hi there everybody my name is Richard
McMunn from the interview training
company past my interview comm and in
his tutorial I'm gonna teach you how to
pass competency-based interview
questions and in particular I'm gonna
tell you how to structure the answers to
gain the highest scores possible and
give you a number of sample answers now
before I get into the questions and a
very warm welcome to this tutorial as
always my name is Richard McMunn that's
me there on the right hand side and I'd
love helping people like you to pass
their interviews and in this video we're
gonna focus specifically on how to
answer difficult competency-based
questions I'm going to give you unique
answers that you can't find anywhere
else and so please do stick around from
beginning to end it won't take long to
work through it but I strongly believe
this tutorial is gonna help you pass
your interview as always if you haven't
done so already please do subscribe by
clicking the red button below the video
and that way you're not going to miss
out on any of the tutorials that I am
uploading weekly and also if you like
the tutorials and very much appreciate
it if you gave the video and like and
that always motivates me to do more
thank you very much ok let's get into
the tutorial so what are competencies
let me give you a couple of examples
basically competencies are designed to
see whether you have certain skills and
qualities to perform the role
competently so for example you might be
assessed against your customer service
skills whether you have an ability to
work under pressure whether you can work
collectively with other people which is
basically team working are you able to
communicate effectively can you remain
calm in difficult situations are you
able to resolve disputes and conflict at
work on your own are you able to gather
information before making important
decisions are you open to change in an
organization and are you able to learn
and develop your own skills a couple
more can you use your initiative to
solve problems can you demonstrate
professionalism and integrity and also
can you support diversity in an
organization
now those lists of competencies are real
common during interviews and we're gonna
look at how you can answer those now
upon service they look and they look
quite complex but they're not they're
very simple and
pretty much guarantee you will already
have the experience of how you can
answer these questions competently so
the question is how do you structure
your answers to these because this is
really really important before I come on
to give you a number of sample answers
so how do you structure your answers
this is the way to do it my advice is to
use situation task action results and
this is called the star technique so
when you're responding to any kind of
competency-based interview question
start off and tell the panel the
situation you were in so you would say
okay the situation I was in was XYZ
again you've gone and explained the
situation and then you move on and tell
them the task that needed to be done so
you tell them the situation and then
quickly explain the task I needed to do
XYZ and then you tell them the action
you took so just tell them what you did
to complete the task and then finally
tell the interview panel the result so
what happened and always make sure the
result is positive
following your action to its situation
task action and result okay so sample
questions tell me about a time you
delivered great customer service so if
you remember previously I showed you a
slide and that put up a list of sample
competencies and the first one was
customer service skills so in many roles
you have to be good at dealing with
people so this question and assesses
your ability to deliver great customer
service so don't forget we're gonna use
situation task action result in our
answer here we go tell me about time you
delivered great customer service I was
working as a customer services assistant
and I was responsible for dealing with
customer service queries and orders over
the telephone one particular customer
was browsing the website and they
started asking me questions over the
telephone about how quickly our products
would take to arrive they informed me
they needed the goods the next day as it
was their son's birthday and he was
desperate for one of our products I
decided to go above and beyond for the
customer and I asked them to give me
just 10 minutes so I could research
delivery companies in the local area who
could guarantee delivery within 24 hours
for an additional fee now pretty soon
after conducting some research I found a
company who would guarantee next-day
delivery for 12 pounds 50 I informed the
custom
about the optional delivery and they
agreed to pay I then personally arranged
for the product to be shipped faster
than usual and within two hours the
courier picked up the product and it was
delivered the very next day for the
customer so that's a specific answer
you'll see I've not said to them what I
would do when giving great customer
service but I given them a specific
example and that's really really
important so don't forget situation task
action result and you will get the
highest scores possible let's have a
look at another competency-based
interview question tell me about a
difficult task or project you worked on
so tell me about a difficult task or
project you worked on now this
competency and is being assessed to see
whether you have the ability to work
hard under pressure and you are
resilient and you are determined to
carry out tasks professionally so think
about a situation you were in where you
worked on a task or a project project a
new persevere that's the important thing
so here's my sample answer for you tell
me about a difficult task or project you
worked on here we go the toughest
project I have ever worked on was from
my previous employer the project
involved a total rebrand and relaunch of
our company website my job was to create
new and fresh content for over 87
website pages and it needed to be done
within a three-month period now the
project was particularly tough because
there were 12 of us working on different
elements all at the same time and
communication between us was absolutely
vital every Monday morning we would meet
up to discuss how each of our individual
aspects were developing and this meeting
also gave us the opportunity to support
each other along the way I created a
plan of action for my particular part of
the project and also utilized a check
sheet to make sure everything I was
creating was compliant with the new
website standards now after six months
hard work from everyone within the team
the new website was launched
successfully and without any glitch
although it was the most difficult
project I've ever worked on it was also
the most enjoyable and rewarding that's
a positive answer and again it utilizes
situation task action result you see
that is a specific answer and that will
get high marks next question of our
competency interview tell me about a
time when you showed integrity and
professionalism at work sort of
competency here being assessed is
professionalism so all employers want
people to work for them and they they
want them to be professional in
everything they do so this is quite a
tough question okay let me give you a
sample answer and we've probably all
been in these kind of situations before
so tell me about a time when you showed
integrity and professionalism at work
here we go
I was attending a meeting with my
manager at an important clients office
where we would discuss in a new project
we were hoping to quote for during that
meeting the client began to make a
number of subtle derogatory remarks
about me which were clearly aimed at
undermining my experience as soon as he
started to make the remarks I remained
professional and I stood by the initial
brief my manager gave me prior to
attending the meeting I was determined
not to be distracted by his remarks and
I simply ignored them as I knew how
important it was to get the contract
over the line once we left the meeting
my manager praised me for acting with
integrity and professionalism and he
thanked me for not reporting in any way
I can always be relied upon to act with
integrity and professionalism at all
times well it's working for you and I
will act as a positive role model for
your company at all times so that's
again is a specific answer it's not that
in-depth but we've all been in that
situation at work where someone makes
derogatory remarks or subtle remarks
that we don't like and the thing to do
is just to ignore them and just be
entirely professional so that's a really
good answer but you'll notice in my
answer there I used two key words that
are in the question so it says tell me
about a time when you showed integrity
and professionalism at work and in the
answer I said once we left a meeting my
manager praised me for acting with
integrity and professionalism
so I deliberately use those key words so
they resonate positively with the
interviewer because he or she will have
asked the question so you're just
reaffirming that you are demonstrating
the qualities and that's a good tip now
if you'd like these slides these sample
questions and answers in fact if you
want 20 of them click the link directly
below this video or go to my website
pass my interview calm and you can
download 20 competency-based interview
questions and answers all of those are
giving you
plus another seventeen to help you
polish your interview I hope you've
enjoyed that tutorial
I love teaching you and please make sure
you subscribe if you've got an interview
coming up tell what it is in the comment
section below and I'll give you a couple
of sample questions to prepare for thank
you very much for listening guys and I
wish you all our very best in your
pursuit to passing your competency-based
interview thank you