What are Common Competency-Based Interview Questions?

Some common competency-based interview questions are those designed to assess job applicants' skills and expertise in areas that involve their organizational and problem solving abilities. Since the goal of this type of interview is to evaluate how competent each candidate is in relation to the requirements of the specific job, questions that involve industry knowledge and the work process are also often asked. Commonly, competency-based interview questions are usually followed by a request for the job applicant to give detailed examples.

For instance, a hiring manager for a desk clerk position at a hotel who just asked the job candidate about his or her experience in handling difficult situations with guests, may then request details about a particular real life incident from the applicant's work experience. The hiring manager may also structure competency-based interview questions on likely situations that could occur in the desk clerk position to find out how the candidate's problem solving skills may fit in with the job requirements. In this way, the interviewer can usually get at least somewhat of an idea of how the candidate is likely to deal with difficult situations that may occur on the job.

Other common questions in competency-based interviews relate not to how the candidate handles particular situations, but rather his or her usual functionality in a work setting. A hiring manager may ask the prospective employee how he or she prepares for the expected daily job duties such as how he or she finds out any missing information needed to effectively do the required work. These type of competency-based interview questions can indirectly help the hiring manager assess the applicant's self-perceived competence level as well as find out whether a particular candidate will ask for needed information when necessary.

Depending on the particular job, interviewers trying to evaluate an applicant's competency level will not only want to get an understanding of the person's work experience in the field, but also of his or her knowledge of present practices. Competency-based interview questions that relate to recent schools of thought or common practices may include having the applicant decipher information on graphs or charts. If the position will require the candidate to organize information, interviewers in competency-based interviews may ask what organizational systems or methods the applicant prefers to use on the job. If the interviewee doesn't indicate a preference or detail his or her usual methods of workplace organization, this may alert the interviewer to a lack of desired skills in this area.