:: Competency Based Interview ::

Competency-Based
Interviews

Master the Tough
New Interview Style
and Give Them the
Answers That Will
Win You the Job

By
Robin Kessler

Franklin Lakes, NJ

Copyright © 2006 by Robin Kessler

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Career Press.

COMPETENCY-BASED INTERVIEWS
EDITED BY JODI BRANDON
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Dedication
This is for my mother, with love and thanks.

This page intentionally left blank

Acknowledgments
As always, a huge thank you to everyone who helped
with this book. I would, however, like to give a few people
some special recognition.
To Paula Hanson, thank you for doing the initial editing
and providing advice when I came up against problems.
Any kind of problems. And for hanging in as a good friend
for a very long time.
To Steven Lait, editorial cartoonist for the Oakland
Tribune and ANG Group, who drew the cartoons for this
book, thank you for doing great work for Competency-
Based Interviews, and being the best editorial cartoonist
on the planet and one of my favorite cousins.
To the consultants, Cara Capretta Raymond, Michael
Friedman, Dr. Kay Lillig Cotter, and Ken Abosch, thank
you for sharing your expertise, time, opinions, and personal
competencies. Having the opportunity to talk with each of
you has helped me make this book considerably stronger.
To David Heath, Dessie Nash, Blake Nolingberg, Mindy
Wertheimer, Erica Graham, Chip Smith, Kalen Phillips,
Stephen Sye, Diane Schad Dayhoff, Mary Alice Eureste,
and Bill Baumgardt, thank you for being subject matter
experts in your professional areas and answering all my
questions.

To Dr. Jon Wiener and Martha Williams, thank you for
sharing some of your favorite quotations with me.
To Ron Fry, Michael Pye, Kristen Parkes, Linda
Rienecker, Laurie Kelly-Pye, Jodi Brandon, Astrid deRidder,
and the rest of the staff at Career Press, thank you for
doing a great job of making my words look good, the book
look better, and being great to work with.
To my other friends and relatives, thank you for putting
up with my leaving early, not calling as often, and not being
as available to go out to dinner, the movies, or anything
else. Since this book is now finished, call me.

—Robin Kessler

Contents

Introduction 9

Chapter 1 Understand Competency-Based
Interview Systems 21

Chapter 2 Identify Key Competencies 33

Chapter 3 Know What Interviewers Are
Trained to Look For 49

Chapter 4 Expect Competency-Based
Behavioral Questions 61

Chapter 5 Prove Competencies
With Examples 73

Chapter 6 Look Like a Strong Candidate 85

Chapter 7 Consider Other Important
Interview Tips 99

Chapter 8 Check to Make Sure You Are
Ready for the Interview 115

Chapter 9 Look at Case Studies for Ideas
to Make Your Interviewing
Stronger 127

Chapter 10 Understand How a Typical
Competency-Based
Interview Flows 145

Chapter 11 Learn From Other Interviewees 155

Chapter 12 Send a Thank-You Note,
Follow Up, Get the Offer,
and Negotiate 177

Chapter 13 Actively Manage Your Career
in Competency-Based
Organizations 189

Chapter 14 Use Competency-Based
Resumes to Get Your Next
Interview 199

Chapter 15 Think Long-Term and Make
Change Work for You 213

Appendix A: List of Core Competencies 219

Appendix B: Competencies for Case Studies 237

Appendix C: Examples of Illegal
Pre-employment Questions 245

Notes 247
Bibliography 249
Index 251
About the Author 255

Introduction

What can you do today to be a star at interviewing and
improve your career? How can you get that specific offer
you want from the organization you want to work for? How
can you move forward in your career?
Think strategically.
What makes Lance Armstrong keep winning the Tour
de France? It takes more than luck to win a major sports
event seven times. He’s been so successful that, as of 2005,
he’s chosen to retire.
Why do publishers choose certain book proposals and
not others? Why do certain products do especially well and
others don’t?
How did Oprah become a star, and what does she do
to make sure she stays a star? How can she be so good at
interviewing others on her show, acting, and developing
and publishing her magazine? When Oprah decides to
promote a book through her book club or by having the
author on her show, book sales increase dramatically.
Why did you—or someone you know—get into a
prestigious college? Why do certain people get selected
for the best assignments and the best jobs? What causes
other qualified candidates to be rejected?

9

10 Competency-Based Interviews

The answers to these questions are complex, but if we really
think about it, there are three basic steps we all need to take to
improve our ability to get what we want.

What It Takes to Win
1. Learning what it takes to win is the first step.
2. Doing the things that it takes to win is the
second step.
3. Recognizing that what it takes to win changes—
sometimes rapidly—is the third step.

The faster we identify the changes and adjust our own approach,
the faster we will be successful. Realistically, we need to expect
these changes. New tools, new approaches, and new strategies
can cause decision-makers to make different decisions. If we adapt
to these changes earlier than others, we increase our probability of
winning.
That’s it. Lance and Oprah may have extra-strong athletic or
artistic abilities, and they are obviously smarter than average. But
both have also overcome major life challenges, namely cancer and
child abuse. Clearly, both celebrities figured out what it took to get
ahead in their fields, and they have mastered staying ahead of the
game as their competition became more savvy.
One of the key characteristics that will significantly help you
manage your own career as effectively as possible is learning how
to interview more effectively and convince the interviewer that you
are the best candidate for the job. Interviewing well is critical if you
want to be successful.
So how can we take the three steps that it takes to win and
apply them to interviewing? This book will show you how to be
more successful by:

Introduction 11

l Teaching you how to recognize the changes in interviewing
at the most sophisticated organizations.
l Explaining what today’s interviewers are looking for.
l Helping you adjust your own way of interviewing to
emphasize how your competencies match the employer’s
needs.
l Developing a plan to ensure you perform well in every
critical interview.

When systems change and grow, we need to be smarter than
our competitors and recognize those changes as early as possible,
the way Lance and Oprah have always done. If we aren’t aware,
our own careers may be affected in a negative way. We need time
to develop and adjust our strategy, because employers do periodically
change the systems they use to select employees.
If we don’t change our own approach, we will eventually
become less valuable to our employer. We all need to take
responsibility for actively managing our careers, and that includes
changing our strategy to respond to the changes introduced by
employers. As we become even more astute, we may be able to
anticipate some of these changes and prepare for them.
This book will give you a new—and better—strategy you can
use to help you interview more effectively and improve your ability
to get the job you want in the best organizations. If you use this
approach, you will increase your chances of:
l Being selected for the most competitive positions.
l Winning the best job at a new organization.
l Getting a great first job or internship.
l Being chosen for that critical promotion in your current
organization.


l Taking control of your career path.
l Increasing your salary.
l Getting more satisfying assignments and more challenging
work.

What’s Different?
Understanding the way human resources managers, line
managers, and professionals approach selecting employees has
always given candidates an advantage in the interview process. If
you know what the interviewer is looking for—and you are savvy
enough to know how to use this information—you will have an
edge in the interview.
I’ve been told that at least half of the Fortune 500 and other
major organizations in the United States, in Europe, and
internationally are now using competency-based systems to help
select and manage their human resources.1 Here are just a few
examples: American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola,
Toyota, Bank of America, BP, Wells Fargo, General Motors, HP,
Radio Shack, HCA, Carlson Companies, BHP, IBM, General
Electric, PDVSA, Anheuser-Busch, Girl Scouts USA, the U.S.
Federal Reserve System, and the province of British Columbia in
Canada.
Some of these organizations have worked with competency-
based systems for more than 15 years, and they are becoming
increasingly sophisticated with the applications they are using. Other
companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations have
adopted competencies more recently, or are looking at the possibility
of using them in the near future. Competency-based applications
help organizations manage their human resources—from selecting
employees to evaluating, training, paying, and promoting them.
Competency-based selection processes and competency-
based appraisals are the two most common ways companies are

Introduction 13

using competencies to help improve the caliber of their employees.
More and more companies are including a list of competencies
they need in their own Website ads and Internet advertisements on
Websites such as www.monster.com and www.careerbuilder.com.
Since January 2003, when I saw the need for the book Competency-
Based Resumes, the number of jobsite advertisements that
specifically list the competencies the employer is looking for
continues to significantly increase every time I check.

On November 23, 2005, Monster.com ran advertisements
asking for competencies from organizations of all sizes.
Companies with competency-based job advertisements
that day included:
l Kaiser Permanente l Deloitte
l Ernst & Young l Shell Oil
l Marsh & McLennan l Ingersoll Rand
l International Paper l St. Paul Travelers
l Hitachi Consulting l MetLife
l Heidrick & Struggles l Honeywell
l Royal Caribbean Cruises
That same day, CareerBuilder.com ran an advertisement
for a Competency Modeling Manager for Wal-Mart.
Rockwell Automation advertised for an Engineering
Competency Leader, and Excellus BlueCross BlueShield in
Rochester, New York, was looking for a Manager, Project
Manager Competency Center. McGraw-Hill advertised for
a Director, Talent Management who would “conduct a
needs analysis to create an executive competency model
and ‘future’ leader profile.” Other organizations running
ads on CareerBuilder.com specifically mentioned
competencies on November 23, 2005, included:
l Sears l Cingular Wireless

l Administrative Office of the United States Courts
l PriceWaterhouseCoopers


Employees at the best competency-based employers have the
ability to look up information about critical competencies on their
employer’s Website or in employee handbooks or manuals. The
competencies for their current positions are almost always covered
as part of their appraisal.

What Are Competencies?
Paul Green, in his book Building Robust Competencies (Jossey-
Bass, 1999), defines an individual competency as “a written
description of measurable work habits and personal skills used to
achieve a work objective.” Some organizations use a slightly
different definition for competencies: underlying characteristics,
behavior, knowledge, and skills required to differentiate performance.
They define what superior performers do more often, in more
situations, and with better results.
Put simply, competencies are the key characteristics that the
most successful performers have that help them be so successful.
Organizations benefit from working with competencies because it
gives them a better, more sophisticated way to manage, measure,
and improve the quality of their employees.
The use of competencies is continuing to grow. According to
Signe Spencer, a senior consultant with the Hay Group in Boston
and the coauthor of Competence at Work (John Wiley & Sons,
1993), “In the last ten years, we have seen an explosion of interest
in competency work at all levels worldwide.”
The relevant competencies that have been identified for all
positions organization-wide are called core competencies. But
competencies used in interviewing (and other applications) may be
identified at the department or functional level, or even at the
individual level. It takes different competencies to be successful as
an accountant than to be successful as a sales professional. In
Chapter 2, I will spend more time explaining competencies and
giving you the information you need to successfully identify the
relevant competencies for the position you want, before the interview.

Introduction 15

Many organizations choose not to use the term competencies.
They call the key characteristics that it takes to be successful
by other terms: success factors, attributes, values, dimensions, and
so on. There are subtle differences in what each of these terms
mean, and decision-makers have good reasons for choosing them.
For candidates, though, it simply makes sense to look at all of these
categories for information describing what the employer is really
looking for—those key characteristics or competencies.
Competencies are not just a trend, and the competency-based
systems designed by consultants and corporations can be complex.
This book will help you understand competency-based selection
systems and give you the tools you need, as a candidate, to navigate
your way through them.

What Are Competency-Based Interviews?
Today, more interviewers at the best employers are using
behavioral interviewing techniques to help determine how competent
candidates are in the key areas most critical for success. Behavioral
interviewing has been used for more than 20 years in most
sophisticated organizations, but many of these organizations have
only been using behavioral interview questions targeting relevant
competencies in the last five or 10 years. Other organizations began
working with competency-based interviewing even before that
timeframe.
Interviewers at many of the best organizations are being trained
to use competency-based systems and evaluate candidates in a
much more complex way than in the past. They are taught to:

l Evaluate the candidate’s fit for the position based on their
perceived competency level.
l Assess the candidate’s nonverbal and verbal communication
in a more sophisticated way.

Organizations may use different names, including targeted
selection interviewing and evidence-based interviewing, to describe


what is essentially competency-based interviewing. Some
competency-based interviewing is based on the approach of asking
primary questions targeting each key competency. Another
approach asks interviewers to identify evidence of competencies
by listening closely to the answers to questions, follow-up questions
(also called probes), and more follow-up questions. In Chapter 1,
we’ll be looking at these approaches in more detail.
Most career counselors and candidates haven’t changed their
approach to interviewing, resumes, and other job search techniques
to consider the competencies more of the best employers are now
looking for. Instead, they are marketing candidate strengths and
accomplishments the same way they always have. It is time to
accept that the job market has changed and become more
sophisticated. It simply makes sense to change your own approach.
Competencies are the way the majority of the most respected
organizations measure whether to interview and hire candidates.
For candidates or employees trying to turn their interview into a job
offer, it’s time to change and be more strategic. It’s time to understand
how to use your own competencies to convince employers you are
the best candidate for them—because you can prove to them you
have the critical competencies they need.

As the saying goes, you don’t want to be
fighting today’s war using equipment, strategy,
and tactics from the last century.

It’s up to you to learn how to interview the current, competency-
based way. To do this, you need to:
1. Understand competency-based interview systems.
2. Identify the key competencies for the position.

Introduction 17

3. Know what interviewers are trained to look for.
4. Expect competency-based behavioral questions.
5. Prove your competencies with examples.
6. Look like a strong candidate.
7. Consider other important interview tips.
8. Check to make sure you are ready for the interview.
9. Look at case studies for ideas to make your interviewing
stronger.
10. Understand how a typical competency-based interview
flows.
11. Learn from other interviewees.
12. Send a thank-you note, follow up, get the offer, and negotiate.

Once you have started your new position, you may also need to
learn to conduct competency-based interviews. And you will be
more successful in your new position if you take the time to follow
the suggestions we give in Chapter 13 on managing your career in
a competency-based organization and in the final chapter on how
to think long-term and make change work for you.
By following the suggestions in the book, you will perform better
in any interview and increase the probability of an offer. Learning
to master the competency-based interview will give you skills that
will help you interact better with other professionals in meetings,
one-on-one interactions, and other types of interviews.
Organizations also benefit from their candidates learning how
to be interviewed more effectively. If more people give good,
thoughtful answers that illustrate their experience with competencies,
managers will have better, more complete information to use when
they make their decision about which candidate is the most competent
for the job.
Many strong, highly competent candidates may benefit from
interview coaching or training to help them think about their best
accomplishments in each competency area before the interview.


Most managers know that the best employees aren’t always the
best interviewees.
Are you ready to start sharpening your interviewing skills so
the interviewer will realize you are the most competent candidate?
Let’s start now.
At the end of every chapter, a question and answer summary is
included for your review. These summaries will give you the
opportunity to reread the most important points and ensure you
understand them. Take the time you need to grasp the concepts
and ideas before moving on to the next chapter.

Key Points for the Introduction

“An individual competency is a written description of
measurable work habits and personal skills used to
achieve a work objective.”
–Paul Green

Key Questions Answers

What does it take to win in 1. Learning what it takes to win.
today’s organizations? 2. Doing the things that it takes
to win.
3. Recognizing that what it takes
to win changes—sometimes
rapidly.

What are competencies? The key characteristics that the most
successful employees have that help
them be so successful.

What are core competencies? Core competencies are skills used
organization-wide to help achieve
organization objectives or goals.

Introduction 19


How can you increase your Competency-based organizations
ability to get the position you rely on a different system for look-
want? ing at what it takes to be success-
ful in jobs, particularly when
selecting, promoting, and training
their employees. Understanding
how competency-based systems
work is vital to success in today’s
organizations.

Surprise! The most important thing
to remember is that these systems
always change. You need to adjust
your own approach to match the
employer’s changes.

In addition to the core l Department or functional
competencies, what are the l Individual
other levels of competencies?

What are the two most l Competency-based appraisals
common competency-based l Competency-based screening and
applications? interviewing to select candidates.

What are behavioral interview Behavioral interviewing is based on
questions? the theory that past behavior is the
best predictor of future behavior. In
other words, past success predicts
future success.



What can you do to excel in To master the tough interview style,
interviews for very competi- your answers to interview questions
tive positions? must be focused (focused on the
competencies desired), powerful
(use powerful words to describe
your competency), and concise
(make a point, make it clear, and use
precise wording).

How can you keep promoting It is important to keep marketing
your competencies? your competencies even after
getting the position. Other strategic
marketing tools are: competency-
based resumes, cover letters,
networking, and interview skills.
Remember to focus on the
competencies required by your
prospective employer—or your
current employer, if you want to
be considered for promotion or
other opportunities.

How are companies using com- They are using competencies to:
petencies to strengthen their l Advertise for candidates
workforce? l Screen candidate resumes

l Interview using behavioral

techniques
l Select employees

l Evaluate employees

l Train employees

l Promote employees

l Reward employees

l Determine assignments

Chapter 1

Understand
Competency-Based
Interview Systems

When we were students, most of us realized the
importance of understanding what the teacher or professor
was looking for—which assignments were required and
which were optional. And if we are playing sports, we need
to understand the strengths, vulnerabilities, and game plan of
our opponent, even if we are the #1 seed in the tournament.
When we give a business presentation, we need to identify
our goals and understand the needs and interests of the
audience before we start developing the speech.
Figuring out what other people are looking for is critical
to being successful in most things throughout life. Assuming
we have the basics, we simply have to provide the evidence
and, in an interview, convince them that we fit.
Before we start preparing for an interview, it is important
to understand the method of interviewing that will be used
by the interviewer. Some organizations are still traditional in
their approaches to interviewing. Many managers still ask
questions that help them make decisions about candidates
based simply on whether or not they like them. In addition,
they may focus on whether the candidate meets their basic
requirement on credentials, such as grades and class
standing. Most law firms and many of the more traditional
companies are still interviewing candidates this way.

21


Some managers use hypothetical questions based on giving the
candidate a scenario and asking what he or she would do. People
who like this interview style believe it gives them a chance to see
how candidates think on their feet, but many others believe that it is
not as effective as finding out how individuals have performed in
the past.
Most of the managers at organizations with strong, positive
reputations have realized that the old-style interviews don’t seem
to be that effective in helping them choose employees. They’ve
changed to the competency-based interview style.

What’s Changed?
Recognizing how the labor market has changed—and learning
how to make those changes work for you—can make the difference
between success and failure.
The most sophisticated employers are primarily using
competency-based interview systems to select candidates. If you
haven’t interviewed recently or if you come from a different culture,
you probably know you need some help to do well in the interview.
Some candidates think they know what to expect in the interview,
and it may take a few bad experiences before they decide their old
approach is not working as well as it used to.
But even if you are articulate, think well on your feet, have the
best credentials, and are confident you are a great candidate,
preparing for the interview is important. Remember that how well
you perform on the interview gives the interviewers an idea of the
quality of work they can expect from you in the future.
Whether you are writing a resume, preparing for an interview,
or getting ready for a performance evaluation, becoming more aware
of what competencies the employer is looking for is the first step to
help make you more successful. The next step? Learn what you
need to know to prove to the employer that you are strong in these
critical competency areas.

