graduate2success

Do you know how to answer ‘competency based’ questions?

Competency based questions are used by most of the big graduate employers. Basically ‘competency’ is a bit of jargon which describes what kind of skills you already have. So if they want to find out if you are good at solving problems they will ask a question about it. If you don’t know how to handle these questions and ramble on in an unstructured way you’ll be weeded out at an early stage.

Employers will decide on which competencies are important for the job and then develop a series of questions to test for them. It tends to be a tick box exercise and you need to know what to say to get the necessary tick. All our delegates find this quite difficult to begin with but once they have learned the technique it’s really simple.

Below are 10 of the most popular competencies, together with some example questions.

Test yourself now!

1. Teamwork or working with others

   • Tell me about a time when you were part of a team whose members did not get on with each other or did not work well together. What happened?

2. Communication skills

   • Give me an example of a time when you were able to communicate successfully with a
     person whom you personally did not like.

3. Drive for Results

   • Tell me about a time when you were asked to complete a difficult assignment in which there were many obstacles to overcome. What did you do to address these obstacles? What did you learn from the experience?

4. Creativity, Innovation or Ideas Generation

   • Tell me about a problem that you’ve solved in a unique or unusual way. Were you happy
     with the outcome?

5. Customer Focus or Exceeding Expectations

   • At times, we are all required to deal with difficult people. An even more demanding
     factor is to be of service to a difficult person. Describe a time you were successful dealing with a
     difficult customer.

6. Problem Solving

   • Give me an example of when you used your fact-finding skills to solve a problem.

7. Analysis

   • Tell me about the task or project that you were responsible for that best demonstrates
     your ability to analyse information.

8. Leadership

   • Describe a time when you utilised your leadership ability to gain support for something
     that was initially strongly opposed by others.

9. Commitment to Excellence

   • Tell me about a time when you had to pay close attention to the tiny details of a project so as to ensure that the highest standards were achieved. What actions did you take?

10. Adaptability, Flexibility

    • Tell me about a time when you had to stop working on a project/idea/assignment and
      start working on a completely different one. What did you do? How did that work out?

11. Empathy

    • Give me an example of a time when your ability to notice another person’s feelings or
      concerns enabled you to address an issue proactively.
      (Yes, we know we said we were listing the 10 most popular competencies, but we’ve popped “empathy” in as number 11, because it’s particularly important for teaching and NHS jobs.)

To practise some sample online psychometric tests, and get feedback on your performance, try SHL Free Trial Tests and Job Test Prep Free Psychometric Tests