Success for Anna in a Competency Based Interview

Anna had a good CV having worked for an energy supplier in project management roles for the last 9 years. She had progressed internally and was now ready to join one of the big UK suppliers but had little experience of interviewing externally especially with Competency Based Interviews. Anna was able to get to the interview stage easily but was not being offered the roles and felt that the style of interviewing and her way of answering were preventing her from succeeding.

Having confirmed the interview coaching session, we analysed Anna's CV, the Job Description and Person Specification for the role she was applying for. The objective was to anticipate the questions that might be asked and review how best to answer them. As preparation for the session, we created an interview script that tested both Anna’s experience in general terms along with motivation and commitment and then a series of competency based questions based on the specific requirements of the role.

During the session, we role played a series of questions, discussing how to improve the answers using particular formulas and frameworks. We enabled Anna to create a series of draft answers that addressed the key requirements and demonstrated her depth of experience. After the session, we continued this work by email so that come the interview Anna was confident of being able to anticipate and answer the interviewer’s questions.

How we helped Melanie overcome her nerves and build her confidence

Melanie came to us having worked for 8 years with her current organisation, a medium sized construction company, where she had progressed from CEO’s PA to HR manager. Melanie wanted to move into a larger company but her confidence was low.

Melanie sought help with overcoming her nerves, re-building her self-confidence and delivering a winning performance. During the interview session, we started by focusing on developing a strong set of answers to those big questions that ask you to describe your experience, talk about what you bring to the role and how you contributed to the organisation’s vision and objectives. During our coaching, Melanie started to remember more fully the projects she had been involved with, the roles she played and contributons made.

Melanie was able to leave the session with a succinct set of answers that contained clear career development and achievements, credible personal strengths and solid reasoning for moving jobs. These experiences then became the basis of a set of answers for Competency Based Questions too.

As a result, Melanie could demonstrate proven ability. The process awakened Melanie’s confidence and through role-play she was able to deliver her answers much more powerfully, overcoming those dreaded interview nerves. Best of all, after attending only the first of two scheduled interviews, Melanie emailed with the comment ‘You are good - I got the job today!’

Top post for an enthusiastic and energetic graduate

Ranjiv had gained a 2.1 in Economics and was applying for graduate placement positions including into the Civil Service Fast Stream. He had a strong academic record as well as awards and experience gained outside university. Ranjiv also had huge enthusiasm and energy but very little interview experience or understanding of how to prepare a CV.

We met in our City office for a 2-hour coaching session which focused on clarifying Ranjiv’s academic and work experience. We identified core strengths and competencies, discussing both types of interview format and how to approach the common questions likely to come up for the roles being applied for. We worked especially on choosing and building powerful STAR answers covering the core behaviours and this certainly paid off.

A few weeks later, Ranjiv emailed ‘I really enjoyed the interview coaching. Andrew made me feel at ease. He is very perceptive and was able to pinpoint the exact changes I needed to make to my answers. He was especially good with helping me create really strong STAR examples for the behaviours. I went to the follow up interview and pleased to say that I just got offered the job’

Senior Executive who was out of practice

John is a senior executive in his early 50s who contacted us for help with his career direction, application process and interview preparation. He had been consulting privately for four years and was now keen to go back into full time employment with one of the big 4 management consultancies.

Having last been formally interviewed over 12 years ago, John was conscious of being out of practice. He was concerned with his ability to sell himself succinctly and how to show sufficient drive, energy and ambition. During the session, we spent time discussing his achievements, particularly relating to the objectives of this new role such as strategic business development, thought leadership, large-scale organisational structure and budgets. We also worked to identify the unique points John brought to the table, what his personal brand was and how his experience would benefit a major global corporate.

By the end of the session, John was able to give smooth, powerful and relevant answers containing examples using both past and current models of thinking. His energy and drive came through by showing that while he had significant experience he had also kept his personal development updated and had a real passion for the industry. The interview process was intense involving three rounds but we were ultimately delighted to hear from John who let us know that he was offered and had accepted the top job he was aiming for.