Understand Competency-Based Interview Systems 23

How Does a Competency-Based Interview Work?
Very simply, a competency-based interview uses behavioral
questions to help the interviewer assess the candidate based on
critical competencies that have been identified by the employer.
The interview is highly structured, with key questions provided for
the interviewers to help them determine how strong candidates are
in specific competency areas.

Key Definition
Competency-based interviews are structured and use
behavioral questions to help the interviewer assess
candidates based on critical competencies identified for
the position.

Whether you are a candidate who wants to work for an
organization using competency-based systems or an employee
currently working in a competency-based company, it is important
to recognize that it may be time to change your own approach to
the process. Retool and retrain. Adjust the sails. Add a warm-up
period before running. Accept the fact: In today’s most sophisticated
organizations, almost all are using competency-based interviews.
The most commonly used competency-based interviewing style
is based upon asking candidates primary questions targeted to the
critical competencies for the position. Almost every major consulting
firm working to help organizations identify competencies, including
Lominger, Personnel Decisions, Inc., Hay Group, and Hewitt
Associates, encourages its clients to use structured, competency-
based interviewing processes that they have developed.
One well-known example of this approach is Targeted Selection
Interviewing, which was developed by the consulting firm
Development Dimensions Inc. On its Website, the firm markets
Targeted Selection by saying it uses behavioral interviewing and
helps organizations:


l Identify the competencies needed for all key positions.
l Build interviewing skills and confidence for more accurate
selection decisions.
l Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the employee
selection process.
Another interviewing approach related to competency-based
interviews starts with the manager asking a question about a major
accomplishment and then asking follow-up questions to probe for
additional information about competencies, strengths, and
weaknesses. An example of this approach is Lou Adler’s The One
Question Interview.
Both styles are covered in more detail later in this chapter.
Although the style may be a little different, managers are taught
to ask candidates behavioral questions, based on the theory that
past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. In other words,
past success is the best predictor of future success. The managers
are then asked to assess how competent the candidate is in several
critical areas.

Key Definition
Behavioral questions are based on the theory that
past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

To gain the understanding we really need to perform well in a
competency-based interview, we need to first understand the
answers to this question: What are the two basic interview styles
that consider competencies?


Interview Style #1:
Competency-Based Interviews (Most Typical
Approach) Example: Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson, ranked #1 on the 2005 Corporate Reputation
Survey 1, has worked with competency-based interviewing for more
than 10 years. They have developed interview guides for their senior
leaders (executives), people and individual leaders (professionals
and managers), and for campus interviewing.
Susan Millard, Vice President for Strategic Talent Management
at Johnson & Johnson, said, “Predicting future success on the job
and the competencies that matter the most to performance, and
operating with the highest ethical standards are critical to assure
we have the talent needed to power our growth and culture at
J&J.” She also talked about how successful their 2005 recruiting
event with 700 MBAs and managers was because they used their
updated competency-based Global Leadership Profile Interview
Guides and were able to identify some particularly strong candidates.
Their interview guides review how the interviewer should
prepare before the interview, suggest ways to open the interview,
encourage the interviewer to review the candidate’s background
and ask questions, and provide several behavioral questions for each
critical competency for the position that interviewers can choose
from during the interview. The interviewer is asked to rate the
candidate on the competency and his or her communication skills.
Though every example in J&J’s guide is strong, I chose to show
you the “Results and Performance Driven” example, because it
represents one of the most frequently used competencies—by every
organization. Other organizations often use synonyms to describe
the same competency. This one competency can be called:
l Achieves Results
l Drive for Results
l Performance Bias
l Achieves Goals

26
(For explanations of the ratings for the following chart, see Chapter 3.)
Results and Performance Driven Key Examples

Goal oriented; remains persistent Flawless execution—Holds self, direct reports, and others
when obstacles are encountered; accountable for seamless and compliant execution of tasks and
encourages others to be projects.
accountable for their actions;
relentlessly focused and Accepts stretch goals—Eagerly embraces stretch goals; measures

Competency-Based Interviews
committed to customer service; achievements through metrics.
thinks creatively.
Customer centric thinking—Makes the customer the center for
all decisions to build value; imposes customer focus on others and
challenges them to exceed customer expectations.

Planned Behavioral Questions
1. Describe an instance when you were particularly effective at achieving end results. What steps did you take
to achieve these results?
2. Think of an example when you consistently exceeded internal or external customer expectations. How did
you do this? What approach did you use?
3. Provide an example of a project or team you managed in which there were many obstacles to overcome. What
did you do to address those obstacles?
4. Tell me about an example of what you have done to obtain information to better understand a customer.
What did you do? How did this information improve your customer service?
5. It is not always easy to achieve required work goals or objectives. Describe a stretch goal or objective that
you were able to achieve. Why was this a stretch goal? What was the result?

Situation/Task Action Result

Understand Competency-Based Interview Systems
Communication ___________________________________ Results and Performance
Driven Rating

27
Reprinted with permission of Johnson & Johnson Strategic Talent Management


Interview Style #2:
The 1-Question Interview
Another current approach to interviewing starts with one
question and asks the candidate a series of follow-up questions to
probe for additional information. This interview technique provides
an interesting and different way to assess a candidate by listening
for evidence of the candidate’s competency (and critical
competencies) in his answers to the questions.
The basic technique is shown in this excerpt from an article
by consultant Lou Adler, whose firm, Adler Concepts, teaches
interviewing skills classes to some major clients. He encourages
the interviewer to first ask the candidate to think about his or her
most significant accomplishment, and then to tell the interviewer
about it. Then he teaches the interviewers to probe and get the
following information about the accomplishment from the candidate
in 15 to 20 minutes:
l A complete description of the accomplishment.
l The company you worked for and what it did.
l The actual results achieved: numbers, facts, changes made,
details, amounts.
l When it took place.
l How long it took.
l The importance of this accomplishment to the company.
l Your title and role.
l Why you were chosen.
l The three to four biggest challenges you faced and how
you dealt with them.


l A few examples of leadership and initiative.
l Some of the major decisions made.
l The environment and resources available.
l How you made more resources available.
l The technical skills needed to accomplish the objective.
l The technical skills learned and how long it took to learn
them.
l The actual role you played.
l The team involved and all of the reporting relationships.
l Some of the biggest mistakes you made.
l How you changed and grew as a person.
l What you would do differently if you could do it again.
l Aspects of the project you truly enjoyed.
l Aspects you didn’t especially care about.
l The budget available and your role in preparing it and
managing it.
l How you did on the project vs. the plan.
l How you developed the plan.
l How you motivated and influenced others, with specific
examples to prove your claims.
l How you dealt with conflict with specific examples.
l Anything else you felt was important to the success of the
project.


Adler encourages interviewers to conduct this type of interview
because he believes “the insight gained from this type of question
would be remarkable. Just about everything you need to know about
a person’s competency can be extracted from this type of question.2”

Comparing the 2 Types of Interviews
That Consider Competencies
From your perspective, as an interviewee, what’s the difference
between the two types of interviews we’ve been talking about in
this chapter?
Each type of interview gives the interviewers good, substantive
information about candidates. Both ask the interviewers to listen to
the candidate’s answers and determine how strong they are in critical
competency areas important to be successful in the position.
The most common type of competency-based interview looks
at several of the most critical competencies and asks the candidate
to answer behavioral questions targeting the competencies. The
second type goes in depth on one or two accomplishments and asks
the candidate to look at these accomplishments from different
perspectives—including competencies.
So why does this matter? It is not as if the interviewer gives
you a choice. And basically, you don’t need to spend time worrying
about the type of interview the interviewer is going to use.
But if you do recognize the type of interview, it may help you
think ahead and give the interviewer slightly better answers.
By following the advice in this book, you’ll be prepared for both
types of interviews we’ve mentioned—and any variation of a
competency-based interview that someone develops in the future.
You need to start thinking about how to prepare for these types of
interviews. This book, though, is going to emphasize helping you to
prepare for the first type, because it is so much more common.
When you develop accomplishments proving you are strong in
each relevant competency, you can expect follow-up questions to


probe how much you know or simply to clarify something that is
unclear to the interviewer. Start becoming aware of how each
accomplishment can provide evidence in more than one competency
area. As you think about each accomplishment, consider the follow-
up questions you could be asked to get information about your
competence in several key areas. If you do that, you will be ready
for either type of interview.
Be smart, be savvy, and figure out what you can expect.

Key Points for Chapter 1

Competency-based interviews are currently
being used by many of the most sophisticated
organizations throughout the world.


Is every organization using Most of the more sophisticated
competency-based interviewing organizations worldwide are using
methods? competency-based interviewing.

But some of the more traditional
companies and law firms are still
interviewing and making important
decisions based upon the candidate’s
credentials and if the interviewer
likes the candidate.

How can you tell that you are Competency-based interviews are
being given a competency-based highly structured and use behavioral
interview? questions to help the interviewer get
good answers from the candidate.
These answers help interviewers
assess candidates more effectively
based on the critical competencies
identified for the position.



What is behavioral interviewing? Interviewing based on the theory
that past behavior is the best
predictor of future behavior.

How are competency-based Typically, most organizations have
interviews highly structured? identified three to five primary
questions targeting each critical
competency area that interviewers
may use to get the information from
the candidate needed to assess their
level of competence.

What is the difference between The first style is the most widely
the two styles of interviewing used type of competency-based
mentioned in this chapter? interview. Interviewers will ask
candidates behavioral questions
targeting each competency area
identified as being important to being
successful in the position. Candidates
have the opportunity to talk about a
number of accomplishments. The
second style asks the candidate to
look at an accomplishment and then
probe for additional information—
including looking at accomplishments
from the perspective of different
competencies.

Chapter 2

Identify Key
Competencies

I not only use all the brains that I have,
but all that I can borrow.
—Woodrow Wilson
Like former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, many of
us believe in trying to be as smart as we can before the
actual interview. Taking the time to learn what the
organization is looking for before the interview is critical if
you plan to convince the interviewer that you are the best
candidate for the job. If you need to borrow the information
from other people or by doing online research, take the hint
from Nike’s advertisement: Just do it. Nike, by the way, is
another company that works with competencies.
Countries sharing the same language can have different
priorities for competencies, and within each country you
can expect to have organizations with different needs—
and different competencies. Organizations develop their
own lists of competencies and may work closely with
consultants to benefit from their expertise in competencies
and competency modeling.
More conservative companies would probably
emphasize different competencies than more progressive
organizations, such as Ben and Jerry’s or Starbucks. Think
of the difference between United Airlines and Southwest,

33


for example. Or IBM and Dell. In every case, the competencies need
to be consistent with the corporate culture the senior managers are
trying to create.
What is the best way to figure out what the hiring manager is
going to be looking for in the interview? Competencies are a great
place to start.
Some organizations have identified competencies for their
positions, and they are listed as part of their online advertisements.
The key competencies (or similar words such as success factors,
dimensions, or values) may also be part of a job description that a
recruiter can provide. Other organizations may not have directly
listed their competencies for the position, but in reality, they are all
looking for competent people for their positions—whether or not
they have formally identified competencies.

For example, Coca-Cola listed an opportunity on
Monster.com in December 2005 for a Human Resources
Director in Atlanta, Georgia. In the advertisement, “Gen-
eral Competencies” were listed as:

Building Value-Based Relationships: Generating alliances
internally and externally by continuously identifying and
acting on those things that will create success for the Com-
pany and its customers, bottlers, suppliers, communi-
ties, and governments.

Contributing to Team Success: Actively participating as a
committed member of a team and working with other team
members to help complete goals and deliverables.

Customer Focus: Making customers (external and inter-
nal) and their needs a primary focus of one’s actions; de-
veloping and sustaining productive customer
relationships; creating and executing plans and solutions
in collaboration with the customer.

Identify Key Competencies 35

Providing Feedback: Objectively observing, analyzing, and
sharing your perception of other people’s performance to
reinforce or redirect behavior to improve performance and
business results. Providing feedback that is timely, specific,
behavioral, balanced, and constructive.

Work Standards: Setting high standards of performance
for self; assuming responsibility and accountability for
successfully completing assignments or tasks; self-
imposing standards of excellence rather than having
standards imposed.

Consulting: Providing timely, specific information,
guidance, and recommendations to help groups, managers,
and others make informed committed decisions that will
lead to sustainable impact.

Establishing Collaborative Working Relationships:
Developing and using collaborative relationships for the
purpose of accomplishing work objectives; developing
relationships with other individuals by listening, sharing
ideas, and appreciating others’ efforts.

When the competencies are not directly identified, you need to
do several things to begin to identify the competencies for the position
on your own—before the interview. The four major steps to identify
the competencies are:
1. Think about the obvious competencies for the position.
2. Look at advertisements and postings from competitors.
3. Compile a list of competencies from other sources, including
employment Websites, advertisements in newspapers,
magazines and journals, professional associations, and the
organization’s Website.


4. Select 10 to 15 competencies that would be the most critical
for the position you are interested in from Appendix A.
If you already work for an organization and need to interview
for a promotion or a new position, you may be able to find the
relevant list of competencies for the position:

l On the company Website.
l On performance appraisals for employees currently in the
position.
l In employee handbooks or other company manuals.
l By asking a colleague or friend working in the relevant
department in the organization.

One of the main ways you can show how strong a candidate
you are is to prepare—to do your homework. Take the initiative to
be resourceful and make every effort to find this list. Even if the
organization hasn’t defined this list, you can make a smart and
educated guess about the most critical competencies.

When the competencies aren’t directly
identified, look further.

Step 1: Think About the Obvious Competencies
for the Position
In sales, it is critical to focus on results. It doesn’t matter how
much the managers like you if you don’t close the sale.


When you don’t see the word competencies as a heading in an
online job posting or advertisement, read further. You may see
phrases and words that look like core, departmental, and individual
competencies under headings such as “Required Qualifications,”
“Job Requirements,” or “Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities.”

Step 2: Look at Jobs Posted on the Websites of
Organizations That Directly Compete With the
Employer
Also check to see if any of the competitors have the equivalent
position posted on Monster, CareerBuilder, or one of the other job
sites on the Internet.
Then, try to decide if the same competencies fit the position
you are interested in, or if they need to be reworked for any other
reason. (In other words, consider the culture of the organization.)
For example, it would be reasonable to assume that the corporate
culture at Celestial Seasonings differs from the culture at Lipton
Tea enough to cause the competencies that it takes to be successful
to also be different—even for the equivalent position.

Step 3: Start to Compile a Complete, Thorough
List of Competencies for Your Position
There are several ways to develop a broader list of competencies
for a particular position. For example, if you are interested in being
considered for an IT project manager’s position at a company that
has not listed competencies in its advertisement, go to:
l An employment Website, such as Monster.com or
Dice.com, and type in “competencies IT project manager.”
Look through several of the ads to see if the competencies
identified for these positions match what you know about
the position at the particular organization you want to work
for. (Remember that you do not have to limit this search to
your geographic area!)

38
n Integrity and Credo-based Actions—lives Credo values; builds trust; tells the truth; initiates
transparency into problems; demonstrates genuine caring for people
n Strategic Thinking—driven to envision a better future; takes any role or job and makes it better;
has relentless dissatisfaction with status quo; motivated to leave things better than they were;
a change agent
n Big Picture Orientation with Attention to Detail—able to cooperate in two “worlds”
simultaneously e.g., growth and cost control, enterprise and operating company success; sees
the why as well as the what; can zoom in or out as needed
n Organization and Talent Development—motivates and empowers others to achieve a desired
action; enjoys developing a diverse group of people; champions diversity; instills confidence;
attracts good people; demonstrates a track record of people development; brings out the best
in others; net exporter of successful talent; invests time to be personally “connected” with the
organization

n Intellectual Curiosity—sees the possibilities; willing to experiment; cultivates new ideas;
comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty
n Collaboration and Teaming—puts interest of enterprise about own; works well across functions
and groups; builds teams effectively; inspires fellowship; instills a global mindset; champions
best practices
n Sense of Urgency—proactively senses and responds to problems and opportunities; works to
reduce “cycle” time; takes action when needed

Identify Key Competencies
n Prudent Risk-taking—inner confidence to take risks and learn from experience; courage to grab
opportunities or shed non-viable businesses; willing to make tough calls
n Self-awareness and Adaptability—resilient; has personal modesty and humility; willing to learn
from others; patient, optimistic, flexible, and adaptable
n Results and Performance Driven—assumes personal ownership and accountability for business
results and solutions; consistently delivers results that meet or exceed expectations; makes the
customer central to all thinking; keeps the focus on driving customer value

v2. 02/08/06
© Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.

39
Reprinted with the permission of Johnson & Johnson Strategic Talent Management


l The Websites for the companies competing with the
organization that has the position you want. Go to the
“Careers” section of their Websites, and look at
competencies listed in each of their IT project manager
positions.
l Employment advertisements for similar positions in
newspapers and association publications to see if they have
listed competencies.
l Your professional association Website. (For project
management, you would want to go to www.pmi.org if you
live in the United States, to www.apm.org.uk in Great
Britain, or to an equivalent site for your own country. For
human resources, go to www.shrm.org.) Look at job
opportunities listed to see if the organization has identified
competencies for the position. Also, check out the research
capabilities of the association. Information about key
professional competencies may be available online or by
calling a research professional on the organization’s staff.
l The Website of the organization itself. See if you can find
information about the corporate culture to help you identify
which competencies seem to be valued. One area that can
give you insight into the culture is if they have information
about the organization mission, vision, or values posted online
or available in other organization publications. Read annual
reports—particularly focusing on letters from the chairman
and CEO. See if you can determine what the organization
values or where the organization is having problems (or
feeling pain). Learn more about the organization from other
sources. Look for clues indicating the competencies the
organization needs now and will need in the future to be
successful.


Key Point
Notice that the approach used in this book is different
from the traditional approaches to getting ready for an
interview. The competency-based interview approach, like
the competency-based resume approach, always looks at
the employer’s needs first. Then you are encouraged to
think about how you fit what the employer is looking for—
the critical competencies the employer needs—to be
successful now and in the future.

Analyze online or traditional advertisements and job postings,
and focus on words that might be on an organization’s list of
competencies organization-wide or for a particular position.
Remember that most of the competencies can be stated several
ways—most words have synonyms.
Take the time to identify the most relevant competencies for
the specific position by starting with core, department or functional,
and individual competencies that have been identified for your
professional area. Most organizations typically identify between eight
and 12 of the most critical competencies for most positions to make
it easier for managers and employees to track and evaluate the
information.

