and style and please do not be afraid of anything! Shake hands comfortably. Sit erect and confidently. The interviewing panel is aware of the fact that you have already prepared your model answers for the common questions and also model situations. It is quite possible that they might ask you some other questions. So you need not be confused. Answer what you feel right and try to resolve situations applying your knowledge and capacity. Remember that at the end, the interviewer wants to know your own view and attitude towards different things.

Concluding Session
Once your interview is over, you will also be given an opportunity to ask questions about the organization to them. Therefore, be relevant and to the point, ask questions that will reflect your concerns for the organizational development as well as self development within the organization. Do not abruptly end the interview. Shake hands once again, wish them a great day ahead and leave the room with confidence.

This was an overview of the concept of competency based interviews and how to prepare for them. However, the type of questions, situations, competency parameters depend upon the type of organization you have applied for. So be prepared and get going! Wish you luck for your interview!