It is crucial to know how to show your confidence and competency for the senior position. It is possible for a well-qualified candidate to lose an opportunity without preparation for this part of the interview.
I was inspired to write this article while checking my LinkedIn network. I saw one of my ex-colleagues recently received a promotion as CIO of the company. A few years back, she was looking for a job and asked me for any openings at my company. I knew her through my previous interactions that she has immense knowledge and expertise in her domain. Coincidently we were looking for an SME in my department, and I thought she could be a valuable addition to our organization. I talked to our CIO and arranged for an interview.
I was sure that CIO would find her suitable for the job. But the things did not go as I expected. The technical part of the interview was going well with the interview panel, and then the few members started asking behavioral questions. I knew that she had faced similar or more complex problems in her career. I was expecting her to answer citing those similar experiences in her work. But she responded by just stating her way of managing the problems. It was clear from the non-verbal expression of the interview board that they were not impressed by her answers. She called me after the interview and excited about the opportunity. She knew that she has all experience and knowledge to perform at the job.
But the CIO had a different view of her. He accepted that she has an excellent technical understanding, but he was in the impression that she does not have experience working in an agile and dynamic environment. He was not fully satisfied with her answers to the behavioral questions. His observation was that she did not respond with her real-life experience in a similar problem and her logic behind taking actions to manage those problems.
The question which bothering him was whether she is competent and confident to work in the new environment. I assured him that this is not going to be a problem as I knew that she is well qualified to manage the responsibilities. Finally, she joined the company and got success in her work. I left the company a few years later and remained in touch with her. Gradually She climbed the corporate ladder and now promoted to the CIO of the company.
This event highlighted an example of a well-qualified candidate getting rejected because of unsatisfactory answers to the behavioral and competent questions.
You have to show confidence and competency for the job at the interview. The interviewers will ask you a few situational based questions to find your confidence and competency to deliver the result.
Preparation for the competency interview is the key to deliver the response with confidence. You can respond with real-time examples from your career. The answer with examples will assure them your ability to effectively execute the required responsibility.
The competency or behavioral-based questions of the interview depends on the positions. Each position carries some key responsibilities. The title of the organization and the job description will give ideas on responsibilities. You can focus on your preparation around those key responsibilities.
Competency Areas To Cover
your confidence and competency for the senior level jobs
It is vital for success at the interview to find the role and responsibilities of the position. The position title and the job description will give a good idea of the competencies required to effectively execute the role and responsibilities.
The hiring manager will shortlist candidates based on a few crucial competencies required to deliver a successful result. There is a broad range of competencies required for different jobs. Please go through the following list to understand the competency required for a job.
- Project Management
- Time Management
- Self-motivation and self-initiatives
- Problem Solving
- Introducing innovative ideas to improve performance
- Team Management
- Leadership under pressure
- Creativity
- Independent decision-making capabilities
- Imagination
- Communication capabilities to influence and persuade
- Negotiation
- Conflict Management
- Entrepreneurial thinking
- Strategic thinking
- Effective management of resources
- People Management
- Adaptability
- Planning and implementation
- Developing new expertise/ Adaptability to new processor technology
- Visionary Leadership
You are not required to have all the competencies mentioned on the above list. The hiring manager will select you based on your confidence and competency for the job. This is a critical evaluation criterion for mid to senior-level positions with any organization.
The hiring managers will screen you by asking behavioral questions at the interview. Those types of questions will come after your discussion on technical (or hard skills) competencies. She would like to know your confidence and competency to deliver the work as per the organization’s culture and limitations.
Why Hiring Manager Ask Competencies Questions
Hiring Manager uses competencies questions to accurately predict the perfect employees among the list of candidates for the job. She would like to know your logic behind the action taken to solve a problem. You may have achieved success or failure after taking a decision based on the information available to you. Let her know the decision-making process followed by you. You have to convey the message that you have observed, evaluated, communicated, initiated, and implemented individual and team effort to push for the organization’s goal. Your objective is to impress her with a well-articulated answer. Let her know that you have knowledge and confidence to solve similar problems
Competency questions are crucial for your prospective employer to hire you for a responsible position.The behavorial questions will decide your resourcefullnes to work in a senior position at their organization. They would like to know that you have a similar experience and background.
The hiring manager would like to hire a person who can show some confidence and competency for the job to handle a crucial position in the organization. Those positions need strong conceptual understanding and interpersonal relationship skills to get things done through self-effort or through team efforts. You need serious preparation on competency questions if you are interested in the senior level position in an organization.
The best way to answer a competency-based question is to give an example of a similar situation from your own working experiences. Your answer with examples from your experience will show your confidence and competency for a job. Your past work experience is the most powerful demonstration of your future performance. That shows that you have managed difficult problems.
Presidential Debate: The Best Example To Show Confidence and Competency For Position
One of the best examples of the competency-based interview format is the presidential debate. All presidential candidates except the incumbent (or seating President) have no experience in being the President of the United States.
They all have a similar pattern of responses to the competency questions. The anchors to the debate asked them different situational or competency questions to understand their competency to manage work as the President of the United States. The candidates highlight their past achievements with specific examples of their experience to show their confidence and competency for the job of POTUS. They looked at the camera and answer with confidence in their past achievement under similar challenges.
The objective is to show themselves as confident candidates and competent to face many difficult situations in the future. You, as a voter at the election, decide to vote based on answers to those competency-based questions and their track record.