One way to help yourself think about this is
to simply ask the question, “What competencies
would I look for if I was the hiring manager?”

Also spend a few minutes thinking about the level of expertise
in each competency needed to be successful in the position, and
what kind of experience you can mention to prove you have that
competency at the right level. Many of the more sophisticated
organizations evaluate your level when they are listening to your


answers to interview questions and watching your nonverbal
communication.

According to Signe Spencer from the Hay Group, the
10 most standard competencies being used by
organizations are:
1. Achievement/Results Orientation

2. Initiative
3. Impact and Influence

4. Customer Service Orientation

5. Interpersonal Understanding
6. Organizational Awareness

7. Analytical Thinking

8. Conceptual Thinking
9. Information Seeking

10. Integrity

These competencies are not listed by rank order. They
are simply the 10 most common.

Adapted from Competency-Based Resumes, page 28

When an organization’s needs change, the competencies needed
may also change. Consider how radically different the Federal
Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) needs were one week
before, and one week after, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and
the Mississippi Gulf Coast in late August 2005. Dealing with a major
crisis on a larger scale than we are used to can cause what it takes
to be successful to change. Most of us watching the response
saw that government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels


did not respond well. They were not successful in how they handled
the crisis.
In other examples, a new CEO may decide to change the
strategy of the company—from being the lowest-cost producer to
the highest-quality producer. The technical and business
competencies needed by the company may need to change to make
the new strategy successful.
A consulting firm or a law firm may get a major new client that
insists on better customer service than the firm is used to providing.
Suddenly, the entire firm must learn the latest customer service
information, and evidence of strong customer service may help
certain employees have a faster track to partnership.
Even considering these reasons for an organization to review
its list of competencies and consider prioritizing them differently, it
is still reasonable to expect that the majority of the 10 standard
competencies would be listed as competencies for most organizations.
When we look at each competency, though, it is important to
remember that different levels of knowledge, skills, and abilities are
needed to be successful depending on the level of the position in the
organization. For example, we would expect a senior vice president
of human resources at a major company to be much stronger in
organizational awareness (political savvy) than a recent college
graduate just starting to work in human resources.
Organizations typically identify three to five competency levels
and can use different terms to describe them. At Penn State
University, for example, the levels are baseline, intermediate,
proficient, advanced, and mastery.1 Many senior-level managers in
an organization may be rated the equivalent of the advanced level
on some competencies, intermediate or proficient in others, and
receive the mastery rating in only one area, if at all.
Some organizations choose to recognize the differences expected
based on level within the organization by weighting the competencies
one way for a junior level professional and another way for managers
in the same functional area. The example in the box shows you the
way one competency—planning and organizing—can be explained
differently for a supervisor, middle manager, and senior manager.


Competency Levels: Planning and Organizing
Competency definition: The ability to visualize a sequence
of actions needed to achieve a goal and to estimate the
resources required. A preference for acting in a structured,
thorough manner.

Individual Contributors to Supervisors

l Manage own time and personal activities.

l Break complex activities into manageable tasks.

l Identify possible obstacles to planned achievement.

Middle Managers

l Produce contingency plans for possible future
occurrences.

l Estimate in advance the resources and time scales
needed to meet objectives.

l Coordinate team activities to make the best use
of individual skills and specialties.

Senior Managers

l Identify longer-term operational implications of
business plans.

l Effectively plan utilization of all resources.2


Because organizations may identify different competencies,
and functions and departments within organizations may have
different needs, a more complete list of competencies is included
in Appendix A.

Step 4: Select the Most Critical
Competencies for the Position
Read through the competencies included in Appendix A very
carefully. Mark the competencies that are the most significant for
the position you are interested in. Then go back and edit the list to
choose the competencies that you think the hiring manager would
select. Identify the 10 to 20 most important.
At this point, you’ve selected the competencies that would be
the most critical for the position. Decide if there are some functional/
departmental or individual position competencies that you think the
hiring manager might put on the list. For example, if you are
interested in a sales professional role, is there a possibility that in
addition to achieving results, territory management might be critical
for success? Do you think the engineering manager hiring a chemical
engineer for a plant might be interested in your knowledge of
statistical process control?
Because most organizations identify between eight and 12
competencies for each position, my suggestion is to identify 10 to
15 competencies. This will improve the chance that your list includes
the competencies the organization selected. Look through the list
and think about how important the competency is toward being
successful in the position. Because many organizations weight the
competencies based upon importance, it is worth spending some
time to consider which competencies deserve the most emphasis.
While recognizing that organizations may define different levels
of expertise for each competency, I believe that the best way to
write a competency-based resume or to prepare for a competency-
based interview is to:


l Identify the most critical competencies for the position.
l Think about how to explain your accomplishments to prove
that you have a high level of experience in the key
competency areas.
So at this point, you’ve put together a good list of competencies
for the particular position you want. Keep trying to improve the
list—through research or by asking your networking contacts.
Great work! You’ve completed the first major part of getting
ready for a competency-based interview. Now we are ready to
begin working on the next step to help you succeed in a competency-
based interview.


“The competency-based approach always looks
at the employer’s needs first.”
What are the first steps towards Think first about the obvious
identifying the right competencies competencies for the position.
to help you prepare for a
competency-based interview? Then look at the advertisement,
posting, or job description from the
organization. More organizations
than ever before are being direct
and listing the competencies they
need—especially in their online ads.

What other resources can The organization’s Website.
help employees identify
competencies for interviews Performance appraisals for the
within their organization? position.

Employee handbooks and other
internal organization manuals.

Colleagues working in the relevent
department or in the position itself.


If the organization didn’t provide l Think about what competencies
a list of the competencies they would be obvious for the
are looking for: position.
l Look at advertisements and
How do you get started compil- postings from competitors for
ing your own list of key compe- equivalent positions to see if
tencies? Where do you find some they have directly listed the
clues as to what these competen- competencies they’ve identified
cies could be? for the positions. Then try to
determine if the same compe-
tencies work for the position
you are interested in.
l Visit employment Websites
such as Monster.com or
CareerBuilder.com and look at
equivalent jobs for competency
lists.
l Look at the Websites for compa-
nies that are competitors to the
organization that has the posi-
tion you want.
l Read through your professional
association Website thoroughly.
l Find employment advertisements
in newspapers, association
publications, and other sources to
see if you can glean what are
typical competencies for the
professional area.
l Go to the Website from the
organization you are interested
in and read through their
publications to find information
giving you clues about their
culture and values.



What are some of the most Here’s a list of the most standard
typical competencies used by competencies used by organizations:
organizations?
1. Achievement/Results
Orientation
2. Initiative
9. Informational Seeking
10. Integrity
Remember these are the most stan-
dard and are by no means the only
competencies that may be desired
by your target organization.
Each organization develops its own
list of competencies, and the list
can be dramatically different based
upon the culture and goals of the
organization.

“Never ascribe to malice that which can be
adequately explained by incompetence.”

—Napoleon Bonaparte

Chapter 3

Know What
Interviewers Are
Trained to Look For

You got to be careful if you don’t know where
you’re going, because you might not get there.
—Yogi Berra
To add a new interpretation to Yogi Berra’s point, when
you don’t know what to expect in your job search, you are
unlikely to do as well in your interview and get the offer.
This chapter will give you some ideas about what
interviewers in the best companies are trained to look for
today.
Knowing what interviewers want can give you a
significant edge when you are preparing for an interview
as long as you are smart enough to use the information the
right way. Always consider the organization’s needs first,
then how you match those needs. Before the interview,
you need to think about how you can provide evidence to
the interviewer that you are competent in the areas the
organization needs to be successful.
We’ll first cover some of the basics included in
interviewer training. What does any interviewer look for
with any candidate? What are the types of questions that
organizations don’t want interviewers to ask—because they
might lead to lawsuits or discrimination charges? Then we’ll
talk about how competency-based interviewing builds on
these basics to provide interviewers with more structure
49


and a new and better way to evaluate candidates. The goal is to
help the interviewer recognize when the candidate has the key
characteristics—or competencies—that it takes to be successful in
a particular job or in an organization.
Remember this quote from Aristotle Onassis: “The secret to
success is to know something nobody else knows.” Once you have
succeeded in your interview, you may choose to share some of the
secrets of interviewing well with others. I hope you do. Or even
buy them a copy of this book. But that is your decision.

What Have Interviewers
Always Been Looking For?
The answer is simple: the best candidate for the job. That has
not changed. Interviewers are expected to identify strong candidates
through the interview process, offer them a position, and then
encourage the candidates to accept the offer. It may help you, as a
candidate, to realize that interviewers only look good when they
find someone good enough to get the offer.

Good interviewers want you to do well in your
interview—their whole job is to get someone hired.
They don’t look good to their organization when
they eliminate all candidates.

Traditionally, most interviewers look for three things:
1. Can you do the job?
Do you have the right experience and education to do the
work? Many interviewers focus their questions in this area. They
don’t realize that most employees who eventually leave organizations
actually do have the right background, but may not have the discipline,
determination, communication skills, or interpersonal skills to be
successful.

Know What Interviewers Are Trained to Look For 51

2. Will you do the job?
You may have a great educational background and the best
technical experience, but you may be lazy. Being disciplined, hard-
working, and determined still counts for quite a bit with most
interviewers.
3. How well do you fit with their people, department,
organization, and culture?
This is the category that covers your social skills and
communication style. You may have the best education and
experience. You might be someone who takes work seriously and
works very hard. Or you may be an absolute jerk who can’t work
well with other employees. You may think you are smarter or better
than other employees. You may just have poor communication skills
that get you in trouble at work. Or you may simply have a different
personality than most of the other, more arrogant employees. These
things matter to managers because most of them have spent more
time than they wanted dealing with conflicts between employees.
Interviewers will usually make decisions about how well you fit
the organization unconsciously. This is the category where your
nonverbal communication counts. In any interview, you need to
recognize that interviewers are going to be trying to determine:
l Do you have good social skills?
l Are you articulate?
l Do you use good grammar?
l Are you dressed appropriately?
l Do they like you?
l Do you have the same sense of humor as the rest of the
group?
l Do you seem to know how to handle yourself appropriately?
l How will your personality fit with the people you will need
to work with?


More information about the importance of nonverbal com-
munication in the interview process is included in Chapter 6.

What Are Interviewers Taught
to Avoid Legal Problems?
Almost all of the better, more sophisticated organizations train
their managers, supervisors, and college recruiters to avoid asking
questions and behaving in ways that can cause a candidate or an
employee to file a discrimination charge or a lawsuit. Most countries,
states, and provinces have employment laws in place to protect
their citizens and residents against discrimination. When federal
and state laws conflict, most good human resources managers
encourage their organizations to comply with the stricter law.
In the United States, federal laws (and many state laws) protect
against discrimination based on race, sex, age, religion, disability,
veteran status, color, and ethnicity/national origin. So questions about
your marital status, sexual orientation, religious life, illnesses or
injuries, where your family is from, or any other protected type of
question should not be asked in the interview. For some examples
of illegal questions, please review Appendix C.
Interviewers in the United States are trained to focus the
interview on what it takes to be successful on the job and away
from the candidate’s personal life. Good training programs teach
interviewers not to ask questions about these “protected” areas
unless there is a bona fide occupational reason to do so. An example
of a legitimate bona fide occupational qualification? Interviewers
selecting a new minister or rabbi. In that case and only that kind of
case, they would be allowed to ask questions about the candidate’s
religion or religious views.
Interviewers at government contractors and subcontractors are
also trained to give a preference to someone who comes from one
of the protected classes when candidates are equally qualified.
In Europe and many other parts of the world, interviewers are
more likely to ask questions about the personal life of a candidate
as a way to get to know him or her. And it still is not that uncommon


for candidates in the United States to tell stories about being asked
illegal or inappropriate questions.
Why does this still happen? Interviewers may not have been
trained on EEO and diversity, or basic interview skills. Or they may
simply think that the laws don’t matter and they don’t have to follow
them. Or they may not be very sophisticated.

As a candidate, you may be asked an illegal or inappropriate
question. If you are, put the question in context. Don’t
take it personally, and don’t get angry. Then think about
any business need that might be the real reason for the
question, and see if you can respond to that underlying
need in your answer. Always show respect for the
interviewer.
I can remember during an on-campus interview being asked
by a vice president of human resources at a major utility
company in the Midwest whether I thought I’d ever get
married. I knew the question was illegal. I first put the
question in context: He had just told me his daughter was
in a similar MBA program. I thought that he probably cared
a lot more whether his daughter ever married than whether
I did.
Then I thought about the underlying business need his
question represented: Would he put energy, effort, and
financial resources into training me and just have me leave
a few years later?
Here is the response I gave him:
I don’t know if I’ll ever get married. I do know how hard
I’ve worked to get a good education and my MBA. I know
how important it is to me to have a good career, and I
know that will always be important to me.
Although I didn’t go to work for his organization, I did get
asked back for a second interview.


If you consider the 79,432 discrimination charges filed in 20041
in the United States, you can begin to understand why more
organizations are moving toward more structured interviews. Giving
interviewers a list of questions to choose from that have already
been approved by good human resources and legal departments
can significantly reduce the chance that rogue interviewers will ask
illegal questions that lead to discrimination charges or lawsuits.
Competency-based interviews are highly structured and provide
interviewers with a list of three to five primary questions in each
competency area. One significant benefit? Competency-based
interviews reduce the probability of an interviewer asking a candidate
illegal and even inappropriate questions. Most employers would
probably say, though, that the main benefit of competency-based
interviews is their focus on the competencies the organization or
department really needs to be successful.
Joe Gorczyca, Senior Director–Human Resources at HP, is
responsible for human resources for the company’s worldwide sales
and global supply chain organizations. At HP, he says, “In addition
to focusing on competencies required for job performance, we try
to focus on competencies that reinforce the corporate culture.”
If you think about the benefits to an organization, it is easy to
understand why competency-based interviews have become the
standard.

How Are Interviewers Trained Differently
for Competency-Based Interviews?
In addition to spending time talking about interviewing basics
and EEO and affirmative action concerns, training to conduct
competency-based interviews:
l Focuses on the key competencies for a particular position
and core competencies for the organization.
l Helps the interviewer know what to listen for and observe
to be able to assess the candidate more accurately.


One of the most important core competencies at Johnson &
Johnson is Integrity and Credo-based Actions. According to
Uneeda Brewer-Frazier, Director of Management Education and
Development at the company, “Because of the strong credo-based
culture at Johnson & Johnson, we work hard to select people who
treat other employees and customers with respect, don’t cut corners,
and demonstrate integrity through their work and actions. It is so
important within Johnson & Johnson that it really impacts every
aspect of how we do business and how we treat people.”
Johnson & Johnson trains interviewers about their competencies
and provides them with an interview guide that includes a list of
planned behavioral questions for each competency. Interviewers
are encouraged to ask follow-up questions to probe for additional
information when an explanation isn’t complete or the response is
unusual or unclear.
So the interviewer, after going through the introductions and
clarifying some things in the candidate’s background, begins the
main part of the interview with a competency-based question. In
addition to the example included in this chapter on Integrity and
Credo-based Actions, you might want to review the example in
Chapter 1 on the competency Results and Performance Driven.
The interviewer is asked on the following Johnson & Johnson
form to write about the candidate’s answers. Specifically, the
interviewer is asked to look at the three main parts of any answer
to a behavioral question: Situation/Task, Action, and Result (STAR).
Because these three parts are looked at carefully by most
interviewers from organizations using behavioral interviewing, it is
important to understand what the interviewers need to identify.
1. Situation/Task. What is the basic situation, task, or
problem that you are giving to answer the behavioral question?
Expect to give the details. (Note: Some organizations use the word
Problem instead of Situation or Task.)
2. Action. What action did you take to make the situation
better? What decisions did you make to handle the task or resolve
the problem?

56
Integrity and Credo-Based Actions Key Examples

Lives and champions our Credo- Transparency—Does not hold back on what needs to be said.
values; displays command of one’s Shares information in a truthful manner.
self and responsibilities; strong
personal integrity; creates and Trustworthy—Easily gains the trust of others through appropriate

maintains an environment of
trust. ethical behaviors. Behaves consistently in similar situations.
Builds trust—Treats others with dignity and respect. Models the
Credo values and holds others responsible for their actions.

Planned Behavioral Questions
1. Tell me about a time at work when you objectively considered others’ ideas, even when they conflicted with
yours.
2. We do not always work with people who are ethical or honest. Was there ever a time when you observed
another employee or direct report do something that you thought was inappropriate?
3. Often there are people in an organization who deserve more credit than they receive. Tell me about a time
when you were involved in a situation such as this. How did you handle the situation?
4. Often it is easy to blur the distinction between confidential information and public knowledge. Can you give
me an example of a time when you were faced with this dilemma? What did you do?
5. Describe a time when you were asked to do something at work that you did not think was appropriate. How
did you respond?

Situation/Task Action Result

Know What Interviewers Are Trained to Look For
Communication ___________________________________ Integrity and Credo-based
Actions Rating

57
Reprinted with permission of Johnson & Johnson Strategic Talent Management


3. Result. What was the result of the action? How did it
benefit the organization or your department? What did you learn
that will help you be even stronger in the future? Any major “lessons
learned” for you or your organization? Did you make money for the
organization? Did you save time?
Chapter 4 will go into more detail to help you learn how to
respond more effectively to behavioral questions using these three
areas. (Johnson & Johnson calls it STAR. Many career counselors
know this approach under the acronym PAR, or Problem—Action—
Result. Others refer to it as Situation—Action—Result, but I’m not
aware of any calling it SAR. When an organization wants to look at
the result first, be aware that STAR can easily become RATS.)
In a competency-based interview at Johnson & Johnson, the
interviewer is asked to look at the candidate’s answers in each
competency area and rank them according to the following scale:

5 Much more than acceptable (Significantly exceeds
criteria for successful job performance)
4 More than acceptable (Exceeds criteria for successful
job performance)
3 Acceptable (Meets criteria for successful job
performance)
2 Less than acceptable (Generally does not meet criteria
for successful job performance)
1 Much less than acceptable (Significantly below
criteria for successful job performance)

So the more you can find out about the position and what it
takes to be successful in it before the interview, the more likely you
are to be able to give the interviewer strong answers that help
prove that you would be competent in the position.
The interviewer is also asked to assess the candidate’s
communication skills as shown in the following:


Communication—Clearly conveying information and ideas
through a variety of media to individuals or groups in a manner that
engages the audience and helps them understand and retain the
message.
+ 0 –
q q q Organizes the communication
q q q Maintains audience attention
q q q Adjusts to the audience
q q q Ensures understanding
q q q Adheres to accepted conventions
q q q Comprehends communication from others

Communication Rating


“If you know what the interviewer is looking for, you will
have an advantage your competitors don’t.”
Why is it important to know It can give you a significant edge over
what the interviewer is going to other candidates in the interview.
be looking for before you are Try to identify the employer ’s
interviewed? needs first, then start thinking about
how you can prove to the employer
that you have experience and skills
in these critical competency areas.
What do interviewers always The best candidate for the job.
look for?
What three main points cover 1. Can you do the job?
what interviewers are looking 2. Will you do the job?
for? 3. How well do you fit with their
people, department, organization,
and culture?


