201 Knockout Answers to Tough Interview Questions: The Ultimate Guide to Handling the New Competency-Based Interview Style - Softcover

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LINDA MATIAS, JCTC, CIC, NCRW (Long Island, NY) runs CareerStrides, a career consulting firm. She coaches clients on effective interview techniques. A former president of the National Resume Writers Association, her syndicated column appears on sites including CareerKnowHow.com, JobSeekerAdvice.com, and others. She also writes a column and produces a podcast for the YouTube channel CareerStrides and is the author of How to Say It(R) Job Interviews.

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These days more and more employers are using “competency-based” job interview questions to try to ensure that new hires’ experience and abilities match the demands of the positions they’re filling. Designed to elicit real-life career events demonstrating your knowledge, judgment, and skills, this new breed of interview question can trip up even the savviest job seekers. And in this extremely tough job market, there are no second chances.

201 Knockout Answers to Tough Interview Questions gives you the lowdown on this new competency-based interviewing style, including a huge range of sample questions complete with winning answers you can use to prep for any make-or-break job interview. This book will arm you with confidence-inspiring answers that highlight your accomplishments in each of the five core competencies every employer wants in an employee: Individual Responsibility, Manager/Leadership Skills, Personal Motivation, Analytical Skills, and People Skills. You’ll find the best way to tailor your own response to tough questions like:

● Describe an occasion when you managed a situation that was your supervisor’s responsibility.

● Tell me about a time when you had competing deadlines and had to choose one to miss.

● Describe a time when a customer had an issue with the way you managed his or her account. What did you do about it?

● Tell me about a time you spearheaded an initiative and met resistance from the overwhelming majority of staff.

You’ll also discover seven ways to stand out during your interview, what to do when you lack experience, and how to avoid the common mistakes that keep candidates from being hired.

Complete with fill-in-the-blank exercises that will help prepare you to demonstrate the skills that will impress any employer, 201 Knockout Answers to Tough Interview Questions gives you the hidden edge you need to come out on top and get the job offer you know you deserve.

Linda Matias, JCTC, CIC, NCRW, runs CareerStrides, a career consulting firm, where she coaches clients on effective interview techniques. A former president of the National Resume Writers Association, her syndicated column appears on sites including CareerKnowHow.com, JobSeekerAdvice.com, and others. She also writes a column and produces a podcast for the YouTube Channel CareerStrides and is the author of How to Say It® Job Interviews. She lives in Long Island, New York.

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Introduction

The job interview. It’s a constantly evolving environment. Just when candidates think they have figured it all out, they are exposed to competencybased interview questions (also known as behavioral-style interviews) that leave them clueless as to how to respond.

Competency-based interviews are quickly gaining popularity among hiring professionals as the most effective questioning strategy to identify and hire the right people. But what are competency-based interviews and how do these interviews work? Competency-based interviews are when interviewers focus on core competencies that are essential for success on the job. In addition, behavioral-style interview questions target the candidates’ accomplishments, which gives them an opportunity to showcase their successes.

This book presents 201 competency-based interview questions that you are likely to be asked so you will know the best way to answer these questions. This book provides the tips and guidance you need to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace. To make it easier to navigate through the book, the information is split into three parts.

Part I: The Fundamentals. Whenever a new interview method, such as the competency-based interview, is introduced, it’s normal for applicants to feel insecure. The key is to not let self-doubt get the best of you, lest you run the risk of getting tongue-tied and making a poor impression. Filled with easy-to-grasp concepts and easy-to-follow advice, Part I effectively prepares you to enter this new world of interviewing.

Part II: Competency-Based Questions and Answers. This part of the book is its core.With these 201 interview questions and answers, you will come away with a clear understanding of how to broach this type of questioning strategy. Each answer has three components: situation, action (or observation), and result. The breakdown of competencies, along with the questions and typical answers, provides you with a variety of objectives and sample responses you can use as a guide when preparing for interviews.

Part III: The End of the Interview. The way you manage the end of the interview, and the course you take once the interview is over. can have a significant impact on whether or not you are offered the position. Complete with a post-interview analysis, this section provides scripts on how to close the interview and sample follow-up letters you can tailor to

fit your situation.

Key Attributes and Career Values

Key attributes and career values are personal characteristics and work strengths that employers will measure during job interviews. In the body of this book you will learn how to identify your fundamental competencies and shape each to appeal to employers. However, to begin, you can use your current job description to identify your employment-based

traits and your basic career values. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1. Pull out your job description and jot down your duties and responsibilities.

Step 2. Write down the actions you take to accomplish each duty.

Step 3. Identify the career values and key attributes important to each.

As an example, see Figure I-1. This shows what one person, presently working as a quality assurance manager, came up with when he followed the three steps just described. As you can see, he took his current job description (to create a safe environment, to conduct OSHA meetings, and to file accident reports) and paired those duties with the actions he took to perform those duties and the employer-desired values and key employee attributes inherent in those actions.

Gathering this job information and viewing it in this manner—in terms of key attributes and career values—will provide you with the resources you need to answer the kinds of competency-based questions that have been presented in this book.

The Competency-Based Questions

Chapters 6 through 10 present the 201 questions and give sample responses, keyed to the Key Attributes and Career Values described above. As a further aid, I have presented just the questions in the following section—you might see how well you can answer them right now, even before beginning to read this book. Then compare your initial responses

with those in the chapters that follow. In this increasingly competitive world, securing a job position—especially

the position that you want and that will advance your career—requires solid communication skills and the ability to answer these tough competencybased questions. With this guide you will be well on your way to getting that job offer.

Good luck!