Behavioural Based Interviewing

A Competency is the ability required by a person to perform their job effectively – an underlying characteristic of a person that results in effective or superior performance on the job.

Behavioural based interviewing (also known as situational interview questions) is now commonplace and it uses the premise that previous performance is a reliable indicator of future performance. Questions related to your competency to perform the job to the required standard will be asked, and will most likely revolve around how you have recently tackled situations you are likely to face in this particular role.

The most effective way of answering these questions is to use the ‘CAR’ technique:

• Circumstance: Briefly describe the background to the situation
• Action: Describe what you did
• Result: Describe the outcome of your actions

How do they relate?

The defined competencies for a particular position provide the “road map” for the BBI. That is, the interviewer is aiming to elicit real examples of your past performance, specifically for the defined competencies.

Detailed below are a list of questions you could be asked to assess your competency in any given area. You can also practice: Interview Question list

Good luck in your interview.

Types of Competencies:

Cognitive Abilities (Aptitude and Knowledge)

The mental act or process by which knowledge is acquired including perception, intuition and reasoning. Further, it is the knowledge that results from such an act or process.

Personality Traits (Attitude)

A general disposition to behave or respond in a certain way.

Cognitive Abilities

Critical Thinking

Judgment, analytical thinking, problem solving, strategic orientation, conceptual reasoning, learning potential, general knowledge, verbal and numeric critical reasoning and information processing.

Sample Questions:

• Give me an example of when you persuaded someone to change their mind and adopt your proposal on a contentious issue. How did you persuade them?
• In what circumstances do you have to make proposals to customers or to your own manager? What do you do to prepare for making these proposals?

Expertise

Professional, Specialist, Proficiency, Skillfulness, Know-how. This means extensive skills or knowledge in a particular field or discipline. These are questions tailored to the technical and industry expertise of the individual.

Sample Questions:

• You indicate that you have responsibility for the analysis and subsequent commentary for the management accounts. What is a good example of a commercial variance that your analysis generated and what actions did you undertake?
• Have you been involved in the streamlining of controls and processes? What did you do to ensure that the changes were maintained on an ongoing basis? What benefits did it deliver to the business?

Personality Traits

Stress Tolerance (Self-control). Performance remains stable under pressure and in the face of set backs, disappointments, rejection, role ambiguity and time pressure.

Sample Questions:

• Describe a situation when you had to decide on the right course of action in circumstances where the company rules / policies were unclear or unhelpful. What options did you consider? What action did you take? What was the result?
• We all find ourselves in situations where there seems more work to be done that there is time available. When was the last time this happened to you? What action did you take?

Conscientiousness

Motivation, drive, industriousness, tenacity, integrity and thoroughness. Strong orientation to meeting commitments. Sets high standards or goals for own work performance. Dissatisfied with average performance. Active efforts to develop personal capacity against requirements of current and future jobs.

Sample Questions:

• What is the achievement in the past 2 years with which you are most pleased? Why?
• What do you differently than your peers to make sure you achieve your objectives, even in difficult circumstances?

Organisational Ability

Time management, meeting deadlines, planning, use of aids, task completion and goal setting. Able to plan and schedule own time and activities. Able to work effectively with others towards the achievements of a common goal without having direct authority.

Sample Questions:

• How often is your time disrupted with unforeseen circumstances? What do you do then? Give me a recent example.
• How do you decide what gets top priority when you schedule your time? Give me an example.

Relationship Effectiveness

Co-operation, teamwork, impact, rapport, energy, confidence and independence. Seeks to co-operate with others, often across internal and external boundaries, in order to achieve objectives. Works effectively as a member of a team. Understands impact of own actions on customers and people in other parts of own organisation and consults with them to achieve objectives.

Sample Questions:

• What is the best team you have been a member of? What was good about the team and what was your involvement with the team?
• We’ve all had to work with someone who is very difficult to get along with. Give me some examples of when this has happened to you. What was difficult about the person? How did you handle it?

Initiative

Proactive, self-starter, risk taker and decisive. Actively attempts to influence events to achieve goals. Self-starting rather than passively accepting. Modified behavior to reach a goal. Takes calculated risks to achieve a recognised benefit or advantage.

Sample Questions:

• What changes have you implemented in your area of responsibility? What action have you taken to get them under way?
• Describe a situation in which you found your results were not up to budget or company expectations. What did you do to rectify the matter?

REMEMBER – If you are interviewing with a line manager they are more likely to focus in on your ability to do the job (can you do the job?), a human resources manager may probe the softer side of you (do you want to do the job?), whilst a CEO probably will be more interested in your ability to fit the culture (will you fit into the team?). Of course each interviewer could explore all three questions in the one interview.