Competency Based Interview Assessment

Competency Based Interview Assessment.

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This is a type of interview majorly used by the international NGO to select the best interviewee for a job position. The interview is based competence test of the job candidates. It assesses the previous work performance of the interviewee in the previous similar positions. International NGOs belief that the applicant previous performance is a reliable indicator that he is going to similarly performance well in the future tasks or any work given. This method is also called situational or behavioral interviewing methods

Most of the NGO use this method of job interview mainly because it is cheap and produces reliable workers at low cost. The interview Compose of several process of interview which proceeds from a written technical test.

Sample Questions: Tell me about a time that you were part of successful team? What makes that team successful? What was your role in that team? How did you cover come problems in that team?

To answer this interview questions

First Step: You have read the job description of that vacancy. Because the vacancy contains all the skills and competency required in that vacancy which are also form the answer you should give that the interviewers wants to hear from you. Try to print or keep a soft copy of it. Because after some time when you are called for an interview you will not find that job description online or on the notice board again.

Second Step: when preparing for the interview, prepare to answer in Context Action and Result form (CAR) or Situation, Action and result form (STAR). This about giving brief situation or context, then action taken as your role not the team and finally the results of your action, most of the candidates forget to add their results. Sometimes the fourth thing to add on is that Learning. What lesson have you learned from your actions If you structure your answers this way then you are giving the interviewers what they are looking for and want to hear.

Basically, the panel interviewers are looking for someone who is agreeable fit the position and not a nut.

Methods of competency Job Interview

Phone or Skype Most of the international NGO tend to interview you on Phone or Skype. in such situation you need to stand up rather than sitting and project your voice for the other person to hear you very well.

Face to face interview: If you are doing Face to face interview, come warmed up for the interview, the panel with ask you questions, address the question to the person asked as you maintain eye contact with them and involve other members as you look at them without hand movement .The panel wants people that are enthusiastic and you need to bring that enthusiastic as you are speaking.

Sample competency interview question will have ice breaker questions to get you talking such as how was your journey today. Was it full of traffic jam ? Why were you interested in applying for this job? What particular aspect of this job appeal to you when you applied? These very important questions that are frequently asked.  You have to answer with intrinsic value imposition that you are going to bring to the organization but not really what is written in your CV. The employers have already read your CV and they still need to hear more from you.

You may finally be asked with 7 to 8 structured questions before you  are finally invited to ask questions. If you don’t have any questions to ask you the panel asks them to allow you to provide more information.  You can say “ I don’t have a question per se but I would like provide  additional information if it is ok with the panel. You have to add a good reason about why you best fit this position and about your motivation for this position . you can reiterate about the value proposition.

In Competency based interview you will be asked how you work in teams and how you resolve conflict. You need to have examples of how you work in team and how you resolve conflict.  You will also be asked question son value proposition questions. Such as what are the three value that are most important to you? how do these values translate into your work ?

Generally, when a panel is assessing your answers they are looking for two specific things

1.       The depth of the example

2.       The complexity of the example.

The more complex example that you give the higher the chance that you are scoring.  Tell me about a time that you have to resolve between to two set of colleges?