What are the protected classes l Race l Sex

under United States employment l Age l Religion

laws? l Disability l Color
l Veteran status
l Disability/National Origin

As a candidate, what is the best l Put the question in context.
way to handle an illegal ques- l Don’t take it personally, and
tion? don’t get angry.
l Identify the business need
underlying the question, and
respond to that business need in
your answer.
Why have more organizations 1. To reduce the chance that bad
moved to structured, interviewers will ask illegal
competency-based interviews? questions during the interview.
2. To help interviewers focus on
selecting candidates based on the
competencies the organization
needs to be successful.
3. To help organizations reinforce
and strengthen their corporate
culture.

What is included in competency- l Interviewing basics.
based interview training? l EEO and affirmative action/legal
and illegal questions.
l Key competencies for the position.
l Verbal/nonverbal communication.
l Assessing candidates on compe-
tencies (including communication
skills).
What are the three main parts a l Situation/Task/Problem
good interviewer will listen for l Action
in a candidate’s answer to a
behavioral question? l Result

What are the acronyms used by l STAR—Situation/Task, Action,
interviewers to describe the three Result
main parts of a good answer to a l PAR—Problem, Action, Result
behavioral interview question?

Chapter 4

Expect Competency-
Based Behavioral
Questions

Plans are only good intentions unless they
immediately degenerate into hard work.
—Peter Drucker
To take a small amount of license with Peter Drucker’s
quote, you need to, as a candidate, plan to work hard to
succeed in a good competency-based interview. Learning
to give your best, high-quality answers to the questions isn’t
easy. Even if you know you are good verbally, you could be
better if you anticipate what will happen in the interview,
and practice. You need to actively prepare.
Actors rehearse their lines and movements for weeks
before a play or being filmed in a movie.
Medical students and doctors practice surgical techniques
on human cadavers. Before a particularly difficult surgery
using a different, new technique, surgeons spend hours
strategizing and planning.
The best litigators work with mock juries and even go
through mock trials before a major trial to help them
anticipate the real jury’s concerns and issues. The best
coaches and players spend hours training, physically and
mentally. They identify the other team’s strengths and
weaknesses, review films of their games, and then adjust
their own plays to improve their chance of winning.

61


Like the best actors, doctors, lawyers, coaches, and players,
the best interviewees plan for their interviews and prepare. If they
want to work at the most sophisticated companies and organizations,
they know they need to anticipate competency-based behavioral
questions. If they already work for a competency-based organization,
they should be savvy and recognize the need to prepare for their
interviews thinking about the competencies needed for the new
position—whether it is a promotion or a transfer.
The best interviewees today expect behavioral interview
questions targeting the competencies needed to be successful in
the position. They focus on the most important competencies the
employer is looking for, and then start thinking about how they can
prove they are strong in each of these key competency areas.

What Are Competency-Based
Behavioral Questions?
Competency-based behavioral questions are questions asking
for examples from your past behavior and experience to help the
interviewer assess how strong you are in key competency areas.
Remember that the theory behind behavioral questions is that
past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. If the
interviewer wants to predict whether you are going to be successful
at something in the future, he needs to find out how successful
you’ve been in the past.
Competencies basically provide the interviewer with a target
for behavioral interview questions. As an interviewee, you need to
be focused on the same target: competencies. If you work this
process the right way, the competencies you’ve focused on are the
same competencies the interviewer is targeting.

Expect Competency-Based Behavioral Questions 63

What Must Be Included When Responding to
Competency-Based Interview Questions?
There are three parts to any good answer to a behavioral
question:
1. Situation or Task or Problem
2. Action
3. Result
Good interviewers are trained to listen for the three parts of the
answer. At Johnson & Johnson, for example, the interviewers are
even asked to take notes and provide the candidate’s answers by
these three areas on their interview evaluation form. See pages 38
and 39.
The best order to talk about the three parts, though, depends on
which part of the answer is the most important to the interviewer.
If you are interviewing with someone who is very results-oriented,
start with the result. If the most critical piece to the interviewer is
an understanding of the process, start with the situation or the action.
Spend some time, then, thinking about whether the result or the
process will make your point most effectively to the decision-
maker—the interviewer. As with any good sale, you need to think
about the customer’s wants and needs, and make sure that you talk
about what is the most important to the interviewer first.

What Is the Best Way to Prepare for
Competency-Based Interview Questions?
Take the time to be strategic. Work through this list:
1. Look at the key competencies you’ve identified for the
position you plan to interview for.
2. Think about your strongest accomplishments that prove your
competence—in each key competency area. Make sure
to include at least a few accomplishments that are not
already on your resume.


3. Pick examples to talk about that show as high a level of
competence as possible, unless you are interested in
interviewing for a position that you are overqualified for.
4. Then think about how you can explain the accomplishment
to the interviewer, using conversational words—whether
in English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Russian,
or another language.
5. Be reasonably concise but also complete with your answers.
6. Remember to be positive and to make sure your nonverbal
communication supports what you are saying. Don’t give
the interviewer a mixed message. Read Chapter 6 for more
details about nonverbal communication.

How Does This Work?
Here are a few examples to show you how to begin proving
your own competence. I’ve chosen examples from different
professional levels, from entry-level to executive. In most cases,
the examples the candidates chose to talk about also show they are
strong in more than one competency area. See if any of these
examples describe something you’ve done yourself. Pay attention
to the way the candidate gives the answer by picking the key points
that are the most important to telling the story. Notice that:
l These examples use conversational language.
l The candidates stay focused, without going off on any kind
of tangent.
Let’s look first at the competency Initiative. Other competen-
cies with specific examples are included in Chapter 5.


Initiative
Chief Financial Officer, Healthcare Company, interview with
large hospital system.
Question: Give me an example of a time that you were
able to take the lead in changing financial policy or
practice for your organization.
Situation/Problem: When I became the Chief Investment
Officer, the senior managers and board were used to taking
very little risk with the investment portfolio. The problem
at the time was that by playing it so conservative, the
returns were lower than I thought they should be.
Action: I spent six months educating key senior managers
and board members about the potential benefit of taking at
least 15 percent of the portfolio and using hedge funds
and other nontraditional investment strategies. I met with
them one-on-one and presented my recommendations at
the end of the year board meeting.
Result: With support from the Chief Financial Officer and
the CEO, I persuaded the board to change the company’s
investment policy to allow up to 25 percent of the
investment portfolio to be invested in hedge funds and
other, more esoteric investments.
What competencies are demonstrated in this answer?
In addition to showing initiative, the candidate clearly
showed he performed at a high level in these major
competencies:
l Achieves Results
l Organizational Awareness/Political Savvy
l Impact and Influence
l Analytical Skills
l Interpersonal Skills
l Conceptual Skills/Strategic Agility


Administrative Assistant, interview for executive secretary
position.
Question: Have you seen the opportunity to do something
in your position that would really help the department you
supported run more effectively? Tell me about it.
Problem: When I started working in the sales department,
most of the sales representatives kept their own records, and each
of the eight territory managers tracked the information in their own
spreadsheets. The managers provided the information to me every
week, and I was responsible for consolidating the data on a single
spreadsheet. I could see that my manager would have much better,
more current information if we standardized the spreadsheet
department-wide and linked it directly to information the sales
representatives entered into the system.
Action: I talked to my manager about why our department
should update the way we collected sales information. I suggested
how to set this up and volunteered to help him update the system.
Result: I worked with two of the territory managers to design
a system that would work using Excel and Access, and had the
new system in place in one month. They now have real-time
information on the status of any sales prospect, which helps the
managers make better decisions.
Other competencies shown in the candidate’s answer include:
l Achievement/Results Orientation
l Influencing Skills
l Information Seeking
l Analytical Skills
l Organizing


College Senior, Computer Engineering, interviewing for first
job after graduation.
As a college senior majoring in computer engineering, Brian
had focused on keeping his 3.67 GPA at the University of Maryland
and had very little real work experience when I first met him.
One of the best things about competency-based resumes and
interviews for less experienced candidates is that they can choose
their examples proving they are strong in key competency areas
from work, school, or volunteer activities.
Question: Tell us about a time you demonstrated initiative
in school.
Action/Result: I worked as a key member of the team that
won the best senior project in the Computer Engineering honors
program this last year. That next week, the department head, who
was teaching the class, asked me to review his article based upon
our project, before he submitted it to the best technical journal in
the field.
Situation/Task/Problem: In my senior honors class, our
professor asked us to work in teams of four to decide on a project
using the computer engineering skills we had learned in the program.
Our group decided to build a robotic fertilizer spreader, and I took
the initiative to take the lead with the computer engineering work
on the hydraulic system design.
Other competencies demonstrated by the candidate in the
answer include:
l Achieves Results
l Analystical Skills
l Information Gathering


Communication Tips for
More Successful Answers
After reviewing the different ways these candidates showed
their initiative, are you beginning to think of some times you’ve
proven that you can demonstrate initiative? You can prepare,
practice, and do all the things you need to do to build the competency
you need to be successful in your next interview. I have confidence.
You’ve already come up with an example or two showing your
initiative!
Before we go to the next chapter, here are a few more tips to
make your answers even better:
1. Make sure you respond to the question being asked. Don’t
assume you understand the question before the interviewer
is finished talking. Listen.
2. Be smart with the language you choose. When possible,
make sure to include the language used by your professional
colleagues. Do some research on specific words and jargon
used by the employer, and remember to include the
employer’s language in your answers. Consider using
competency-related language in your answer. Know
synonyms for each key competency.
3. Expect follow-up questions to your answers. The
interviewer may want some additional information. So do
your homework and review the details of any project or
assignment you may use as an example to provide evidence
that you are competent in a key area. Be able to cite
financials, statistics, or headcount information if it is related
to your example.
4. Once you have brought up a subject, any follow-up question
related to what you have said is fair. So be careful and
choose examples you are willing to talk about in detail.


5. Use positive language when answering any question. This
tip is repeated on purpose because it is very important.
Interviewers do not want to offer a job to someone who
they perceive thinks negatively and does not take
responsibility for his or her actions. Don’t be perceived as
a victim. Even when something happens to you (instead of
you making something happen), you always have the ability
to respond with an answer that shows you learned something
from the experience.
6. Prioritize the parts of your answer to say the most
important—to the interviewer—first. This is simply the best
way to make sure the interviewer pays attention to the
most convincing part of your answer—before he possibly
loses attention. In Chapter 5, you’ll be given some examples
that will show you how to prioritize as effectively as possible.
Now you are ready to look at a few additional examples of
competency-based behavioral questions and learn some more tips
that will help you answer these questions more effectively. In the
next chapter, you’ll learn how to pick good examples to prove your
competence in critical competency areas. It takes more than initiative
to be successful! But keep using your initiative to learn what you’re
going to need to ace the next interview. In other words, just keep
reading.



Competencies provide the interviewer with a target for
behavioral interview questions. As an interviewee, you need
to focus on the same target: competencies.


Who prepares for interviews? The best interviewees.
The people who will probably get
the offer.

What are competency-based Competency-based behavioral
behavioral questions? questions are questions asking for
examples from your past behavior
and experience to help interviewers
assess how strong you are in key
competency areas.

What must be included in any l Situation/Problem/Task
good answer to a competency-
based interview question? l Action
l Result

What is the best way to prepare 1. Identify the critical competencies
for a competency-based interview for the position.
question? 2. Think about your strongest
accomplishments in each key
competency area.
3. Consider how to explain the
accomplishment to the interviewer
using conversational language. Be
concise and complete with your
answer. Don’t forget to cover
situation/task/problem, action,
and result.
4. Be positive and make sure your
nonverbal communication sup-
ports the words you are saying.



What order should you use to It depends on which part of the
talk about situation/problem/ answer is the most important—or
task, action, and result? the most critical—to the interviewer.
As with any sale, you need to be
aware of the customer’s wants and
needs, and talk about the most
important part first. Saying this
another way, what is most important
to the interviewer should take
priority over what is most important
to you.

What else should you consider l Listen well and respond to the
when you are getting ready to question being asked.
answer a competency-based l Be smart with the language you
interview question? use in the interview. Remember
to use your professional language
with your colleagues, and include
terms showing that you are
comfortable with the terms used
in the organization’s culture. Use
competency-related language.
l Be prepared to answer follow-
up questions probing your initial
answer for additional details or
competency-related information.
l Choose examples you are willing
to talk about in detail.
l Use positive language.
l Prioritize the parts of an answer
and always make your most
critical points first. Emphasize
what you believe is the most
critical to the employer this way.

Chapter 5

Prove Competencies
With Examples

After reading the last chapter, you know to expect
competency-based interview questions when you interview
with the best places to work—the more sophisticated
companies, government agencies, and nonprofit
organizations. You’ve started to get the idea about how to
give good answers to these tough, more focused interview-
style questions.
Now we need to build on the information we’ve already
covered. Remember that most of us needed to learn the
alphabet before reading. We went to school to learn before
we started working. Most of us dated someone before we
married him or her. When we wanted to begin jogging or
running, most of us started by running a few minutes and
slowly building up the time. (On that last point, I admit to
personally knowing an exception. I will always remember
one of my favorite human resources managers coming into
the office and telling me that he’d just run 3 miles on his
very first run. He told me he couldn’t understand why he
was sore, or later, why I said, “You did what?” and started
laughing.)
In this chapter, you’ll learn some special things to think
about to help you avoid potential problems when you craft
an answer to questions targeting certain competencies. It
is always good to know when you are going to fly over the
Bermuda Triangle. Or what the unwritten rules are. How
to avoid sitting in the wrong person’s chair or parking in
their parking place they always park in.
73


You’ll also learn some more ideas about how you can be even
more savvy about choosing your best answers to competency-based
behavioral questions. How can you identify stronger examples?
How can you learn to prioritize what you say in your answer—so
you make sure the interviewer listens to and understands the most
important point?

Let’s Get Ready
l Review the critical competencies. Make sure you
understand what it takes to be successful in your own
professional area and in the position you are interested in.
l Identify your best examples to provide evidence that you
are strong in each key competency.
l If you are having trouble coming up with good examples,
ask for help. Your mentors, colleagues, family, and friends
may remember some things you’ve done that demonstrate
how competent you are. Remember to only ask people
who you know will have good things to say about you.
Note: Some people just seem to have a difficult time talking about
their strengths and, instead, look at it as bragging. Modesty is never a
virtue in an interview. To be effective in interviews, you need to get
over the feeling that it is not okay to talk about your accomplishments.
It is okay—it is so important that it is actually essential.

Modesty is never a virtue in an interview.

Let’s start by looking at more good examples candidates used
to answer competency-based interview questions targeting the
competencies Ethics and Integrity and Customer Service. These
competencies are two of the most commonly used competencies
today according to the Hay Group’s Signe Spencer. Thoughtful and
complete answers to specific competency-based questions targeting
these two competencies can make a definite difference in how the
interviewers perceive you.

Prove Competencies With Examples 75

Ethics and Integrity

Let’s say you are interested in interviewing for a position at
Johnson & Johnson or another company or organization
that you have heard highly values credibility, ethics, and
integrity. So you first need to think of examples that
demonstrate you’re highly ethical and can prove that you
are honest and have integrity.
We are all savvy enough to recognize that what we choose
to talk about matters—especially when talking about
integrity and honesty. People seem to have different
definitions of these words. Even philosophers have
struggled with answering the question, “What is honesty?”
To illustrate this point just a little, I’ve chosen someone I
know very well who considers herself quite honest. How
many times has she told others how good they look when
she sees them—when she doesn’t really think they look
good? In her opinion, these white lies aren’t being dishonest,
as long as she’s achieved her purpose of making the other
person feel better.
In almost all cases, as a candidate, it is important to know
that you need to strike the right balance between showing
that you are honest and trustworthy without being perceived
as judgmental and self-righteous. Most interviewers will
respond well to candidates who are matter-of-fact, balanced,
and can explain what they have learned that will help them
make better decisions in the future. Being self-righteous
can be perceived as a definite negative, although this may
depend on the personality of the interviewer, the position,
and the culture of the organization.

Human Resources Professional, Interview for HR Position, Fortune
500 Chemical Company.
Question: Describe a time when you were asked to do
something at work that you did not think was appropriate. How
did you respond?


Situation: I was working on finalizing a chart showing the
employee headcount for the different facilities within the division.
It was more difficult than usual because the organization had just
gone through a restructuring, and transfer and termination dates
changed daily. When I explained the situation, my manager told me
to “make up the numbers if you have to.”
Action: I asked if he could wait 45 minutes—I thought I’d be
able to confirm the real numbers by then. He agreed to wait.
Result: I gave him a chart showing accurate employee
headcount information 30 minutes later.

College Senior, Nursing, Interview for Labor and Delivery Nurse
at a major Chicago hospital
Question: Describe a time when you were in a situation
where you felt something you were asked to do was wrong,
unethical, or inappropriate. How did you respond?
Situation: When I worked as a student nurse at the University
Medical Center, I told one of the nurses on the graveyard shift that
we needed to get a doctor to sign the order to continue restraints
for an alcohol withdrawal patient. She told me that the order wasn’t
necessary.
Action: I called my professor to ask for advice because I
wasn’t comfortable ignoring the hospital’s policy. Then I decided to
go ahead and call the doctor to get the signature before the other
order expired.
Result: I was able to make sure we followed the hospital
policy—it just made sense to me.

Experienced Attorney, Interview for Appointment in U.S. Army
Judge Advocate General’s Corps
Question: Tell me about a time when you had to do
something you didn’t necessarily agree with.
Situation: I worked defending a doctor practicing internal
medicine who had been accused of medical malpractice by a patient
for her failure to diagnose lupus in the early stages of the disease.


The patient was very sympathetic, but I knew it was my job to
represent the doctor.
Action: Despite feeling some sympathy for the plaintiff, I
stayed focused on the case and represented my client, the doctor,
as well as I could.
Result: The case settled out of court. My client told me she
was very happy with my work and thought I had done a good job of
representing her.

Customer Service

When we think about this competency, many of us think
first about customer service professionals. We don’t
always realize that almost all of us have customers and
clients, whether they are the internal customers within our
organization or the external customers who keep our
organization in business.
This competency is clearly important for most of us.
Customers buy our products, use our services, and
basically make our whole organization successful. Our
internal customers and clients, including the people we
report to and departments we support, can also have a
direct effect on our careers.

