How do you feel about competency based quesions in an interview?

[Alcremie]

Congrats on the job!!! I've been on the job hunt for the last 6 months, it's been hell. I agree with what you've said, it's incredibly soul sucking, it's like I have to be an entirely different person with those questions D: My first ever competency based interview was such a train wreck, I literally did not know how to answer the questions, I was floored. I walked out of that and was like lmao I totally did not get that job x'D

Thanks! I it's non profit so if there are any of those around where you are that's what I recommend, I think? Ugh dude the "Shit I bombed this interview gotta go rapidly apply to 100 jobs" feel is horrid. It's such an uphill battle. I hope you find something soon

[kittyray]

Yeah, also on the job hunt, but haven't reached the "applying to two dozen things a week" phase yet because I'm pretty burnt out and demotivated.

I also somehow feel less qualified to answer STAR questions now that I have actual industry experience than I did when all my experience was in teaching and personal projects.

[Hollow]

Yeah, also on the job hunt, but haven't reached the "applying to two dozen things a week" phase yet because I'm pretty burnt out and demotivated.

I also somehow feel less qualified to answer STAR questions now that I have actual industry experience than I did when all my experience was in teaching and personal projects.

I've found that applying for a dozen jobs and having to adjust my CV for each position I apply for is becoming incredibly taxing and exhausting. Like you I'm feeling super burnt out from it. I receive multiple rejection emails a day, and I'm like "welp. Okay then" ;u;

[kittyray]

I've found that applying for a dozen jobs and having to adjust my CV for each position I apply for is becoming incredibly taxing and exhausting. Like you I'm feeling super burnt out from it. I receive multiple rejection emails a day, and I'm like "welp. Okay then" ;u;

At this point I'm mostly expecting rejections or to not hear back at all, but the worst has been to get my hopes up with things like the amount of recruiter reachouts that end with "jk, we're not actually hiring at your level right now" or the like.

[Cinnamoroll]

Depending on the field you work in, these questions actually DO really give an insight to someone’s personality, quality and skill of work.

I work in the education field and trust me when I say answers to questions like that do matter, especially if you have challenging children that they may potentially be working with. I’ve had some awful interviews but the candidate looks ideal on paper (aka on the resume). It made me surprised they had any of the qualifications we were looking for because they could barely speak to anything we asked them of regarding past experiences and how they would handle certain situations. I’ve had more bad interviews than good ones (when I am the one doing the interviewing, may I clarify). While yes, there are lots of people looking for jobs, the quality of the applicants themselves has been very, very hit and miss, sadly to say.

[Hollow]

At this point I'm mostly expecting rejections or to not hear back at all, but the worst has been to get my hopes up with things like the amount of recruiter reachouts that end with "jk, we're not actually hiring at your level right now" or the like.

Oh same here sadly. I was in touch with a recruiter, but they ghosted me after confirming my availability to work for the position. I followed up with them about the position after not hearing back for a few weeks but alas no reply. I've contacted multiple recruiters at this point but yeah nothing from them at all. It's been pretty tough.

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Depending on the field you work in, these questions actually DO really give an insight to someone’s personality, quality and skill of work.

I work in the education field and trust me when I say answers to questions like that do matter, especially if you have challenging children that they may potentially be working with. I’ve had some awful interviews but the candidate looks ideal on paper (aka on the resume). It made me surprised they had any of the qualifications we were looking for because they could barely speak to anything we asked them of regarding past experiences and how they would handle certain situations. I’ve had more bad interviews than good ones (when I am the one doing the interviewing, may I clarify). While yes, there are lots of people looking for jobs, the quality of the applicants themselves has been very, very hit and miss, sadly to say.

This is completely fair I think! While I'm not a fan of the interviewing style, with positions in the education field I can totally understand being interviewed in this style. Do you then have to do multiple stages of interviews at this point or do you sort of make the decision pretty quickly about the candidate?

[kittyray]

Oh same here sadly. I was in touch with a recruiter, but they ghosted me after confirming my availability to work for the position. I followed up with them about the position after not hearing back for a few weeks but alas no reply. I've contacted multiple recruiters at this point but yeah nothing from them at all. It's been pretty tough.

My worst recently was when I had a phone call scheduled with a Big Tech recruiter the week after their company had a bunch of layoffs, I sent an email checking in letting him know I understood if it was cancelled et cetera, never got a reply, then creeped LinkedIn and saw he was one of the ones that got laid off. I'd been doing the routine of waiting for recruiters to come to me, but now it seems like everybody is looking right now, lmao.

[Cinnamoroll]

Oh same here sadly. I was in touch with a recruiter, but they ghosted me after confirming my availability to work for the position. I followed up with them about the position after not hearing back for a few weeks but alas no reply. I've contacted multiple recruiters at this point but yeah nothing from them at all. It's been pretty tough.

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This is completely fair I think! While I'm not a fan of the interviewing style, with positions in the education field I can totally understand being interviewed in this style. Do you then have to do multiple stages of interviews at this point or do you sort of make the decision pretty quickly about the candidate?

Why waste time with a second interview? Typically, these interviews are so bad we have often cut them short. Why bother investing time into interviewing someone if they can’t do the same?

Also echoing what someone else said earlier: there is definitely no point system when it comes to this style of interviewing that I’ve ever encountered so your experience may be anecdotal.

[kittyray]

I think the way these interviews are "graded" probably depends on the field and from company to company. Like for the company I left recently, everything had a fucking matrix rubric to let you know where you landed, even if there was no transparency about it, shit got leaked all the time, and for interviews and stuff the whole deal was "do you rank better than 50% of the people already at the company?" for each round, beit soft-skill behavior/STAR type questions or technical-based ones. I've known at other companies that fully go based on vibes or even ones where it's possible to bomb the technical interview, but other stuff shows through and pushes you on.

[master4you2]

*if this is in the wrong section please movie it to SPAM, I just want to have a general discussion (and rant lmao) about interviews*

Hey!

A question and discussion for you all!

How do you feel about competency based questions, especially in an interview? How do you nail it? Do you use the STAR method? (STAR - Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Competencies are the absolute bane of my interviewing existence. In every way possible. I just can NOT. I understand this method very very well and it's a pain in my arse. I personally don't feel like it's a good way to gauge someone's experience and skill for a job. Most "Tell me about a time" question has no relation to the job I'm interviewing for, it's like they are purposely made to be tricky, like why? Why can't you gauge me based on my personality and experience? It's like they only want to hear the STAR method, if you don't answer in such a way then rip lmao.

I personally don't feel like it's the best way to judge someone's personality or job skills? I suppose that's not the point of them? Idk? Help me understand ;u;

Idk lmao.

What do you all think? Have you ever encountered these types of interviews? What do you think? Am I just over reacting at this point lmao. yes, yes i am

So, coming from a Security Engineer;
I don't and hope to never be in an interviewing position because I don't want to conduct interviews. With that, I don't mind being asked competency questions; HR wants to know you can do what you say you can, and you should be able to demonstrate that accurately.

When hit with them, I take a framework approach (usually STAR) to answer them and make sure they have everything that they're looking for in an answer; and if I don't feel comfortable with a question either:
A. tell them and move on
B. tell them and answer to the best of my ability.

On this I feel competency questions that may *feel* unfair are only justifiable in high skill environments such as IT. It's kind of shitty to play stump the chump with entry sales peeps.