Non-Competency Interview Tips

plane2556

Hello All,

I am just wondering if a job informs you that an interview is “not competency based”, what exactly does this mean? Does it mean that the interview is more casual and more of a chat?

If anyone has any experience of this kind of interview then any help would be much appreciated! 😊

Thanks

Jim2007

It simply means that it is not a test of your technical competencies to do the job. So you can expect very few in-depth questions about your area of expertise, if any at all.

The objective is for them to get a feel for you and how they see you fitting into their organisation and team. Since the outcome is important to you I would not treat it as casual. The interviewer or interviewers will have certain issues they want to assure themselves that you will capable of dealing with. For instance there may be some difficult or unpleasant people you might have to deal with and they will want to be satisfied that you will be able to handle them.

For example, on one occasion as part of an interview process I was introduced to a maths guy called Pavel. He asked me a question which I answered and asked hime one in return. He go up and started writing formula on a white board.... after a few minutes it was obvious to me that he was away in his own little world and had forgot I was in the room! I let him rabbit on for twenty minutes or so before I closed out the interview rather than him. Afterward I was asked by the team leader what I thought, I indicated that I though a major unwritten requirement of the job was to act as a minder for Pavel. Which was confirmed!

Seeming how someone might fit into the existing organisation is often a very big part of the process.