Candidate Support – A Guide to Competency-Based Interviewing

Congratulations, you’ve secured an interview! What next? Ensuring you are thoroughly prepared is essential to delivering a good interview for any role, and at SimkissGuy Recruitment we have plenty of experience in advising and guiding candidates through the process, so here are our top tips when it comes to interview preparation.
Competency-based interviewing is a typical form or structure, where prospective employers present you with skills or experience-based scenarios and invite you to provide an example of when you have successfully demonstrated the competency in question.
Remember, this is absolutely an opportunity for you to tell a story about your experience, so delivering a structured response is key. Always keep the answer positive and try, wherever possible, to provide the interviewer with a beginning, middle and end. Set the scene by clearly explaining the example scenario or task, keep all language positive and then elaborate on the process you went through to come up with a solution, whilst remembering to emphasise the positive impact this had on the business and your personal involvement in the process.
Your interviewer will almost certainly ask you what you know about the company, so ensuring you’ve taken the time to research the organisation’s products/services, its’ values and ethics, history, unique selling points and standing within their sector or market will help to convey your enthusiasm for the position.
Crucially, being able to demonstrate a sound understanding of the competencies and skills required for the opportunity is vital – and remember that this will be different for each position you interview for. Be confident that you fully understand the day-to-day duties you will be undertaking, as well as any personal qualities and IT skills that the company may be looking for – a great way to prepare for this is to identify the synergies or tangible examples with your experience, by comparing your CV alongside the job description during your preparation. Similarly to tailoring your CV for each job application you make, try to mirror the language used on the job description when delivering your answers to the interviewer.