What is a competency interview?

The competency interview is a type of interview that is used to select personnel through experts, it is a effective process that provides great benefits and predicts job performance better than the traditional interview.

When talking about a job skills interview, refers to the recruitment that contains more in-depth questions, in order to verify that the applicant is fit to perform the functions of it.

East type of interview does not rule out the combination of more conventional questions that relate to roles, professional experience or job, the responsibilities they have carried out and the impression that the candidate shows to fit in with others employees.

With the competency interview, you can get to delve into strengths, achievements, abilities, skills, and weaknesses that the candidate has and thereby determine if he can really fill the job position.

Tips for efficiently conducting a competency interview

It is essential not to make mistakes when submitting to a job interview. So that this does not happen, it is necessary to take into account the following tips that are imposed by the human resources departments of companies and can be very useful within the interview:

Connect to yourself

Knowing yourself is very important for the interview to be effective, for this you can write down the strengths and weaknesses, you should also think about everything that could be contributed to the company in case of being selected.

Research about the company

It is necessary to have information about the company where you want to work, its values, culture and especially about the work area to be performed. It is likely that this information can be found through the company's website.

Find out about the job

You should investigate the position offered, in this way you will know about the skills that the position requires, its functions and the regulations of the company.

Prepare possible questions

Once you have the necessary information about the competencies of the position you want to aspire, a possible questionnaire may be made of questions that could arise within the interview.

These can be based on experiences about the competencies and in relation to this they can be prepared anecdotes, examples and situations, to get an idea of ​​what is going to be said depending on the possible questions. This will create greater security to respond more fluently.

Types of interview by competences

Nowadays the job skills interview has achieved a high level in the Human Resources departments, which has allowed the development of certain categories such as the following:

Critical event competency interview

In these interviews, the applicant is placed in front of certain critical events, where it is a question of carrying out an evaluation from different perspectives, depending on the way the candidate acts.

This type of event can be real or fictitious and requires an approach prior to the interview and, in turn, how to conduct the analysis of it and the answers to be obtained.

Strengths-focused interviews

It is a model with greater expansion within the innovation and technology sector, since within this sector the increase of people trained to take on strong challenges, who even without having the experience have enough skill to successfully assume the position.

Usual competency interview

It is a fairly common model in companies that send written responses, with a large number of options or through video responses, which is an innovative alternative.

In it you can define different competencies that are necessary to choose the position and the elaboration of a series of responses that have a score that in the end must be totaled to select the candidate with the most points.

Performance-focused interview

According to surveys it is the competency interview model that is used the most, it is based on interviews that look for a way to know how the applicant faces various situations such as those previously exposed. It focuses on the knowledge of the past and the experience of the aspirant.

Analysis of the different competences

So that they can be achieved differentiate skills, they should be classified by categories this will allow them to be identified quickly and facilitate the interview process. The most important competencies will be shown below:

• Individual skills: It focuses on the applicant's ability to be independent when she must demonstrate her knowledge, that she can take risks and make decisions firmly and safely.
• Analytical skills: It is about decision-making and the ability of the person to control different variables at the same time. This competition seeks a way to know the degree of control and the detailed attention that the applicant can provide when facing specific situations.
• Motivational skills: This competence is based on the aspiration that the candidate has in relation to the position he is going to perform and how far he is willing to go to achieve a better professional level within the business.
• Leadership competencies: Currently there is a great demand for labor, therefore, many people are trained to lead within companies. To be a leader it is necessary to be assertive, be an example to follow, have critical thinking and especially social sensitivity.
• Change management skills: Technology is updated every day with innovative tools, this has motivated companies to incorporate it as command measures to improve the capabilities of their employees.

The competency interview It is a fast and direct process, which is based on the knowledge of the competencies that are wanted find in the job applicant, however, any negative event could cause errors of selection.

To avoid this, it is important that communication between the applicant and the interviewer is as fluid as possible. possible so that the candidate feels comfortable, secure and does not lose control during the development of the interview.