Auditor, Interview for Fortune 500 Company
Question: Describe a time when you worked on an audit
and had to deal with some resistance from the people in the
department or company you were auditing.
Situation: I was assigned to work on a financial audit of 12
retail sites in Los Angeles for one of the major home improvement
retail chains. At one of the locations, when I asked for certain
inventory records, the employees told me that they were not
available. Other information was also “not available.”
Action: I spoke with the store manager and told him about the
lack of support I was receiving from the employees. He suggested


that I talk to all the employees at the store meeting at the beginning
of the next shift. I explained to the employees that my job was to
conduct the audit, and I’d appreciate their help. I asked if they had
any questions about how the audit process worked, and answered
a few of their questions.
Result: I was able to complete the audit and develop a good
relationship with managers and supervisors at that particular store.

Director, Fundraising, Interview for Vice President, Fundraising at
National Organization’s Headquarters
Question: Tell me about a time you persuaded a donor to
contribute to the organization even though their first answer
was “no.”
Result: We just found out two weeks ago that one of the
largest foundations in the city is donating $500,000 to the nonprofit’s
capital campaign.
Situation: As a fundraiser, I’ve learned to never take no as an
answer until I’ve heard it at least three times. So I’m used to having
the first response be negative. Last year, we were told no for the
second time by the foundation.
Action: I talked to one of the women I know who is heading a
major fundraising campaign for the nonprofit and asked for her
advice. She’s very powerful, runs a major law firm, and knows
most of the important people in the city. She told me to call one of
the key players on the foundation board and use her name. I went
to lunch with the board member three times over the next six months,
asked for advice, and made the case for donating to the nonprofit.

Waitress, High School Graduate, Interview for Position as Floor
Manager for Restaurant Chain
Question: Tell me about a time you used your best customer
service skills.
Situation: We were opening the restaurant for lunch one day
last December, and the back section of the restaurant was really
cold. One of the customers asked to speak to the floor manager to
ask why they were seating people in such a cold room. I told the


floor manager about the problem, and he went to speak to the
customer. I looked at the customer while she was talking with the
floor manager, and I could tell she was not happy.
Action: After the floor manager left, I talked with the customer
and asked if there was anything I could do. I offered her a hot drink
and soup, and I didn’t charge her for them.
Result: The customer talked to our regional vice president in
Dallas and explained what had happened. Our restaurant manager
showed me the letter she wrote talking about what a good job I had
done handling a difficult situation.

Focus on Organizations That Match
Your Own Values
Imagine how helpful it would be to know something about the
employer’s values first, before you are going to give them an answer
to a question about your own ethics. Just as they are going to be
assessing whether your sense of integrity or ethics fits their culture,
you benefit by doing your homework and knowing about how well
the organization’s values match your own values.
Start paying attention to public information about organizations
and to what people are saying about them. Every year, big
corporations are ranked based on corporate reputation. In Houston,
many of us who chose to listen to our personal contacts heard
questions about Enron’s reputation several years before it became
international news for its business practices. Make sure you choose
to listen.

Giving Good Answers to Competency-Based
Interview Questions
You’ve read through the answers good candidates gave to
competency-based questions targeting the competencies Customer
Service, and Ethics and Integrity in this chapter, and on Initiative
in the last chapter. Are you starting to get a little more comfortable
with the process? What do these answers have in common?
l They’re good at explaining the situation, action, and result
in enough detail that the interviewer can tell what the
interviewee is talking about, but not so much detail that the
interviewer loses the main points.


l The answers are focused on the most important points the
interviewee thinks are the most critical to the interviewer.
In some cases, you will have to make an educated guess
about which points are going to matter the most to the
interviewer.
l The parts of each answer are prioritized based on things
such as the field the position is in, the interviewer’s style,
or their questions. Sales and fundraising, for example, are
highly results-driven professional areas. Some interviewers
are so crisp and to the point that if you want to be successful,
you need to respond to their questions by giving them the
bottom-line result first.
l Within each answer, the interviewee has emphasized the
most important or relevant point by talking about it near the
beginning of the answer. Don’t wait until the end of your
answer to give the interviewer your best point—the
interviewer may have stopped listening by then!
l The language is conversational, not stilted. When they are
interviewed, many people almost automatically become
more formal in the language that they use. This is a huge
mistake because it could cause the interviewer to perceive
you as not being very approachable. Remember that, in
addition to competencies, one area interviewers will be
trying to assess is how well you will fit into their organization
or department.
l The accomplishments the interviewees chose to talk about
are less controversial and help the interviewer perceive
them as smart and savvy. They prove the interviewee’s
competence in the key areas needed to be successful in
the organization.

Avoiding Potential Problems
So how can you increase your chance of success in a
competency-based interview?
l Whenever possible, choose examples that will increase the
chance you will be perceived in a positive way by the
interviewer.


l Try to avoid giving examples that could make the interviewer
perceive you in a negative way—or as a victim. Take
ownership of the things that have happened at work that
are your responsibility whenever possible. Be professional
and don’t blame others—even if they deserve the blame.
l Even when you are asked about failures or mistakes you
have made, always tell the interviewer what you have
learned from the experience that will make you more
successful in the future.
l Think about your accomplishments from different compe-
tency perspectives. This is important because it will help
you be ready to answer questions about different compe-
tencies. Almost every accomplishment can be explained
differently—simply by emphasizing different parts of the
accomplishment. Identify the different competencies shown
in your examples, and consider how you would tell an in-
terviewer about the accomplishment differently depending
on which competency you are asked about.
l Remember to talk about what matters to the interviewer first.
l Be fairly direct and answer the interviewer’s question.
Avoiding the answer might work for politicians, but it rarely
helps in an interview.
l Take the time to pause after an unexpected question if you
need to think about your answer. Ideally, this should only
happen once or twice in the interview if you’ve really done
your homework and prepared. Many interviewees get
themselves in trouble because they just start talking—even
when they haven’t figured out their answer. This is
something you are more likely to do if you are an extrovert
as I am.
l If you prepare for a competency-based interview the right
way, you should be able to answer most questions the
interviewer asks. Taking the interview seriously—taking
the time to prepare—will make a difference.


l Practice. Find someone who is a savvy career coach,
manager, or human resources professional who can help
you fine-tune your answers to competency-based interview
questions. Please check them out thoroughly and make
sure they are really competent. Many people think they
are more sophisticated than they really are as a coach or
consultant in this area.

What’s Next?
When you’re getting ready for your next competency-based
interview, make sure you start with a list of the competencies for
the position. Then go through the list and identify your best
accomplishments, providing evidence that you are strong in each
competency area. Think about what you want to emphasize and
how to explain the answer in a clear, organized, and conversational
way. Recognize that there are different ways to give the answer,
depending on which competency you want to emphasize. Make
sure you have included the three main parts of any good answer:
situation/task/problem, action, and result. You will need to think about
which order to talk about them, and which part will make your point
the most effectively to the interviewer.
My best advice? Don’t wait for your next interview. Start working
on your list of good, competency-based accomplishments now.


Modesty is never a virtue in an interview.
Avoiding the answer might work for politicians,
but it rarely helps in an interview.
How can you prove your Give the best examples from your
competencies? experience that demonstrate the
competencies for the job.
How can you find organizations Look for news stories and surveys
that match your own values of on corporate reputation. Talk to your
competencies? network of colleagues and friends to
learn more about an organization you
are interested in. Listen.


What’s the best way to prepare l Review the critical competencies.
for a competency-based Make sure you understand what it
interview? takes to be successful in your own
professional area and in the posi-
tion you are interested in.
l Identify your best examples to
provide evidence that you are
strong in each key competency.
l If it is difficult to develop good
examples, ask your mentors, col-
leagues, managers, family, and
friends for their input on times they
have seen you demonstrate partic-
ular competencies.

What are the key characteristics Good answers:
of good answers to competency- l Explain the situation, action, and
based interview questions? result in enough detail that the in-
terviewer can tell what the inter-
viewee is talking about, but not so
much detail that the interviewer
loses the main point.
l Focus on the most important points
that the interviewee thinks are most
critical to the interviewer. The in-
terviewee may have to make an
educated guess about which points
matter the most.
l Emphasize the most important or
relevant point by talking about it
near the beginning of the answer.
l Use conversational, not formal,
stilted languge.
l Show you are a smart and savvy
employee. Whenever possible,
choose less-controversial accom-
plishments and answers to ques-
tions. Always focus on the key
competencies needed to succeed in
the organization.

Chapter 6

Look Like a
Strong Candidate

Even the smallest person
can change the course of history.
—Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring
You’ve worked hard and thought about good answers
to behavioral questions targeting the competencies for the
particular position you are interested in. That’s the first
step to being successful in a competency-based interview.
But it is only the first step. You also need to look the
part, act the part, and come across to the interviewer as a
strong candidate. In this chapter, I’m going to cover the
basics that you need to know about nonverbal communication
to do well in any interview. Then I’m going to look at how
you can work with nonverbal communication in competency-
based interviews.
Good, positive nonverbal communication is always a
large part of being successful in any interview, including
competency-based interviews. What is nonverbal
communication? Every type of communication we use to
send a message except the actual words we choose.

85


Nonverbal Communication
in Any Interview
Nonverbal communication is very important in the interview.
So to be successful in any interview, in addition to your strong,
competency-based answers, you need to:
l Maintain good eye contact.
l Dress appropriately.
l Use the right gestures.
l Have a good, firm handshake.
l Behave appropriately.
l Smile at appropriate times.
l Respect your interviewer’s personal space.
l Respond to your interviewer’s nonverbal communication.
l Avoid giving a mixed message where your nonverbal
communication contradicts your words.
l Deliver your answers in an organized way.
l Talk with your interviewer in a conversational way.

Looking the part starts with dressing appropriately. Even though
you may want to dress differently based upon the culture of the
organization or the location of the interview, you are almost always
going to be perceived as dressing appropriately if you dress on the
conservative end of the range for your professional area. You want
the interviewer to remember you because you’re so impressive—
not because of what you wore to the interview.
One more comment: Pay attention to your voice and diction.
Make sure your interviewer can hear you but that you aren’t
screaming at her. Speak clearly, put some energy and life in your
voice, and use good grammar. Try to minimize the number of pauses

Look Like a Strong Candidate 87

and what communication professors call dysfluencies (the uhs, ums,
you knows, and likes that sometimes interfere with conversation).
You may have taken a communication class in high school or
college or just simply be smart and already know how important
nonverbal communication is in any interaction with another person.
First impressions matter, and the interviewer’s first impression
is based on nonverbal communication. Most interviewers make up
their minds quickly about candidates—within the first 15 seconds
to two minutes of the interview, depending on the communications.
Clearly, nonverbal communication can make a significant
difference in any interview.

One of my clients, with 10 years of good experience and a
Ph.D. from one of the top U.S. engineering programs for
his field, told me he’d never done well in interviews. When
I met him, he sat on the edge of his chair, leaned forward,
and slightly bounced as he was talking. I videotaped him
so he could see for himself what he was doing. I explained
to him about how important it was to not invade the
interviewer’s space and told him to sit back in his chair,
with his back straight, and to stop bouncing. He followed
the advice and received an offer after the next interview.

Remember the saying “actions speak louder than words.” Every
culture seems to have an equivalent saying, so know that nonverbal
communication is important worldwide. Because nonverbal
communication is influenced by culture, the right nonverbal
communication to use in any interview, will be different in Japan or
Nigeria than it is in most situations in the United States.
One example of this? Direct eye contact is expected in the
United States and is looked at as a sign of honesty and
trustworthiness. In certain countries in Africa and Asia, direct eye


contact is a sign of disrespect. If you live or work in one of the
more diverse cities in the United States or other countries, you may
want to learn to be more aware of nonverbal communication
differences across cultures. If you use good nonverbal communication
in your interview and try to be more sensitive to the cultural needs
of your interviewer, it can only work in your favor.
In this chapter, the examples and explanations are based on
nonverbal communication in the United States. If you live in another
country or plan to interview with an organization based in another
part of the world, please take the time to learn what is expected of
a good interviewee there—how the interviewers you will be talking
with would perceive good nonverbal communication. Many places
are further from Kansas than Oz was for Dorothy. Remember that
the Munchkins spoke and sang in English, and the wizard was from
Omaha.

and Nonverbal Communication
When you are getting ready for a competency-based interview,
one of the most important things to remember is to consider the
interviewer’s and the employer’s needs first. By first identifying
the competencies the employer needs to be successful, you can
begin to think about your own accomplishments to prove you are
strong in each competency area.
But in addition to coming up with good answers to competency-
based questions, your nonverbal communication needs to be
consistent with what you are saying. You can’t expect an interviewer
to respond positively to your answer if you are rolling your eyes
upward while you are giving a good competency-based answer.
When your nonverbal communication contradicts your verbal
message, interviewers believe the nonverbal message. So when
you tell the interviewer you are willing to relocate but your head is
shaking “no,” the interviewer, with good reason, is going to question
your verbal answer and believe the headshake. When you give an
interviewer this type of mixed message, you may be contributing to
the interviewer’s perception that she cannot fully trust you to tell


her the truth. Good interviewees don’t give mixed messages in the
interview.
What nonverbal communication really matters in a competency-
based interview? To provide you with especially helpful tips, I’m
going to include anything that could cause the interviewer’s
perception to be influenced by something other than the specific
accomplishment and the words the interviewee is using in the answer.
Let’s look at three of the most common competencies and think
about the verbal and nonverbal communication we would expect,
competency by competency. By thinking about what interviewers
would expect to notice to help them assess a candidate’s
competencies, you can begin to assess your own verbal and nonverbal
communication strengths and weaknesses.

If you begin to be aware that you may be inconsistent with
your verbal and nonverbal responses, you may choose to
adjust your verbal answer, change your own attitude, or
ask for some help from a friend, coach, or other professional
to help you understand what might be behind the mixed
message—and eventually help your verbal and nonverbal
messages be more consistent.

Achievement/Results Orientation
What would a strong interviewee do or say to help prove to the
interviewer that he is results-oriented? In many cases, the
interviewers themselves might not recognize the specific details
that helped them come to the conclusion about a candidate’s strength
in this competency.
Think about the evidence an interviewer would look for to help
prove an interviewee is focused on performance, goals, objectives,
or results. In addition to the quality of the answers, a good interviewer
would watch for other evidence to help support his assessment of
the candidate on the achievement/results orientation competency.


Some of the key evidence is verbal—the words the candidate uses.
And some of the evidence is nonverbal. This includes how the
candidate:
l Talks
l Maintains eye contact
l Handles body language
l Dresses
l Grooms and takes care of himself or herself
Does the candidate explain the results using numbers, statistics,
dollars, time, or other parameters to help the interviewer understand
the size or scope of the accomplishment? Someone strong in this
competency would. An astute interviewer would expect the answers
from a results-oriented candidate to be organized, logical, concise,
and complete. The emphasis in some of their most important answers
would be on the results instead of the process. The interviewer
would be able to tell that it was a priority for the candidate because:
l The result would be given near the beginning of the answer.
l More time would be spent explaining the result than the
situation/task/problem or action.

What else helps confirm the candidate is strong in the
Achievement/Results Orientation competency? A good interviewer
would expect a results-oriented person to get to the point quickly.
He would generally not be guilty of wasting the interviewer’s time
by going off on tangents not critical to the answer. He would maintain
good eye contact. He would be engaged in the conversation. The
interviewer would be able to assess this through his gestures, his
facial expressions, and the way he sat straight in the chair or leaned
very slightly forward. (Never lean forward more than just slightly,
because you may be perceived as invading the interviewer’s space
or as simply strange.)
When you think of the people you know who achieve results,
what other verbal and nonverbal clues would you expect?


Impact and Influence
An interviewer would expect to see many of the same verbal
and nonverbal cues discussed for a results-oriented candidate in a
candidate strong in impact and influence. As the interviewee who
just demonstrated his or her ability to achieve results did, an
interviewee demonstrating her influencing strengths would maintain
good eye contact, be engaged in the conversation, and sit and stand
appropriately.
What are the differences? Remember that this is the
competency looking at a candidate’s ability to persuade, convince,
impact, and influence the people he or she needs to be successful.
The differences can be subtle. Think about people who are called
aggressive and those who are assertive. Assertive people are equally
people-focused and task-focused; aggressive people focus on
achieving the goal. Think about the difference in competencies
needed to sell to clients based on building strong long-term
relationships and simply based on immediate contact and volume.
People with strong influencing skills are almost always assertive—
not aggressive. They recognize they will need to work with the
same people in the future, and they try to protect the relationship if
they can.
What evidence would an interviewer notice to help confirm
that the candidate had strong influencing skills? Listen to the way
the candidate answers the questions and targets the interviewer’s
real needs. He or she may even ask the interviewer a question to
clarify those needs or wants. He emphasizes what they offer that
the interviewer is looking for—how his experience will help ensure
his success in the new position. In other words, he knows how to
sell himself and his ideas, without overselling.
People with strong influencing skills know how to read people
and convince them to change their position now or eventually. Their
verbal and nonverbal skills can help them be subtle enough to set
things up so that the other person even thinks the change is his or
her own idea. They can use a short tangent or tell a story, just to
help them persuade someone to change their view.
There’s also a strong possibility the candidate with strong
influencing skills has a good sense of humor. Knowing how to come


up with a good one-liner or tell a joke at the right time can help
someone relieve tension, persuade a colleague, or close a deal. Be
appropriate: You need to make sure you are not the only one
who finds something funny.

Integrity and Ethics
What verbal and nonverbal clues do candidates give during an
interview to help the interviewer assess how strong they are on the
competency integrity? Astute interviewers may notice that the
candidates they assess as lying:
l Give examples that don’t make sense or contradict each
other.
l Use nonverbal communication that contradicts their words.
l Fidget and avoid eye contact at certain relevant times.
l Move less than candidates telling the truth.
l Talk more slowly and make more speech errors than most
candidates.
l Use fewer words when answering questions, often one-
word answers with little elaboration.
l Pause longer before answering questions and use longer
pauses throughout their communication.
l Use more “generalizing terms” such as you know what I
mean and you know at the end of their sentences.
l Use fewer concrete terms and refer less frequently to
specific people and places.
l May guard their mouth, touch their nose, and rub their eyes.1

These are just some of the nonverbal ways that good
communicators identify lying or deceit. Most good interviewer
training will encourage interviewers to look for several indicators to
support that someone is not telling the truth. Any single behavior or
nonverbal indicator is generally not enough to decide someone is


lying. Even law enforcement officers need more than fidgeting and
pausing to build their case when they can tell a suspect is not telling
the truth. They look for more evidence.
But it is important, as a candidate, to realize that in the interview,
you’ll generally do better if you tell the truth—because smart and
savvy interviewers will probably be able to tell when you choose to
lie. As a coach, though, I’m a believer in diplomatic honesty, not
brutal honesty. Tell the truth but say it in a way that is more likely
to help you than hurt you. Put the best possible spin on what you
are saying. Here’s an example. For certain people reading this
chapter, please know that you don’t have to come out and tell the
woman in your life that what she’s wearing makes her look fat
when she asks you. Just ask her what she thinks or tell her that she
always looks good to you.
When you think about all the verbal and nonverbal clues that
can cause you to be perceived as lying, you’ll begin to realize why
I have encouraged you to give specific concrete answers to
competency-based questions, and to prepare, so you can think about
what to say before the actual interview. By taking the time to get
ready for a competency-based interview, you’ll increase the chance
that you won’t have to pause or inadvertently give the interviewer
another nonverbal indicator that you may not be telling the truth.
Trust me. I am telling you the truth.

