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2C h a p t e r

Preparing for
Competency-Based
Interview Questions

An interview that includes competency-based questions will run longer
than a traditional interview because the interviewer may choose to spend
ten to fifteen minutes on each competency, asking you to elaborate or
provide more examples. Interviewers may also opt to ask more than one
question regarding each competency, so as to get a broader view of your
experience and to avoid basing their perceptions on only one response.

So, how do you prepare for these questions? In this chapter I provide
some strategies for a variety of personal situations.

Identify and Highlight
Your Accomplishments

Recent accomplishments are easy to come up with during an interview
because they are fresh in your mind. Yet, to appear competitive and pro-
vide diverse examples during the interview, you cannot rely solely on
your current or last position as a performance indicator. Dig into your
past and view your achievements in different lights; each activity in your
history can be an ingredient in a tasty recipe that reveals your rich pro-
fessional capability. Think about those activities in your past and make a

American Management Association
www.amanet.org