**** competency interviews

[NotAllThere]

"Explain a time when you had multiple and conflicting tasks you needed to complete"

"Give an example of when you had to convince a senior manager to do something your way"

​​​​​"Explain a time you had to manage conflict within your team".

Seriously? How long have you been doing this? These questions are so common and so often, that you should already have prepared to answer them. If it helps another one is

"What is your greatest weakness".

Which I answered once "Occasionally failing to punch out moronic HR drones who ask me that question during interviews in the sadly mistaken belief they're being clever. I'll show myself out".

 

[JustKeepSwimming]

Seriously? How long have you been doing this? These questions are so common and so often, that you should already have prepared to answer them. If it helps another one is

"What is your greatest weakness".

Which I answered once "Occasionally failing to punch out moronic HR drones who ask me that question during interviews in the sadly mistaken belief they're being clever. I'll show myself out".

Madam, I am not made of straw.

 

[ladymuck]

"What is your greatest weakness".

That's a crappy question. I've absolutely hated being asked that. At a particular time of the day it could be gin.

 

[NotAllThere]

That's a crappy question. I've absolutely hated being asked that. At a particular time of the day it could be gin.

I like it. "At this time of day, gin. Do you have any?".

 

[WTFH]

My greatest weakness?
Answering idiotically pointless questions honestly.

 

[vetran]

That's a crappy question. I've absolutely hated being asked that. At a particular time of the day it could be gin.

sometimes its just Margherita time!

 

[ladymuck]

sometimes its just Margherita time!

margarita!


But absolutely agree. Or a daiquiri.

Bloody Mary/Maria for breakfast.

 

[edison]

I think the OP doth protest a bit too much.

Unfortunately, most interviewers are not very good and have had little or no training. Competency based questions are a reasonable starting point but I always prefer to include a mix of scenario questions, presentations etc depending on the nature and scope of role and whether contract or perm.

One drawback of competency based questions is that interviewers can be far too rigid - 'we have to ask these exact 10 questions' which leaves barely any time for the interviewee to ask questions at the end.

Skilled interviewers ask fewer initial questions but then probe much deeper into specifics depending on the answers.

It's amazing how frequently I've seen candidates state impressive achievements on their CV but talk about 'we' did this or 'we' did that. When I probe further, their contribution turns out to be much less impressive, often as part of a wider team who had more doers.

My killer question is to ask what their specific individual involvement and actions/results were. Many candidates crumble at this point.

 

[vetran]