#competency based questions and answers #

This web space supports my training course and coaching on interview skills for international organisations in The Hague. Here you will find tips and resources to help you prepare for job interviews, with particular reference to jobs in the international sector.

You can also download here resources used on the course and check for updates. My list of 'Common Interview Questions' is regularly updated.

If you are taking the course, please contribute. Share your interview stories and links to useful resources.

On Competency-Based Interviewing

In recent years many organisations in both private and public sectors have adopted forms of competency-based interviewing (CBI). This includes the United Nations and a number of other public international organisations.

The best resource I have found on competency-based interviewing is a free online booklet produced by management consultants Barclay Simpson. It gives a clear and straightforward introduction to CBI and some good sample questions and answers. See here (PDF).

I have also summarised my own tips on CBI with a list of common questions, many of which relate to the competencies of international organisations such as the UN. See left under 'Resources to Download'.

For guidance on United Nations competencies see the the new UN Competency Development Guide .

Good Web Sites

For your interview practice and preparation, I recommend Be My Interviewer . Leading figures in UK business and recruitment describe common interview questions - and then say what they look for in a good answer. Useful especially for commercial sector jobs.

JobBankUSA has a wealth of interview questions under skill areas such as 'Analytical Skills' and 'Ability to Delegate'. This is a particularly good resource as it gives tips on what to look for in a good answer. Includes lots of competency-based questions. Scroll down the page at the link for the complete list of skills.

Books on Interview Skills

Richard Nelson Bolles, What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers (Ten Speed Press, Toronto)

One of the most celebrated, long-lived (and loved) books on job-hunting ever written. From a US perspective, gives a host of useful and entertaining tips on the whole job search process. Chapter 6 is on interviewing. See in particular the section on the fear behind the question .

Susan Hodgson, Brilliant Answers to Tough Interview Questions (Prentice Hall, London). A useful resource for rehearsing answers to tough questions.

Rob Yeung, How to Succeed at Interviews (How To Books, London).

A straightforward and concise book of tips and examples from the BBC presenter of How to Get Your Dream Job .

A few more books to consider

Robin Kessler, Competency-based Interviews (Career Press).This book, oriented mainly to the US private sector, is patchy and has some rather unfortunate corporate jargon, but it has some useful tips on the S - A - R (Situation Action Result) model of CBI (see chapter 5).

Robert Wood and Tim Payne, Competency-based Recruitment and Selection (Wiley). This book, aimed at HR professionals, gives information on the whole process of competency-based recruitment, not only CBI but also application forms, assessment centres, and testing. A bit dated now, but still useful in places, especially on the theory behind CBI. Includes some rather disturbing details (for example, 50% of UK companies surveyed in the late 1990s gave no training to staff screening applications.)

Downloads

Updated workshop materials are available for download through my Dropbox (see links, left). You need to wait 15-30 seconds for each file to download.