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1C h a p t e r

What Are Competency-
Based Interviews?

Competency-based interviews, also known as behavioral-style in-
terviews, offer you an opportunity to demonstrate the skills, profi-
ciencies, and abilities you have developed in the course of your career.
By answering interview questions that focus on your actions in particu-
lar workplace situations, you allow interviewers to compare your ex-
perience to the requirements of their open positions. This works to
your advantage since the likelihood increases that their hiring decisions
will be based on your know-how rather than on the interviewer’s per-
sonal impressions.

Competency-Based vs.
Traditional Interview Questions

Traditional interview questions are broad, allowing the candidate to select
an example of a work situation that fits the question asked. These tradi-
tional types of interview questions are easy to detect because each typically
begins with: “How would . . . ,” “How can . . . ,” “What would . . . ,”
“What experience . . . ,” “What qualifications . . . ,” “Can you de-
scribe . . . ,” “Have you been . . .”.

American Management Association
www.amanet.org