Other Competencies
After learning more about how to support your answers to
competency-based interview questions with good nonverbal
communication for the competencies Achievement/Results
Orientation, Impact and Influence, and Integrity and Ethics,
you need to think about how to support the other relevant
competencies through your nonverbal and verbal communication.
For example, consider the competency Customer Service.
Wouldn’t you expect to see a good customer service or sales
professional know when to:
l Smile and demonstrate support for a customer?


l Pace his or her answers more slowly and use a calmer
tone of voice when dealing with a difficult customer?
Think about what evidence you need to provide to be consistent
with your verbal answers to competency-based interview questions
targeting the other key competencies on your list for the particular
position you want or the organization you want to work for.

Other Nonverbal Tips
We may be too old to grow except in pounds, worth, and wisdom.
Some things that affect how we look can’t be changed. But other
things can. If you are a woman who wants to interview for a powerful
job, consider getting your makeup done, a new suit, new shoes, and
your hair done by someone who knows what he or she is doing. If
you need to lose some weight, start your diet and exercise program
soon enough to make a difference before the interview. Get
recommendations for makeup artists, manicurists, hair stylists,
personal shoppers, and good places to shop from other people you
know who look polished and professional. It just may be worth the
investment.
If you are a man, please consider making some of the same
extra effort too. Good grooming is important for both men and
women.


It’s not what you say but what you do that matters.

What is nonverbal Every type of communication except
communication? the actual words someone uses.

What nonverbal communication l Maintain good eye contact
is important in any interview?
l Dress appropriately and
conservatively



What nonverbal communication l Use the right gestures
is important in any interview? l Have a good, firm handshake
(continued) l Behave appropriately
l Smile at appropriate times
l Respect personal space
l Respond to the interviewer’s
nonverbal communication
l Avoid giving mixed messages

How does culture affect non- The right nonverbal communica-
verbal communication? tion to use will be different based
on the country/culture the organi-
zation is in, and perhaps the cul-
ture of the interviewer. Expect
different nonverbal communication
when interviewing across cultures,
and be more sensitive to the cul-
tural needs of your interviewer.
Take the time to learn what is ex-
pected of good interviewees by
your interviewer—no matter what
the culture is.

In addition to the example used l Does the candidate explain the
to answer a competency-based results using quantitative and
interview question, what would qualitative details?
an interviewer notice that would l Are the answers organized, logi-
cause him or her to rate someone cal, concise, and complete?
as strong in the competency l Is the emphasis more on results
Achieve Results? than process? Do the results seem
to be a priority for the candidate?
l Did the candidate get to the point
quickly?
l Did the interviewee maintain
good eye contact and show that he
was engaged in the conversation?



What would an interviewer ex- Many of the same cues shown in the
pect to notice to help confirm a Achieves Results competency. The
candidate was strong in the com- difference? People with strong influ-
petency Impact and Influence? encing skills are:
l Almost always assertive, not ag-

gressive, and consider the long-
term relationship.
l Able to know how to sell their

ideas effectively without selling
too much.
l Good at reading people.

l Good at understanding subtleties

and using them to convince others.
l Able to use stories and humor to

make points and persuade others
to change their point of view.

What verbal and nonverbal cues Good interviewers may perceive
help an interviewer assess a someone as not telling the truth if
candidate’s strengh on the they:
competency Integrity and Ethics? l Give contradictory examples.

l Contradict their words with

nonverbal communication.
l Fidget or avoid eye contact at

specific, relevant times.
l Sit very still and move less than

other candidates.
l Talk more slowly and make

mistakes verbally.
l Pauses before and during

communication.
l Use general terms that imply

some knowledge.
l Are less specific, more general,

and vague.



How honest should you be in an There’s no reason to be brutally
interview? honest. Be diplomatically honest
instead. Try to explain things using
words that will help put the best
possible spin on something without
being dishonest.

What else should you do to l Go through your list of critical
prepare? competencies for the position and
identify what you think the inter-
viewer is going to notice—both
verbally and nonverbally—to help
justify giving you a strong rating in
each competency area.
l Make an effort to look as profes-
sional as possible the day of the
interview. Consider losing weight
or buying a new suit or shirt or tie.
Get your hair cut if it needs it.
Make sure your shoes are shined.
Get your makeup done if that is
appropriate for the position. If you
need some advice, ask the most
polished professional person you
know.

Chapter 7

Consider Other
Important Interview
Tips

He who asks a question is a fool
for five minutes; he who does not ask
a question remains a fool forever.
—Chinese proverb
At this point, you’ve learned about how competency-
based interviewing works, how to develop good answers
to competency-based interview questions, and how to look
and act like the best candidate. You probably think you are
ready to do well on your next competency-based interview,
and so do I—with the addition of the word almost.
Because we don’t want to be fools forever, we’ll follow
the advice in the Chinese proverb quoted here and start by
asking a question: What else do you need to know to get
the offer?
Despite competency-based interviewing being one of
the most common approaches to interviewing in today’s
organizations, you may still find a few questions included in
a mostly competency-based interview that are not really
competency-based interview questions. Your job as the
candidate is to do a good job of answering these questions,
in addition to the other questions the interviewer asks you.

99


Here are five questions you may be asked:
l Why are you interested in this position?
l Tell me about yourself.
l What is your current salary? What salary do you expect?
l What are your strengths?
l What is your biggest weakness?

How should you answer these questions to do well in the
interview? How can you use your knowledge of competency-based
interviewing to give stronger answers to these and other unexpected
questions?
After reading about how to answer these questions, you’ll really
think you’re ready to be very good on your next interview. Please,
though, take the time to review the question-and-answer section at
the end of this chapter. You may find that you get just one additional
tip that makes all the difference in your next interview. I hope so.

Answer Other Common Questions Showing
Competency Strengths1

Why Are You Interested in This Position?
You are very likely to be asked this question (or a similar question
with the same intent) before the interview is set up or during the
actual interview itself. Even though this question does not
immediately seem that it would belong in a competency-based
interview, please know that many interviewers may ask one or two
questions that are not in their approved competency-based interview
guide.
The best answers to this kind of question focus on how your
experience and interests match the organization’s needs. In other

Consider Other Important Interview Tips 101

words, this is an opportunity to show you have the right
competencies for the position and are interested in continuing to
develop the competencies that are needed for the organization to
be successful in the future.
Here’s an example of how to answer the question, “Why are
you interested in this opportunity?” “Three main reasons: It will
give me the chance to prove how good I am at achieving goals,
building strong long-term relationships with customers, and motivating
the employees in the department to be even more successful.”
Paraphrase the competencies. Explain the relevant competencies
using synonyms—in your own words. Expect to give examples of
when you’ve used these competencies in the past. Even when the
question is not technically a behavioral question, using past behavior
or examples will help provide proof to the interviewer that you will
be strong in these same competencies in the future.

Tell Me About Yourself
You have probably recognized by this point that one of the key
points made in this book is the need to emphasize the employer’s
needs first and your own fit second. So what is a good answer to
“Tell me about yourself”? Think about this: What about you does
the employer need to know to realize you have the competencies
she needs to help her organization be more successful?
Limit your answer to no more than two minutes. Focus on your
work experience. Human resources managers tell unbelievable
stories about candidates trying to convert them to another religion
during the interview or sharing that they are currently:
l Going through their third divorce.
l Having problems with their children.
l Being treated for cancer and have been told they have six
months to live.


You are a professional, and your answer to this question needs
to stay professional and away from emphasizing your private,
personal life. Please know that this is especially true in the United
States. But interviewing, even competency-based interviewing, is
affected by the culture of the employer and the laws of the country
it is located in. In some other parts of the world, expect questions
about your personal life and answer the questions—if you want to
do well on the interview. It may be expected.
The traditional answer to this question is chronological: Start
from the beginning and work toward the present, emphasizing your
background that is the most relevant for the position you are
interviewing for. The second approach is to briefly discuss your
early background and education, but spend most of the two minutes
focused on your current strengths, skills, and abilities, and what you
want to do next.
Both approaches can work well for people, but one may be
more effective for you, depending on your own situation. Be logical,
organized, and concise. Think about mentioning evidence of your
competencies that are related to the position you are interviewing
for when you are talking about your background—it can help the
interviewer begin to understand that you’ve been developing your
competencies over time, and that they are strong.
Remember that the interviewer is probably evaluating your skills
as a communicator while listening to the content of your answer.

What Is Your Current Salary?
What Salary Do You Expect?
Many people are extremely uncomfortable answering questions
about money in the interview. Talking about money ranks right up
there with religion, politics, and sex for many people—as topics
they’d like to avoid.
Please remember that one of the main points of competency-
based thinking is to focus on the employer’s needs first. This is not
just about you and what you think is appropriate for the interviewer


to ask. When interviewers ask you these types of questions, please
realize that they are doing it because, almost always, they need to
know. If they want to make you an offer, they need to come up
with a salary that you will be happy with and that fits within the
range of salaries of people in their organization with similar
experience and skills. They are simply trying to be fair.
If you still have a problem with answering these questions,
please work on getting over it. You need to expect to get at least
one question on salary before or during the interview.
So, what’s a good answer to these questions? I coach my clients,
in most cases, to answer the first question. For the second, I
encourage them to tell the interviewer, “I’m sure if you decide that
I am the right person for the job that you will do the very best for
me that you can do.” Guilt is a wonderful thing if it works in your
favor.
Please be aware that this is the first step in salary negotiation.
To give really on-target advice, a consultant would need to know
much more about the job opportunity and your own situation.

What Are Your Strengths?
When you are answering this question, focus first on your
strengths that match the competencies that are the most important
to help the employer be successful in the future. Leave out your
strengths that are not important to be successful in the position. For
example, if you are very creative and have had your paintings shown
in galleries, that type of competency might not be perceived as an
asset if you are interviewing for a position as a software engineer.
Choose three or four of the important competencies for the
position that you are personally strong in, and answer the question
with these competencies. Start with the competency on your list
that is the most important for the interviewer’s success, and then
talk about the competency strength in the second most important
area.


Paraphrase and use synonyms to describe the competencies.
Take the time to put the competencies into your own language
because you will come across as more sophisticated than the next
candidate who may just repeat the exact words from the competency
list. Actually, you will be more sophisticated about how to make
competencies work for you than the next candidate. You are reading
this book!

What Is Your Biggest Weakness?
Listen carefully to the question. Is the interviewer asking for
one weakness—or several?
Most career consultants will tell candidates that when they are
answering this question, they should pick a weakness and turn it
into a strength. That may be true most of the time, but to do this
right, you need to remember a few things, to increase your chance
of being perceived as having a good answer to this question. You
want your answer to be diplomatically honest, be original, and be
perceived as real to the interviewer. Stay away from the cookie-
cutter answers such as being a perfectionist, unless you are able to
give enough evidence to make it real. Remember that everyone
has weaknesses. Saying you do not have any weaknesses simply is
not believable.
When you are answering this question, it is important to choose
a weakness that is not related to the critical competencies for the
position. You do not want to be perceived as weak in analytical
skills if that is a key part of being successful in an accounting
position.
Try to pick something that the interviewer may have already
noticed as a weakness in the interview. Here’s one example to
think about: “I’m not always as concise as I think I should be. I’m
aware that I need to be better about getting to the point faster, and
I’m working on it. I know it is something I could improve.” Think
about how effective this answer would be for a candidate who has


just gone off on a tangent during the interview. At least the
interviewer is now aware the candidate recognizes the problem.
Another approach is to focus on something different that might
be a little humorous. One client from West Virginia was preparing
for an interview in Texas, and he had a good sense of humor. His
answer? “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but some people here
think I have an accent. So they underestimate me. While they’re
doing this, they tell me all sorts of information before they figure out
I really know what I’m doing. But occasionally it can work against
me.” Do you see why this answer worked well for him?

Competency Gaps
In addition to the weakness question, sometimes you may get a
question about a competency that you know is not a strength for
you—where you have a weakness or a competency gap. What
can you do, as a candidate, when you recognize that you cannot
prove certain key competencies? Or when you are not as strong as
you need to be in critical competency areas? As a candidate, you
always need to be aware of places that you might have some
competency gaps, and start coming up with some ideas about what
you can do to overcome the gaps.
One way to handle this type of question is to talk about how
you have compensated for the competency gap by using your
strength in another competency. For example, it might be hard for
you to come up with a time you’ve directly influenced or persuaded
someone to change his or her position on an important issue—but
you may be able to substitute an example of when you used strong
customer service skills.
Another approach to answering the question is to acknowledge
the competency gap but to explain what you have done or plan to
do to build your strength in the competency in the future. Have you
signed up for a class or volunteered for a project at work that will
give you the opportunity to prove that you are competent in the
relevant area in the near future? Let the interviewer know.


Interview Questionnaire: True or False?
1. The best-qualified candidate always gets the job.
False. Interviewers consider other things in addition to
qualifications. They try to assess how willing you are to work
hard and how well you’ll fit into their department and
organization. In competency-based organizations, the
interviewer will assess how strong you are in the competencies
needed to be successful on the job. In addition, interviewers
may be persuaded to give an offer to someone who can benefit
them politically—say, the nephew of the CEO.

2. It’s a good idea to schedule your first interviews for
the positions you are the most interested in.
False. Most interviewees don’t do as well in their first
interviews as they will in later interviews when they are
more comfortable with the interview process. So try to
have a “practice” interview (or work with a coach or career
consultant) before you have one that really matters to you.

3. The first few minutes of the interview are the most
important.
True. Most interviewers make up their minds quickly.

4. Wear conservative clothes to an interview.
True. But make sure what you wear is considered
conservative for your professional area—not someone
else’s. It is important to wear conservative clothes because
you want the interviewer to remember you for how
professional and smart you are and the good quality answers
you gave in the interview—not the clothes you wore. If the
interviewer remembers you for your clothes, it is not a
good thing.


5. Take a planner and a notepad to the interview.
Trick question. Take them to the interview but don’t pull
the notepad out to take notes during the interview. If you
take notes during the interview, the interviewer is likely to
perceive you as having a poor memory, not paying attention
(less eye contact), and perhaps more interested in getting
him in trouble (think of a potential discrimination charge or
lawsuit). Immediately after the interview, take some notes
on your notepad or in your planner—so you can write more
effective thank-you notes.

6. It’s always good to arrive 20 to 30 minutes early for
the interview.
False. In most cases, plan to arrive about five minutes
early. If you arrive earlier, realize that you may be
inconveniencing the interviewer, who will not expect you
to arrive 30 minutes early. Although it is better to be early
than late, too early is also not good. Get to the location
early, but wait in your car, downstairs, or across the street
in a Starbucks until the right time to go to the interview.
Review your resume and check to make sure you are still
looking as professional as you were when you first dressed
for the interview.

7. When asked to talk about your background, you should
plan to keep your response to about two minutes.
True. Don’t be too brief—or too wordy. Watch the
interviewer’s nonverbal communication. If the interviewer
is giving you nonverbal cues that she is bored, pick up the
pace of your answer and finish talking. Emphasize the
competencies that are critical for the position.


8. During an interview, avoid too much eye contact to
help the interviewer be less nervous.
False. Maintaining good eye contact is perceived positively
in interviews in the United States. Just don’t stare!

9. It is best to be honest and tell the interviewer exactly
how you felt about previous supervisors if you are
asked for your opinion.
False. Remember that diplomatic honesty is better than
brutal honesty. If you talk negatively about a former
supervisor, the interviewer will think that you will be talking
negatively about him in the future. So be professional and
discreet.

10. Don’t answer questions about race, sex, age, national
origin, marital status, or number of children.
Trick question with the true answer, “It depends.”
Put the question in context and respond considering the
underlying reason for the question.

11. What you mean in your answers to the interviewer’s
questions counts for more than the interviewer’s
perception.
False. The interviewer will make her decision based on
her perception of how successful you will be in the job
compared to other candidates. So it is up to you to
communicate what you mean as clearly as you can so you
can increase the chance the interviewer will perceive you
accurately.


12. Exaggerate your accomplishments, because the
interviewer won’t be able to tell whether you are
telling the exact truth.
False. A good interviewer will be able to tell when you are
not telling the truth from your nonverbal and verbal
communication. Make your best case but make sure you
stay honest.

13. Your job in the interview is to sell yourself.
True! Your whole job in the interview is to persuade the
interviewer that you deserve a second interview or a job
offer.

14. Preparing for the interview is a waste of time.
False. Preparing for the interview is the best use of your
time—if you care about being seriously considered for the
opportunity.



When you think you’re ready, do a little more.


Will all the questions in a com- Not necessarily. Even during a
petency-based interview be competency-based interview, you
competency-based behavioral may get a few questions that are
questions? not traditional competency-based
interview questions.

What should you keep in mind Focus on how your experience and
when you answer the question interests match the competencies the
“Why are you interested in this employer is looking for. A strong
position?” candidate would give specific
examples to support what he or she
is saying.

When the interviewer asks you l Key point: What about you does
to “tell me about yourself,” the employer need to know to re-
what should you do or say? alize you have the right compe-
tencies to help the organization
be successful?
l Limit your answer to two min-
utes. Be logical, organized, and
concise.
l Focus on your professional expe-
rience that is relevant to this posi-
tion, not your personal life.
l Be logical and follow either the
traditional chronological approach
or briefly discuss your background
and education, and spend most of
the time focused on your current
strengths and competencies, and
what you want to do next.


How should you answer l Answer the question about your
questions about salary? current salary unless there’s a
good reason not to. It doesn’t
matter if it bothers you to talk
about money.
l Answer the question about your
salary expectations by saying
something along the lines of, “I’m
sure if you decide I’m the right
person for the job that you will
do the very best you can for me.”

