Competency-Based Interview Questions (CORE COMPETENCIES)

Other

• Q. Tell me about a time when you faced a professional or ethical dilemma at work.  What was the specific situation?  How did you feel?  How did you resolve the dilemma?
• Q. Please give an example of when you had to defend an organizational decision to others who did not agree with the viewpoint.  What was the specific situation?  Why did you defend the situation?  What did you say/do that was particularly effective?  What might you have done differently?
• Q. Tell us about a time when you observed others working in an unprofessional/unethical manner.  What was unprofessional or unethical about their behaviour?  What did you specifically do about their behaviour?  What were the implications of taking action?  How did you deal with the possible consequences?  How likely are you to take action compared with your colleagues?
• Q. Tell us about a project where you achieved success despite some obstacles making it difficult for you to proceed as planned.  What was the goal of the project?  What were the challenges you had to overcome?  What specifically did you do to ensure you were successful?  Would you do anything differently another time?
• Q. Describe a situation where you had to work under pressure.  What was the reason for the pressure?  How did you deal with it?  What was the outcome?  What did you learn from this?
• Q. Tell us about a time when you were successful in getting one of your ideas acted upon despite strong opposition.  What made you successful?  Why was there opposition?  Why was it important for you to get this idea accepted?  Is there anything you would do differently another time?
• Q. Give an example of a situation in which your work entailed bringing together people from a wide range of backgrounds and ideas.  Why was this important?  What was your method for encouraging/ensuring this collaboration?  What was the outcome?  Would you do anything differently another time?
• Q. Describe a situation that required you to consider a different perspective to your own when exploring an issue.  What did you learn from the experience?  How do you think you could improve your ability to see issues from a different perspective?  How do you rate your ability relative to your peers?  What do you see as key to effectively viewing issues from an alternative perspective?
• Q. Please tell us about a situation in which you pursued a course of action which had to take into consideration the sensitivities of external parties.  What were the issues?  What did you specifically do to handle the situation?  What was the outcome?
• Q. Tell us about a time when you went against a policy?  Why did you do that?  How did you handle it?  What were the repercussions for you?
• Q. Can you give an example of a time when it was particularly important for you to take responsibility for your actions  What had you done that required this action?  Why was this important?  How did you make this known to others?
• Q. Describe a time where you worked in a highly effective team.  What was the reason for its effectiveness?  What was your role within the team?  What did you contribute towards it being effective  What key elements would you wish to find in any future team you work in?
• Q. Tell us about a time when your personal objectives were at odds with those of other members of the team  How did you react?  What was the outcome?  How do you balance competing personal and team goals?
• Q. Give an example of a time when you had to deal with a conflict within a team?  What did you do to resolve the situation?  How did you rebuild rapport within the team?  How did you assess the success of your efforts?
• Q. Please tell us about a time when it was important to build relationships with other members of the team.  Why was this important?  How did you approach this task?  What challenges did you face?  What advice would you give others wanting to foster more collaboration in a team?
• Q. Q.Tell us about a situation where your communication skills made a difference to a situation?  What was the situation?  How did you make that difference?  What specific techniques did you use?  What feedback did you get on your effort?
• Q. Please describe a situation where you had to explain something complex to a colleague or client.  What was complex about the situation?  Which problems did you encounter?  How did you deal with them?
• Q. Describe a time when you had to adapt your communication approach to suit the group you were addressing.  Who were you addressing?  Why was it important to adapt your approach?  How did you ensure you were understand?
• Q. Please give us an example of where your listening skills proved crucial to an outcome.  Why was it important?  What did you do to make a difference to the outcome?  What do you consider the main elements of effective listening?
• Q. Tell us about a time when you were asked to summarise complex points.  What were the circumstances where this was necessary?  What did you do to ensure your summary was accurate?  How did you verify this?
• Q. Please tell us about a situation where it was important for you to show empathy?  What was the situation?  Why was this so important?  What did you do to ensure the other party understood?
• Q. Please give an example of when it was important for you to clearly communicate an organizational objective.  Why was it important?  What factors did you feel were important to address?  How did you make sure you were understood?  What was the outcome?
• Q. Please give an example of where one of your reports was negatively received.  Why was this?  From whom did the criticism come?  Did you feel it was justified?  What did you do as a result of this?
• Q. Tell us about a time when you proactively decided to expand your knowledge on a certain subject.  Why did you do this?  What did you need to do to make this happen?  What was the result of the action you took?  What feedback did you receive?
• Q. Describe a situation when colleagues sought your advice or experience.  What had you done to be an authority?  To what extent could you answer their questions?  What was their reaction?  How did you ensure that the information you gave was up to date?
• Q. How do you keep up with advances in your field?  How important is it for you to keep up to date professionally?  How much time do you spend doing this?  Which specialist or technical magazines or journals do you read?  What other methods do you use to keep up to date?
• Q. Give an example of when you had to assess a client’s needs. (e.g. refugees/ IDPs)  How did you ascertain their real needs?  How well did you manage to meet those needs?  Who else did you involve? (How did you involve other stakeholders?)  What skills or tools did you use?
• Q. Give us an example of a situation where you had to integrate into planning a wide variety of stakeholders’ needs or interests (explicit or implicit).  Why was this necessary?  How challenging was this?  What steps did you take?  What was the outcome?
• Q. Describe a situation where you needed to involve various colleagues from other sections across divisions or from within the office (or external partners or clusters).  How did you identify that need?  How did you ensure buy-in from all involved?  How successful were you?  What feedback did you receive?
• Q. Describe a time when you failed to engage at the appropriate level in your organisation.  Why was this?  How did you handle the situation?  What could you have done differently?
• Q. Please describe a situation where you needed to build consensus across a very diverse audience (e.g. with colleagues with partners or clusters).  Why was this important?  How did you identify key players?  What specifically did you do to engage them to realize your goals and objectives?  What challenges did you face?  What was the outcome?

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