Competency Interview Questions

Hays Hungary Kft.

1054 Budapest
Szabadság tér 7.
Tel: 36-1-501-2400
COMPETENCY: COMMUNICATION
1.
Give me an example of a time when you have had to explain a new idea of yours to a group of people.
How was your idea received?
Did you feel that was the best way of communicating your idea? What would you do differently?
2.
When have you communicated your ideas/your solution to a problem, which may have worsened,
without your input?
3.
What channels have you used to inform others of your opinions/thoughts?
4.
What topics have you given presentations on in the past and what tools did you use to make it?
5.
Give me an example of a time recently when you have needed to influence someone. What were you
trying to achieve? What did you do? What was the result?

COMPETENCY: GROUP DYNAMICS, LEADERSHIP/TEAMWORK

1.
Give me an example of a time when you have had to set up a new process for people to follow. Why
was this process needed? How did you implement it?
How was the process received by its users? What happened?
2.
What experience have you had of managing people?
Talk me through a specific example of when you have helped a member of your team improve their
skills/performance.
What techniques did you use to manage them? Which techniques did you find most effective and
why?
3.
Give me an example of when you had to organise a team and rely on them to perform a complex
task.
How many people were involved? Over what period of time? What deadlines were there? Was there
any external pressure? What happened? Did you have any problems?

COMPETENCY: INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

1.
Tell me about a time when you have had to join a new team.
What did you do to make sure that you were accepted by the group? Do you think that was the best
approach? What happened?
2.
Give me an example of a time when you have had to deal with an upset member of staff or customer.
Or
Give me an example of a sensitive problem you have had to deal with. How did you go about it?
What has the result?
3.
Who do you perceive your customers to be in your current position?
Can you give me an example where your customer feedback has been negative? What steps did
you take to improve?

COMPETENCY: PERSONAL ORGANISATION & PRODUCTIVITY

1.
Give me an example of when it has been difficult to balance personal commitments against work/study
demands.
What was the situation? What action did you take? What was the outcome?
2.
Tell me how you plan your time over a typical day / week?
Give me an example of when something has impacted on your plan and tell me how you dealt with
it.
What was the outcome?
4.
Give me an example of when you productivity has been affected by an unplanned situation
How did you deal with it and restore your productivity? What
happened as a result?

COMPETENCY: MANAGING MEETINGS

1.
Tell me about a time when you have had to deal with a disruptive individual in a meeting? What was
the situation?
What did you do? What was the result?
2.
Have you successfully dealt with a meeting which has been disruptive in some way? What was the
situation?
How did you deal with it? What was the result?
3.
What experience do you have of managing meeting/giving presentations? What were the objectives
of the meeting/presentation?
How did you make sure everyone’s views were given?
What techniques did you use to manage the meetings/control the presentation?
4.
Can you give me an example of any difficult situations that may have arisen in a meeting/presentation
you have arranged/given?
How did you resolve any of the difficult/challenging situations?
5.
What tools have you used for managing meetings? What was the advantage of using that tool?

COMPETENCY: CUSTOMER & RESULTS FOCUS

1.
Give me an example of an effective client relationship you have developed and maintained. What was
the situation? What did you do? What happened?
2.
Describe a situation where you have had to deal with customer dissatisfaction. What was the
situation?
What did you do? What happened?

COMPETENCY: PROBLEM SOLVING

1.
Give me an example of a difficult problem you have dealt with. What were you trying to achieve? What
did you do? Were your actions successful?
2.
Give me an example of a problem you were unable to solve. What was the situation?
What were you trying to achieve? What did you do?
What was the result? What did you learn?
3.
Give me an example of the most frustrating situation you have faced when trying to meet a deadline
/ complete a task.
4.
Give me an example of when you have had to seek advice in solving a problem? Who did you consult?
Why was there a need to? Did you do what they suggested?

COMPETENCY: QUALITY AND DEPENDABILITY

1.
How do you measure the quality of your work? Give me a specific example of that.
2.
Give me an example of a time when you have been under pressure at work. What was the situation?
What did you do? Did the quality of your work suffer in any way? Did you miss any deadlines? How
did you feel about that?
What was the overall result?
Tell me about a time when you have been really proud of a piece or work that you have done (either
work experience/academic).
What was the nature of your achievement? What was the result?
4.
Tell me about a time when you have been disappointed with a piece of work that you have done.
Why was that?
What have you learned?

COMPETENCY: INITIATIVE
1.
Give me an example of a situation when you have used your initiative recently. What were you looking
to achieve?
What did you do? What was the result?
2.
Give me an example of a situation when you have used your initiative recently. What were you looking
to achieve?
What did you do? What was the result?
3.
Tell me about something that you consider has been the most important achievement for you in the
past 2-3 years.
Why has that been important to you?

COMPETENCY: DECISION MAKING/JUDGEMENT

1.
Give me an example of a decision you have made and regretted. What was the situation?
What were you trying to achieve? What did you do?
What happened? What did you learn from the experience?
2.
What was the most difficult decision you made recently? Who else was involved in the decision?
Why wasn’t anyone else involved in the decision?
3.
Give me an example of the type of information you have had to provide at various levels.
What type of information? To whom?
Describe the impact for the information you provided?

COMPETENCY: PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING

1.
How do you organise/plan for major projects? Give me an example.
2.
In your experience have you ever missed a deadline? How did you deal with it?
How did you measure it? When, Where, What?
3.
Describe how your efforts have been measured.
4.
Example of your involvement with planning a project/assignment. What went well?
What went badly?

COMPETENCY: HIRING AND COACHING.

1.
Give me an example of a situation where you have had to pass your knowledge on to someone else.
Why did you have to do that? How did you approach it?
2.
Tell me about your interviewing experience. What did you find most challenging?
Has your approach to interviewing changed as a result of your experience? In what way?
3.
Think about a situation where your team has been extremely successful what did you do to contribute
to that success?
4.
Tell me an example of a Challenging member of your team.
How did you manage it? What did you do differently?

COMPETENCY: CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

1.
What innovative contributions have you made to particular problem/issue you have faced in the last
year?
2.
Describe how you keep up to date with new concepts?
3.
Think of examples of situations when you have challenged other’s ideas. Why did you do it? What
did you do? What was the result?
4.
Think of problems you have solved in your past experience. What was the situation? What did you
do? What was the result?

COMPETENCY: CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

1.
What innovative contributions have you made to particular problem/issues you have faced in the last
year?
2.
Describe how you keep up to date with new concepts?
3.
Think of examples of situations when you have challenged other’s ideas. Why did you do it? What
did you do? What was the result?