What are the most important l Emphasize your strengths that
things to remember when asked match the competencies the em-
to identify your strengths? ployer needs to be successful in
the future.
l Choose three or four of the rele-
vant competencies for the posi-
tion that are strengths of yours.
l Start your answer with the com-
petency that has the greatest
weight or is the most important
to the employer.
l Paraphrase and use synonyms to
describe the competencies to the
employer. Take the time to put
the relevant competencies in your
own language.
l Listen carefully to this and other
questions to know whether you
are being asked about one
strength or strengths with the “s”
on the end, which is plural and
means you have to give at least
two examples.


What should you consider when l Most career consultants tell their
asked to identify your biggest clients to pick a weakness and turn
weakness? it into a strength. To do this right,
your answer should be: (1)
Diplomatically honest but not
brutally honest; and (2) Original.
l Choose a weakness not related to
the key competencies for the
position you are interviewing for.
l Remember that even the best
employees have weaknesses, and
you need to answer this question.
It is not believable to answer this
question by saying that you have
no weaknesses.
l Select a weakness that the inter-
viewer may have already noticed
in the interview.
l Consider picking an example to
use that shows some humor and
that you are human. Just make sure
that you are not the only one who
thinks it is funny.
What is a competency gap? A competency you can’t prove
or a competency you don’t have.

How can you answer questions l Talk about how you have com-
about competencies that fall pensated by using your strengths
into the competency gap area in another competency.
for you?
l Acknowledge the gap and explain
what steps you have taken to
overcome it. Have you signed up
for a class or project, or asked to
participate in a project at work
that will give you the evidence to
close the gap for the future?


What are some other basic tips l Your job in the interview is to sell
that you need to know to do well yourself.
in the interview process? l Preparing for the interview is
extremely important—if you
want an offer.
l Recognize that the best candidate
doesn’t always get the offer.
l It is a good idea to schedule
interviews for the positions you
are most interested in after you
have had some interviews and
know that you are handling the
interview well.
l Do wear clothes that are considered
conservative for your area.
l Don’t consider taking notes during
the interview. Take your notes
immediately after the interview so
you can write more effective
thank-you notes.
l Plan to arrive 5 to 10 minutes early.
l When asked to tell the interviewer
about yourself or your background,
plan to talk about 2 minutes.
l Maintain good eye contact during
the interview.
l Be professional and discreet when
talking about previous employers.
l Put any illegal or inapprioriate
questions in context and respond
considering the underlying reason
for asking the question.
l Tell the truth but be diplomatically
honest and make your best case in
your answer.

Chapter 8

Check to Make Sure
You Are Ready for
the Interview

Step 1: Understand Competency-Based
Interview Approaches
Key Questions Reference Complete
and Tasks Page
Know how a competency-based interview
is different from other interviews.

Review the information about competency-
based behavioral interviewing. Begin
thinking about how your own behavior has
contributed to your success in the past.

Remember that behavioral interviewing is based on the theory that
past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

Step 2: Identify the Right Competency List
and Tasks Page
Review the job advertisement looking for
competencies. They may be listed
directly as competencies or as success
factors, dimensions, or values. Ask for a
job description from a recruiter, and see
whether the organization has identified
competencies as part of that description.

115


and Tasks Page
If the competencies aren’t clearly identified in
the advertisement or job description, follow these
four major steps to develop a list on your own:
1. Think about the obvious competencies
for the position.
2. Look at competitors’ advertisements and
job postings.
3. Check for competencies from other
sources, such as employment Websites,
newspaper ads, magazines and journals,
professional organizations, and the
organization’s Website.
4. Select 10 to 15 competencies that would
be most critical from Appendix A.

As you research competencies, remember that the competency-based interview
approach always looks at the employer’s needs first. Your task is to think
about how your competencies fit what the employer is looking for.

The 10 most standard competencies used by
organizations are:
1. Achievement/Results Orientation
2. Initiative
9. Information Seeking
10. Integrity

Although this list may be a starting point for
you, keep in mind that competencies for a
specific organization can be very different based
on its culture and goals. Remember, too, that
competencies can change as an organization’s
situation or culture changes.

Check to Make Sure You Are Ready for the Interview 117

Step 3: Understand the Needs of the Employer
and the Interviewer
and Tasks Page
Remember that all interviewers are looking for the best candidate
for the job.
As a candidate, you can help the interviewer by providing information to
demonstrate that you are a strong applicant.

Begin thinking about how you can prove
yourself to the interviewer who is always
considering these questions:
l Can you do the job?
l Will you do the job?
l How well will you fit with the organization’s
culture and people?

For each competency you have identified as
important for the position, be ready to talk about
three main elements in your examples.
l Situation/Task/Problem
l Action
l Result
Begin to prepare for your interview by outlining
these elements for each competency you want
to demonstrate.

Although interviewers are trained to avoid
asking illegal questions, this still happens
sometimes. Be prepared to respond to an
illegal question. (An “illegal question” is a
question about your status in a “class” that is
protected by law, such as race, sex, age, religion,
disability, veteran status, color, and ethnicity/
national origin.)
Try to understand the interviewer’s real
motivation for asking the question, and respond
to the business need that it reflects. Don’t take
it personally, and don’t get angry.


and Tasks Page
As you develop your answers to expected
interview question, it may be helpful to
remember that more organizations are moving
toward using competency-based interviews for
three main reasons:
1. Competency-based interviews reduce
the chances that an interviewer will ask
an illegal question.
2. Competency-based questions help the
interviewer select candidates with the
competencies that the organization needs
to be successful.
3. Competency-based interviews help
organizations reinforce and strengthen
their corporate or organization cultures.

Step 4: Prepare to Answer Competency-Based
Interview Questions
and Tasks Page

Competencies provide the interviewer with a target for behavioral questions.
To be a successful candidate, you need to focus on the same target:
competencies.

Begin to refine your answers to expected inter-
view questions. Responses to competency-
based behavioral questions require examples
from your past behavior and experience that
will help the interviewer assess how strong you
are in the key competency areas needed to be
more successful in the job.


and Tasks Page
To prepare for a competency-based interview:
l Identify the key competencies for the position.
l Think about your strongest accomplishment
in each competency area.
l Structure your accomplishments using the
situation/task/problem, action, and result
framework.
l Be concise and complete, and use conven-
tional language in your examples. Use pro-
fessional terms/language, along with language
that reflects the organization’s culture, when
appropriate.
Think about your examples from the
interviewer’s perspective, and be able to
restructure your responses. For example, if your
interviewer is focused on results, try to start
your answers with the “results,” followed by
information on the situation and your actions.
Focus on presenting the most critical information
first—from the employer’s perspective.
Review these other points when you are
preparing your competency-based interview
responses:
l Listen well, and be sure to respond to the
question being asked.
l Consider carefully the language you use, so
that you present a professional response,
but in a conversational, rather than formal,
style. Use positive language.
l Be prepared to answer follow-up questions
to provide additional details or competency-
related information.
l Choose examples you are willing to talk
about, and be prepared to provide detail
beyond your planned answer.


Step 5: Prove Your Competencies With Examples
and Tasks Page
Your interview responses should always reflect
two key points:
l Modesty is never a virtue in an interview.
l Avoiding the answer might work for
politicians, but it rarely helps in an
interview.
Refine your situation/action/results to make sure
you are using the best examples from your
personal experience to demonstrate your strength
in the relevent competencies for the job.

Hint: If you have difficulty finding strong examples, ask mentors, colleagues,
managers, family, and friends for instances in which you demonstrated
particular competencies.

In competency-based interviews, good
responses:
l Explain the situation, action, and result in
enough detail that the interviewer can tell
what the interviewee is talking about, but
not so much detail that the interviewer loses
the main point.
l Focus on points that are, in the interviewee’s
judgment, most critical to the interviewer.
l Emphasize the most important or relevant
point by talking about it near the beginning
of the answer.
l Use conversational, rather than formal, stilted
language, and include professional
terminology as appropriate.
l Avoid controversial accomplishments, and
always focus on the competencies that are
needed to succeed in the organization and
the position.


and Tasks Page
Additional suggestions for preparing strong
competency-based responses are to:
l Be direct, and respond to the interviewer’s
questions.
l Talk about what matters most to the inter-
viewer first.
l Choose examples that will help the inter-
viewer perceive you in a positive light.
Avoid examples that make you seem to be
a victim or “negative thinker.” Take owner-
ship of everything that was your responsi-
bility, and don’t try to place blame on others,
even if they deserve it.
l Respond to questions about failures or mis-
takes by explaining what you learned from
the experience that will make you more
successful in the future.
l Think about your accomplishments from
the perspective of different competencies.
Almost every situation illustrates more than
one competency, depending on which part
of the work is emphasized.
l If you prepare for the interview correctly,
you should be able to answer most of the
interviewer’s questions. If you need to think
about an unexpected question (which
should happen only once or twice in an
interview), take time to pause so that you
can provide a thoughful response.
l Practice your answers. Find someone who
is a savvy career coach, manager, or human
resources professional to help you fine-tune
your answers to the most likely questions.
Make sure the person you choose understands
competency-based interviewing.


Step 6: Use Good Nonverbal Communication
and Look Like a Strong Candidate
and Tasks Page

Actions speak louder than words. To be perceived as a strong
candidate, you need to look and act the part. Focus not just on
what you say, but also on how you say it—just as your interviewer
will do.

Think about the competencies required for
your target position and the nonverbal
communication the interviewer might be
looking for with each competency. Remember:
Nonverbal communication is every kind of
communication except the actual words you use.

For example, when talking about the
competency Impact and Influence, the
interviewer will be listening for/looking at
whether you are good at reading people and
are able to sell ideas effectively without
overselling.

To be successful in an interview, you need to:
l Dress appropriately.
l Behave appropriately.
l Maintain good eye contact.
l Have a good handshake.
l Use the right gestures.
l Smile at appropriate times.
l Respect your interviewer’s personal space.
l Respond to your interviewer’s nonverbal
communication.


and Tasks Page
l Avoid giving a mixed message (where your
nonverbal communication contradicts your
words).
l Deliver your news in an organized way.
l Talk with your interviewer conversationally.

Remember also to speak clearly and put some
energy into your voice. Make sure that your
interviewer can hear you, but be careful not to
talk too loudly.

Nonverbal cues change with the country and
the culture in which you are interviewing.
Before you interview in a country other than
your own, research the common customs and
business practices to understand what
nonverbal communication may be important
in an interview.

Honesty is, of course, essential in any
interview. However, there is a clear difference
between being brutally honest and being
diplimatically honest. Always try to put the
best possible spin on your words while still
being honest.

When your nonverbal communication
contradicts your verbal communication, the
interviewer will believe the nonverbal message.
To do well in an interview, avoid giving these
“mixed messages.”

Always look your best the day of the
interview. Try to lose some weight, if that will
help you look and feel better. Buy a new suit,
shoes, or tie, and get a haircut if you need one.
If you need advice on your appearance, ask
the most polished professional person you
know for advice.


Step 7: Remember Other Interview Tips
and Tasks Page

When you think you are ready, do a little more preparation.

Be prepared to respond, with competency-
based answers, to four common interview
questions:
1. Why are you interested in this
position?
Focus on how your experience,
competencies, and interests match the
organization’s needs.
2. Tell me about yourself.
Focus on your work experience,
highlighting evidence of the
competencies for your target
position.
3. What are your strengths?
Focus on three or four of the
competencies that are most important
to the employer.
4. What is your biggest weakness?
Focus on a weakness that does not
relate to a critical component for the
position. Be diplomatically honest.
You may want to mention a weakness
that might already be obvious from
your interview (for example, not
being as concise as possible).

Be prepared to discuss your “competency
gaps”—competencies that you cannot prove,
do not have, or that are not strengths for you.
Talk about how you may have compensated
for the gap by using your strength in another
competency, or what you have done or plan to
do to build strength in the competency.


and Tasks Page
Understand some basic truths about
interviewing:
l The best-qualified candidate does not
always get the job.
l Schedule interviews for the jobs you are
more interested in after you’ve had a few
“practice” interviews on jobs that you are
less interested in.
l The first few minutes of the interview are
the most important.
l Take a planner or notepad to the interview,
but don’t use it during the interview. Use it
afterward to jot some notes to use in your
thank-you notes.
l Plan to arrive about 5 minutes early to an
interview. If you arrive any earlier, you may
be inconveniencing the interviewer, who has
her own schedule to keep.
l When responding to the question “Tell me
about yourself,” keep your answer to about
2 minutes.
l Maintain good eye contact during the
interview—but don’t stare.
l If asked about your previous or current
supervisors or employers, be diplomati-
cally honest, and do not talk negatively
about them.
l If the interviewer asks an illegal question,
you must still respond, but try to determine
the underlying reason for the question
before giving your answer. Then give a
diplomatic answer that responds to the
underlying business need.


and Tasks Page

l Be as clear as possible in your answers and
your nonverbal communication, because the
interviewer’s perceptions are the basis for
determining who will be hired.
l Make your work performance look as good
as possible, and don’t lie.
l Your only job in the interview is to sell
yourself, which leads to the next point:

Preparing for the interview is the best use of your time, if you want
to be perceived as a serious candidate for the job.

Chapter 9

Look at Case Studies
for Ideas to Make
Your Interviewing
Stronger
When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter
hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times
without as much as a crack showing in it.
Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two,
and I know it was not that blow that did it,
but all that had gone before.
—Jacob August Riis
photographer and author (1849–1914)
Although we’re showing you a new way to get ready for
interviews in this book, there are important lessons that you
can learn from other people’s experience with competency-
based interviews. Read through the case studies included in
this chapter and look for examples that remind you of some of
your own problems or concerns.
The case studies were carefully chosen to give you an
opportunity to see how we addressed some sticky issues when
coaching these candidates to help them get ready for their
interviews—competency-based interviews and more
traditional interviews. Many of us have some things in our
background that are difficult to explain in an interview and
may get us in trouble with the interviewer. By looking at the
case studies, you will see examples of how we addressed
some issues that make the candidate’s weak areas less obvious.

127


I believe you are a star, but I know that you may need to be
reminded of that fact. You need to feel good about your own
competence to do well in the interview. You may have just worked
for a manager with a different personality than yours who did not
see your strengths.
At one point in my own career, I worked for a human resources
manager who told me I was a terrible writer! His style was simply
different than mine—he believed in starting memos with phrases
such as “Attached please find….”
You need to show the interviewer how strong you really are
before, during, and after the interview. You can do this.
We’ll show you what the issues were for four candidates and
what solutions we developed.
Meet Jessica Gramm, a lawyer working for a prestigious law
firm, who wants to work as a corporate attorney; Jack Blocker, a
human resources vice president who lost his job; Dan Marrs, an
information technology manager who wants a promotion within his
current company; and Michael Blakeley, a college senior looking
for his first job.
All of them have potential, and all of them have some issues
that might cause an interviewer to choose someone else after the
interview. You might have some similar things in your background.
In these case studies, look at the ways these candidates learned to
improve their chance of getting what they wanted.

Case Study: Attorney
Situation
Jessica Gramm had worked as a litigation attorney for two
major New York and Texas law firms, and specialized in handling
general litigation and toxic torte cases. She had graduated near the
top of her class at a nationally recognized law school in the South
and had eight years of experience. She told me she wanted to work
as an in-house counsel with a chemical or oil and gas company.
Jessica recognized the benefits of working in-house:

Look at Case Studies for Ideas to Make Your Interviewing Stronger 129

l More collaboration and less direct competition with other
attorneys.
l The chance to do more preventive work by offering good
advice and training managers.
l Less emphasis on marketing, billing hours, and bringing in
new clients.
l No concern about making partner.

When I met her, she told me that she had tried for the last two
years to make the transition from working as an associate at a law
firm to in-house counsel. Although she had interviewed with a few
companies, she had not received any offers.

Action
I first worked closely with Jessica to develop a competency-
based resume to replace her standard, more traditional resume.
Like many lawyers, she was using a resume that covered her
credentials, class standing, and the basic facts without giving many
details of her accomplishments. We first analyzed an advertisement
for a position as a staff attorney for one of the major oil and gas
companies that uses competencies to help manage their human
resources. We determined the key competencies for the position
would have to include:
1. Achieves Results
3. Customer Service
4. Analytical Skills
5. Strategic Agility
6. Team Orientation


Then, I asked her to think about these competencies and give
me an example of a time that she had done high-level work in each
competency area. Jessica, who had always been a good student,
took her homework assignment seriously and had her examples
ready for the next time we met.
We worked together to develop effective accomplishment
statements for her resume, targeting the key competencies. Here’s
an example of three of the accomplishment statements we used:
l Argued and won two Chapter 95 motions for summary
judgment in torte cases with pipefitter and insulator as
plaintiffs in front of state district judge, 2003–2004. (Results)
l Persuaded partner acting as first chair in trial to avoid using
witness who demonstrated memory problems and became
increasingly nervous on day before scheduled testimony.
(Influence)
l Ensured credibility of human resources professional as
witness by taking her through direct questions and mock
cross-examination to help her know what to expect;
recognized for contributing to successful verdict by
supporting witness who had considerable difficulty in
previous trial. (Results and Customer Service)

Once we had developed credible, targeted accomplishment
statements, we worked on her summary section and completed the
resume.
Within one week, Jessica called to let me know that she had
been scheduled for an interview for the staff attorney position with
the major oil and gas company. She recognized that the types of
interviews done at law firms were very different than the interviews
she had been through in corporations, and she knew she had not
received the offer in the past. It was clearly time to try a different
approach.


I knew the company she was interested in worked with
competencies, and I told her to expect a typical competency-based
interview using behavioral questions targeting those competencies.
Some of the work we’d done getting the resume pulled together
helped give her the background to more easily understand the
competency-based approach to interviewing. So we went through
a series of questions targeting the six key competencies we’d
identified. I asked her to give me a few examples of times that she:
l Achieved positive results.
l Persuaded someone to do something that benefited the
client.
l Went out of her way to help a client.
l Used her analytical skills to benefit her client.
l Developed a good legal strategy.
l Worked well with a team of people.

Like many lawyers, Jessica is articulate, but she had to polish
her style to answer these kinds of questions well. She tended to
give very general answers and seemed guarded about what she
would share. Many lawyers tend to consider their work very
confidential, but when they refuse to provide details, interviewers
will perceive them as less credible.
So the key for the interviewee is to figure out cases and details
that can be discussed, such as cases that are public record or no
longer sensitive. I coached her to be more specific and to give the
information necessary to provide evidence to the interviewers that
she was strong in the competencies needed to be successful in the
staff attorney role. I also explained how important it is to make sure
to include the basics (discussed in Chapter 3) in every answer:
l What the situation or problem was.


l The action that you took.
l The result. (How did it benefit the organization or client?)