Frequently Asked Questions To Show Your Confidence & Competency For Position
I have made a list of competency questions for you to prepare for the job interview. The hiring manager will ask some of the following questions based on the responsibility at the job to evaluate your confidence and competency . Go through the title of the position and job description to get an idea of the competency required to deliver work under dynamic conditions. The hiring manager can be creative in asking competency-based questions. She can use a different context or words to describe a problem. Listen carefully to the questions. You can ask them questions to better understand their questions.
- How is your working days look like, and how do you plan your day? The answer will show your organizing and planning capability on a regular working day.
- How do you manage emergency work at the office, and how do you priorities your work?
- Have you ever refused an assignment or say no to additional work? Why and how you said no to those work?
- You are given a responsibility crucial to achieving a milestone by the organization. Your boss/ manager, colleagues at work depends upon your effort to achieve the milestone. How are you going to manage this activity?
- Describe an innovative idea that you have introduced to your organization.
- Your manager wants you to manage an urgent problem in your workplace, and she asked you to take full responsibility to solve the problem. What would be your course of action?
- How do you manage stress at the workplace, and how is the stress level at your current organization?
- Describe an unpredictable situation at your workplace and how you dealt with the problem?
- Have you been in a leadership role? How many people were reporting to you?
- What is your leadership style? Why is it suitable for you?
- Have you been awarded or recognized for contributing to the organization?
- How will you approach an assignment to achieve long term objectives?
- Give us an example where you have to make a crucial decision after a detailed assessment of the problem.
- You are working on your priorities of the day. There are some changes in work and you are required to help a colleague at work on a problem. How are you going to reshuffle your priorities?
- Give us an example of your creative solutions to a difficult problem.
- Describe an improvement you personally initiated.
- Are you an individual player or team player? What do you prefer?
- How do you manage to achieve results while working with different stakeholders with different ideas to solve the same problem?
- Describe a work situation where you have had to deal with something on your own.
- Tell us more about a fascinating assignment from your career?
- How do you deal with failure? Give an example of your one such failure?
- Describe a situation when you had to influence different groups of people with different perspectives.
- How are you going to work with a manager with a different work style?
- Have you worked with a difficult manager? How was your experience working with an unsupportive manager, and how you deal with it?
- How do you manage conflict in the workplace? Give an example of such friction with your colleague at work.
- Tell us one event where you had to negotiate for crucial resources for your work.
- How do you manage a tight delivery deadline?
- How do you prioritize risk factors?
- You are being asked to work with an unfriendly team member to complete a time-sensitive and critical project for the organization. How will you deal with it?
- Have you worked an assignment involving new processes/ideas or technology?
- How do you update yourself on new technology or ideas? Have you learned new things on your own and applied to your work?
- How good are you working in a delicate situation?
- You are being asked to join a new team. You are a new member of the team. How will you develop working relationships with them?
- Give us an example of a situation where you have to work consistently against all limitations to achieve something?
- Are you a detail-oriented person?
- We have asked part of our employees to work from home, and they are working in different time zones. How are you going to work with your teammates and stakeholders based in different time zones?
Show Your Confidence and Competency For Position: Preparation For Interview
Their competency questions need a more creative way to answer the questions. Your response to competency questions will improve with more practice. This is different from technical skills-based answers to the interview questions. The answer to competency questions can be different based upon the nature of the problem and organization culture. You will be glad to know that there are no standard answers to the competencies questions. The logic or reasons behind those actions are crucial.
Do you recall the example of a Presidential debate? You have to prepare for your competency interview similarly. Note down your past experience with some examples to answer different competencies questions. Describe the problem, challenges to overcome the problem and your contribution to solving the problem.
Structure of Examples To Show Your confidence And Competency For Position
Take a printout of the above interview questions. Keep a copy of your resume for reference. If possible, prepare your resume by going through our resume preparation article.
First, note down all the meaningful achievements throughout your career. Prepare the list of your individual and team achievements at different organizations. Those examples of achievements can show your competence for more responsible positions. Make a note of all your hard skills and soft skill used to achieve results in those situations. You can use each example to highlight more than one competence area.
Format To Prepare Your Real-Life Examples
Problem statement: How the hiring manager’s situational or behavioral question is relevant to the similar problem faced by you?
Challenges: What were the obstacles or risk factors of the problem statement?
The working condition: What was happening at the organization and why it was necessary to find solutions to the problem?
Your strategy to solve the problem: How you found the solutions and why your approach was the best solution at that time to solve that problem?
How To Prepare Your Response
Your answer should follow the structure of a story. A well written story is easy to understand and keep the audience engaged. Here is the structure of your story
Background —–> Problem —–>You (or someone) got an idea —–>You (or someone) gave a plan to implement —–>You (or someone) Took the action —–> It results in success or failures—–>Lesson Learned.
Follow the simple structure given below to draft your response to the competent queries:
I faced a similar situation at (name of the organization and example of the problem). The problem was (Problem statement). We had a shortage of (obstacles or risk factors). The problem could have resulted in a business loss (why was it necessary to find a solution?).
This was the best solution considering (how you got the idea and why your finding was the best alternative). I took steps to (recommend and implement solutions). My result was (success or failure). I learned (the lesson).
Keep the response simple, short, personal, relevant, and informative. The interviewers have limited time to assess a candidate. So be mindful of the time constraint while describing relevant experience. Record your response on the phone or computer and listen to them for improvement. This will also give you an idea of your voice modulation and total response time. Your articulation of response will improve with more practice.
Keep on practicing at home, and you will be more confident to answer your competent questions during the interview.