Top 50 Competency Based Interview Questions 1. Introduction 2. What Competencies To Assess 3. Top 50 Interview Questions
Introduction Competency Based Interviews are designed as a means of assessing whether or not candidates possess certain characteristics and qualities, and rely on examples from the candidates working life experience. Interviewers can learn a lot about a candidate from their responses to competency based interview questions, and each question is designed to probe a candidate on their demonstration of a specific quality.
What Competencies Should An Interviewer Assess? PERSONAL - What sort of person are you? How does your personality complement your working persona? INTERPERSONAL How do you work alongside other people? Does your style complement others? Are you easy to work with? MOTIVATIONAL How do you stay motivated for your role? How do you react under pressure? What impact do external factors have on your work ethic? LEADERSHIP Do you possess business and thought leadership qualities? Do you take risks that pay off? ORGANISATIONAL How do you manage your time and workload? Are you good at managing people?
Personal 1. Describe a time when you had to trust your own judgment to make a difficult decision. 2. How many times have you changed jobs? What change caused you the most difficulty? 3. Give an example of a project or idea you have accomplished in spite of considerable opposition or organisational constraint. 4. What kinds of decisions do you make in your present job? Give some examples of major decisions. 5. What do you like about your job? 6. Describe a situation when you worked without any guidance in an unusual situation. 7. Tell me about a time when you had to act quickly in order to take advantage of a limited opportunity, but were unable to consult with others. 8. Provide an example when you had to adapt your approach due to shifting priorities. 9. Describe an example of when you had to work to an important deadline. 10. Describe the last time you felt upset or angry at work.
Interpersonal 11. Tell me about a time when you have resolved conflict in a group? From where did the conflict originate? 12. What was the best idea you ever sold to your supervisor? Why did he or she buy it? 13. Tell me about a time when you needed to persuade others to commit to a course of action. 14. Give me an example of a time when you were unable to persuade someone to your point of view. 15. Tell me about an occasion where you promoted a new concept to a client. 16. What differing approaches do you employ in talking with different types of people? How do you evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches? 17. When you last found yourself with a new group of people to work with, how did you get to know them? 18. Describe the skills and personal qualities you believe are valuable, and those you have personally contributed, to a group task or project 19. Describe a situation where there was a disagreement among members of your team 20. What unpopular decision have you recently made? How did your subordinates respond? How did that make you feel?
Motivational 21. Describe a change you instigated to an existing work process 22. Tell me about a project you worked on that required you to personally generate a lot of new ideas 23. How do you catch up on an accumulated backlog of work after a holiday or conference? 24. Tell me about some times when you have gone an extra mile for your organisation 25. How do you catch up on an accumulated backlog of work after a holiday or conference? 26. Tell me about a time your enthusiasm dwindled regarding a work project or situation. 27. Tell me about some disappointments you have had at work. How did you respond? 28. Tell me about a time when you felt thatyou just couldn t get anything done. Why? What did you do? How? 29. Are you satisfied with your department s performance? Why or why not? 30. Describe a situation that required you to work with a difficult client to provide a very high quality service.
Leadership 31. Tell me about any strategic planning activity in which you were involved that went well. What was your own direct involvement? 32. What is the most imaginative or innovative task you have done in your present position? 33. Give an example of when you last made a quick and definitive decision. 34. When have you included subordinates in your decision making? Tell me about a specific example? How did you incorporate their input? 35. Provide an example of when you had to reach a quick understanding of the commercial implications of a new issue. 36. Tell me about a time when you balanced the competing priorities of a number of stakeholders. 37. Describe the biggest problem you have encountered in your last role? How did you handle it? What steps did you take after you identified the problem? 38. What techniques do you find most useful in developing subordinates? Tell me more. 39. Did you ever feel that you had an important impact on a group to which you belonged? What was the situation? How did you achieve the impact? 40. What is the most imaginative or innovative task you have done in your present position?
Organisational 41. When you last went on holiday, what did you do before you went away to organiseyour work? 42. Give an example in your own experience where you have been faced with delegating authority. How did it work? 43. Tell me about a time you motivated others to reach team goals. 44. Have you ever had a problem in getting your subordinates to accept your ideas or departmental goals? What approach did you use? How effective was it? 45. Have you experienced a situation that seemed to be slipping out of control? (If so) what have you done to correct it? 46. Describe an occasion where you had multiple competing deadlines. 47. Provide an example of a time when you managed a project under significant constraints or setbacks. 48. Tell me about a complex project you worked on that required significant planning. 49. What were your objectives for last year? Were they achieved? What action did you take when they were first established? 50. With what other departments do you frequently coordinate in your current job? How often and under what conditions?
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