Result: Jessica did well on her first interview after we met and
received an offer. Even with coaching, it is unusual for someone to
do well on their first interview—so she did great! Most of us need
more practice. She started at the major oil and gas company in
January 2006. She called after her interview to tell me that the
interviewers had asked these questions:
l Tell me about a time where you used your judgment to
persuade a partner or senior manager to make a different
decision in a case.
l Tell me about a time you used complex litigation analysis in
a case. What was the result?
l Have you used a litigation strategy? Describe a case where
you used a litigation strategy to help you manage the case,
and tell us the steps you went through to determine the
right litigation strategy to use. What happened?
l Tell us about a time you had to deal with a difficult issue
with an employee. How did you handle it? What happened?
l Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult
client. How did you handle the situation?
l Tell us about a time when you used your skills and
knowledge to help the team. What was your role? What
was the outcome or result of your input?

See if you can figure out which competencies the interviewers
targeted with each questions. Look at Appendix B for my opinion.


Case Study: Human Resources Vice President
Situation
Jack Blocker had worked as a human resources vice president
for two medium-sized manufacturing companies and had 30 years
of human resources experience. Though he had gained some very
good experience in his last role, Jack knew he was a little out of
practice with interviewing—or at least doing well in his interviews.
His last company had just been acquired by a competitor, and Jack
had been doing some consulting work and looking for his next
opportunity for about six months when we met.
He had a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan and had
completed an M.B.A. two years earlier through the University of
Phoenix online program. It was very clear Jack was angry about
being without a job. He told me, “In all the years I’ve been working,
I’ve never been treated the way I was by that last CEO.”

Action
The first thing Jack and I spent some time talking about was his
anger and frustration. I made the decision that Jack could handle
my comment: “I think you’re lucky. Most people can’t say that
they’ve worked 30 years and never been treated badly.” He
understood my point, thanked me, and told me that he knew I was
right.
As a candidate, if you are angry, it will come across to the
interviewer, and it will hurt your chance of being chosen for the
position. Even if you think you are smart enough not to show your
anger to the interviewer, it will probably still come across in the
interview. Before you try to do well in your interviews, you need to
do everything you can to resolve the anger—even meet with a
mental health professional to get some help in this area.
Even though Jack had worked in human resources, he had
worked for companies that were not leading-edge. His last company
did not use competency-based interviewing, so when we first started
talking about it, he recognized he had a few things to learn. He had


read about competencies and had been trained on how to use
behavioral interviewing. He recognized that in today’s job market,
he needed to know how to prepare for a competency-based
interview for opportunities at all types of organizations.
We looked at some online advertisements and talked about what
it takes to be successful in the top human resources position in an
organization. Jack decided to focus his preparation around these
competencies:
l Achieves Results
l Influence
l Customer Focus
l Building Business Partnerships, Relationships, and Teams
l Consulting
l Organizational Awareness, Agility, and Savvy
l Providing Feedback
l Understanding Business Goals
l Human Resources Expertise

Result
Jack decided to work through some of his anger with a mental
health professional. Two months later, he worked with me to get
ready for his interview. By that time, he had a more positive, can-
do attitude, and was not going to be perceived as a victim using
victim language. He was talking in a way that showed he was
taking responsibility for the things that had happened. Note: It is
perfectly normal to be angry that things didn’t work out with
an employer, but you can’t allow yourself the luxury of staying
angry—particularly if you expect another employer to hire you.
Just as Jack did, you need to deal with the issues and get over
being angry before you can really move on.


Jack went on several interviews over the next three or four
months, and did not limit his job search to manufacturing companies,
even though that was his background. He was eventually given a
job offer to be the Director of Human Resources at a medium-
sized government contractor in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan
area. In professional areas such as human resources, it is often
easier to change industries—as Jack did—because a large part of
the technical work stays the same, but you will always have an
edge if you have experience with that same industry.
During his interview at the government contractor, the CEO
and president of the company asked Jack these questions:
l Describe a time that you had to work especially hard to get
a good result. What did you do?
l Tell us about a time that you had to influence a group of
people to be able to lead them effectively.
l When you first started with your current employer, what
did you do to learn the specific things about the industry
that you needed to know to be effective in human resources?
How did you decide what was especially important?
l Tell us about one of the most effective business partnerships
you’ve been involved in building. What did you do to help
make it so effective? Did you have to overcome any
obstacles? Describe what happened.
l Have you been involved with introducing any new ideas or
programs into your organization? Tell us about the program,
and describe the steps you used to improve the acceptance
for the program.
l Tell us about a time you made a mistake. What did you
learn from it?


Case Study: Director, Information Technology
Situation
Dan Marrs was an information technology product development
manager working for American Express in St. Louis. I first met
him two years ago when he became the first person from a
competency-based organization to ask me to help him develop a
competency-based resume. At the time, I was in the early stages
of writing Competency-Based Resumes.
Dan wanted to stay with American Express—and he also
wanted a promotion. He knew that a competency-based resume
targeting the key competencies for promotional opportunities would
help improve the likelihood he would be selected for an interview.
He came to me with a list of competencies1 for the positions within
American Express he wanted to post for:

l Creates Innovative Solutions
l Thinks Analytically
l Acts Strategically and Globally
l Drives Results
l Exceeds Customer Expectations
l Risk-Taking
l Acts Decisively
l Collaborates and Influences Others
l Demonstrates Integrity
l Treats People with Respect
l Manages Performance
l Develops People
l Manages Change


(The competency-based resume that we developed together is
on pages 46 and 47 in the book Competency-Based Resumes.)
Dan used the competency-based resume to apply for a few positions
within the company.

Action
Dan knew that even though he was a strong candidate, other
American Express candidates would also be well-qualified for the
positions he was interested in. He knew he could not take anything
for granted. When an interview was scheduled, he called for help
to be as prepared as possible.
We focused on the list of competencies he knew were important
to be successful in the position he was going to be interviewing for.
Candidates who have written a competency-based resume will have
an easier time getting ready for a competency-based interview
because they have already spent time thinking about what they
have done to prove they are strong in each competency area.
So I first asked Dan to think of his accomplishments in each
competency—and have two or three examples in each area. I
reminded him that he needed to be able to explain the situation or
problem, the action he took, and the result of the action—the benefit
to the team or the organization. I listened to his answers and coached
him to be:
l Strategic with the examples he picked.
l Concise and powerful with the language he used.
l Professional and approachable with his nonverbal
communication.

Result
He interviewed, did well, and received the promotion about a
year ago.
In most cases, candidates do better in their second or third
interviews than in their first one. The first interview any candidate


has after a long period of time without interviewing helps get the
candidate ready for other interviews. Dan interviewed first for
another position within the company and was almost selected.
When he found out that another candidate had been chosen, he
talked to the key managers and asked, confidentially, for suggestions
about what he could do to improve as a candidate. They told him
that he wasn’t chosen for the position because he didn’t have
experience managing more than one person and that the other
candidate had that experience. Dan had managed a group of six
employees—but it was before he worked for American Express.
Instead of arguing the point, Dan took steps to officially mentor
employees and actively looked for opportunities to manage teams
within American Express. He stayed professional and kept working
hard.
Dan also received feedback that the interviewers evaluated
him primarily on what he said during the interview. He had worked
directly with most of the interview team and felt comfortable that
they knew what he had done and what he was capable of doing in
the future. So Dan, in his first interview, had not provided the
interview team with certain examples that showcased his
competencies particularly well because he assumed they knew his
work on those projects.
Before his second interview, Dan prepared by thinking about
the critical competencies for the position—as he had done for the
first opportunity. In addition, he made a conscious effort to answer
the competency-based behavioral questions in the interview with
his best, highest-level examples and to explain them well. He was
not going to make the mistake again of assuming his interviewers
would be able to consider examples he did not directly address. On
several of the questions, he said he just “spoke as if the interviewers
didn’t know me.”
Here are a few of the questions he was asked:
l Tell us about a situation where you had to take several
actions over a period of time and overcome obstacles in
order to achieve a business objective.


l Describe a time when you had to identify some key issues
in order to guide a group toward the right decision.
l Think of a time when you had many challenging projects
with different priorities to manage. Tell us about it.
Managers at companies like American Express are usually given
follow-up questions to help them probe for additional information.
Dan knew he could expect follow-up questions, so he had reviewed
his background and was prepared to talk about any statistic or detail
of a project he used as an example.
Dan was ready to be promoted, and he’d shown his willingness
to do what he could to develop his background. He learned from
the feedback he had been given, and he thought seriously about his
competencies before the next interview. Without a doubt, Dan was
prepared for his next interview, and obviously he did well. He
received his promotion and is now a director in information
technology at American Express.

Case Study: College Graduate, Engineering
Situation
Michael Blakeley graduated in December 2005 with a B.S. in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, with an
additional six classes in Computer Engineering. He had studied hard
and had a 3.57 GPA in a tough engineering program. Like many
college students, Michael thought he should focus on his classes
and get good grades. He did not think working as an engineering
co-op or during the summers was that important. So, during his four
years in college, he had only worked one summer for a small
manufacturing plant in a Chicago suburb. Michael had signed up
for several on-campus interviews during the fall semester and had
discovered that his limited work experience made him less likely to
get selected for interviews than his classmates who had participated
in the school’s engineering co-op program or had worked in the
summer engineering intern programs run by Fortune 500 companies.


Action
When I began working with him, he was getting discouraged.
Michael had learned the hard way that having good work experience,
through formal internships or co-op programs—or simply summer
jobs—makes a difference with employers. I agreed—he should
have more solid work experience at this point—but it was too late
to encourage him to get that experience during his last semester in
college.
I talked with him and discovered that, even though he had not
done the formal engineering internships or co-op program, he had
worked to set up, program, and maintain computers for small
businesses, individuals, and nonprofit organizations.
We worked together to rewrite his resume—the competency-
based way. I asked him questions about times that he’d demonstrated
his competencies in these areas:
l Achieved good results
l Showed initiative
l Used his analytical skills

We looked at some online advertisements to see which other
competencies companies were looking for in entry-level engineering
training programs and other positions. We decided to add:
l Customer Service
l Engineering and Computer Competencies
l Planning and Organizing
l Information-seeking

Working with these seven competencies, I was able to help
him develop a much more impressive competency-based functional


resume that included some strong accomplishments that his more
traditional resume had not included. Some examples? He had:
l Worked on a team that won the best engineering project in
the electrical engineering department his senior year.
l Developed a solution to a particularly difficult virus on the
computer network for a nonprofit organization working with
unemployed people in St. Louis, Missouri.

I encouraged him to continue working with his college placement
office—but to also start doing a competency-based job search on
his own.
Before he could actively start a more complete search, he
received an offer with a medium-sized manufacturing company
that his uncle worked for. The human resources manager offered
him a contract engineering position at one of their plants for a six-
month period. He took the offer even though I encouraged him to
keep looking for a full-time, regular position with benefits with a
company offering a good training program. Two weeks later, a larger
manufacturer announced they planned to acquire the company that
had given him the offer.
Right before Christmas, Michael was told that the company
was going to have to rescind his offer. Michael knew when he
called me that it was time to do a much more thorough job search.
With his graduation behind him, Michael no longer had the
distraction of maintaining a good GPA to keep him from focusing
on looking for a job.
When I talked with him in early January, we started working on
a list of target companies and organizations for Michael. In less
than one hour, we had 30 companies on his list. It is important to
look at this kind of list as a work-in-progress and try to be aware of
organizations that could be added to this list.


When we put together his list, Michael told me that he’d visited
the human resources manager for one of those companies in the
hospital with one of his volunteer groups at school. He also knew
key managers at five of the targeted organizations because they
were family friends or, in one case, the mother of one of his own
friends. And I had contacts for him at four more of the companies.
So Michael, without thinking that hard, had connections at 10 of the
organizations he thought he’d be interested in working for. I gave
him some ideas about what to say when he talked to his contacts
and how to word e-mails and cover letters so that they would be
more competency-based.
In addition, Michael still had access to his college placement
office and could sign up for interviews during the spring semester.
I coached him to go through the list from the school and take
advantage of any help the school could offer him. The other thing
Michael agreed to do during the next week was to make sure he
was listed on Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, and Dice.com, which
is a site focused on technical professions. He also agreed to check
these job sites at least twice each week to see if they had any
opportunities he wanted to apply for.

Result
By the end of January, Michael had been on three interviews
and was waiting to see if he was going to get an offer.
The interviewers asked him competency-based interview
questions including:
1. Tell me about an assignment in school or at work where
you needed to have strong analytical skills to do well.
l How did you plan and organize the work?

l How did you decide what information you would need?

2. Have you worked with a difficult customer? Describe what
happened.


3. Tell me about the most difficult engineering or computer
project you’ve worked on. Describe what obstacles you
ran into, and tell me how you overcame them.
Michael is a very good candidate and has much stronger
interpersonal skills than most of the engineering students in their
early 20s that I’ve met in the last few years. In fact, he is very
likeable, and one recruiter who met him described him to me as
“charming.” He’s also a good, conscientious student and has proven
to me that he’s willing to take the job search project seriously and
work hard at it. So I have every confidence that, as you read this
book, Michael will be working at a company where his supervisor
is beginning to realize she hired a very good employee.

Chapter 10

Understand
How a Typical
Competency-Based
Interview Flows
In the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without
Thinking (Little, Brown, 2005), author Malcolm Gladwell
makes this point: “We learn by example and by direct
experience because there are real limits to the adequacy
of verbal instruction.”
In this chapter, I’m going to take Malcolm Gladwell’s
advice and give you an example to show you the way a
competency-based interview flows—from start to finish.
After all, an interview is a conversation between the
interviewer and you. Or, more and more often these days,
it may be a conversation between a group of people and
you. To do well, you need to recognize what is happening
during the interview.
Most typical interviews last 30 to 40 minutes, unless
you are interviewing for a more senior position in an
organization. And many organizations still conduct several
individual interviews with candidates, one interviewer after
another. The other major exception to the timing is when
you are being interviewed by a panel or team; these
interviews typically are longer and are being used more
frequently.
Most interviews can be broken into three parts: the
introduction, the body, and the conclusion.

145


We’ll be talking about each of these and I’ll give you some
specific examples to give you a better understanding of the basic
interview flow.

It is important to realize as a candidate, though,
that interviewers have different levels of competence
at conducting interviews and assessing candidates.

Interview—Introduction
Typically, at the beginning of the interview, the interviewer will
meet you in the lobby, introduce himself, shake your hand, and walk
with you to the office or conference room. Review the suggestions
in Chapter 6 for how you can be perceived as a strong candidate
from the very beginning of the interview based on your nonverbal
communication skills. Remember how critical it is to make a good
first impression.
Although every organization may interview a little differently, it
is not unusual for the interviewer to ask an icebreaker type of
question at the beginning, such as:
l Did you have any difficulty finding the office?
l What do you think of the area?
l Do you want any water or coffee?
If you need to sign any forms, take any career tests, or complete
any applications, you will probably be asked to do these things when
you first arrive or when the interviewer first meets you.
The interviewer may start the interview by confirming some
things in your background. You may even be asked some questions
about degrees, dates, past employers from your resume or
application—just to confirm details or clarify anything that may not

Understand How a Typical Competency-Based Interview Flows 147

be clear to the interviewer. The interviewer may also tell you about
the organization’s interview process and who you are scheduled to
talk with that day.

Interview—Body
In the body of a competency-based interview, the interviewer
asks behavioral questions structured to help the interviewer
determine how strong the candidate is in the competencies critical
for success in the position.
To help you see how this works, I’ve included one interview
example in this chapter: a financial sales professional looking for
another opportunity. After every answer to an interview question,
I’ve included some coaching tips to help you understand how the
answers could be stronger. Because we can’t see some of the
nonverbal communication in these examples, the coaching tips are
limited to the answers themselves. The next chapter will give you
the opportunity to learn from three other professionals: an IT project
manager, a consultant, and a financial analyst.
Read through these interview segments carefully. Look for
responses that the candidates give that you think work well for
them, and where they could improve. Think about how you would
respond to these questions yourself. Then review the coaching tips.
Hopefully, you will get some ideas about what you can say and do
to make your next interview more positive and productive.
Each interviewee is a good candidate, and as an interviewer,
I’d be happy hiring any of them. They have different strengths as
interviewees and different things to work on to learn to be more
effective.
My advice? Read through these examples to get additional tips
on what you can do to nail the next interview.

Financial Sales Professional
Can you tell me about a project that had a pending deadline
that you have worked on and what obstacles you encountered?


When I was at Beneficial, I worked on an automated solicitation
campaign project. The purpose was to develop an automated system
to send out solicitation offers to existing customers. The team had
three months to design, test, and implement the system. Time was
the biggest obstacle that we had to overcome. The team consisted
of branch mangers and assistant mangers who did not want to spend
a lot of time away from their offices. Another problem was getting
the staff of the branches to buy into the automated system.

Coaching
l Overall, good answer.
l This answer would be stronger if you directly
addressed the underlying question about your results.
Did your team get the project done by the deadline?
Did your management recognize you for completing
the project on time or under budget, or for the high
quality of the work? What was the bottom-line result
of the project?
l Whenever you answer this type of question, expect to
get a follow-up question if you don’t address the
obvious question about how you overcame the hurdles
in your first answer.

How did you overcome these obstacles?
I developed a weekly assignment calendar. Each team member
was responsible for completing his task each week. We would have
a conference call once every two weeks and meet twice a month.
This system allowed the managers to be able to stay in their offices.
In order to get the staff to buy into the system each manager would
ask for input from his or her most senior staff member about the
design of the solicitation pieces, and we would share with our staffs


how the system would look and work so that the staff felt that there
were part of the project.

Coaching
l Good details. This answer would be stronger, though,
if you’d summarized your main points in more of a
topic sentence at the beginning of your statement.
Here’s an example of a good way to begin your answer
to the question about how you overcame the obstacles:
“By making every effort to make sure our team
communicated effectively and understood their
assignments and goals.”
l Good point about getting the staff buy in. You showed
you understood how to motivate the team by bringing
that up.
l Clarify your own role. Were you one of the managers
or a senior staff member? Your answer doesn’t make
this clear.

What was your role in the project?
To make sure that we stayed on task and the project was
completed on time. I also helped with the design of the solicitation
pieces.

Coaching
l This answer needs more of an explanation, especially
if it was asked before the last question.
l More details would help make your role clearer. Did
you coordinate the conference calls?


Can you think of a time when you were below your sales
goal during the middle of the month or missed a sales goal?
What did you do to improve your numbers?
When I worked as a financial advisor for Fidelity, we were in
the middle of an intra-office contest, and I was about 10 percent
below my goal, and the contest was ending in about 14 business
days. I went through my client list and reviewed previous financial
plans to see which clients were due for their yearly reviews or if
there were parts of the plan that needed to be implemented. I stayed
late each night and contacted each client to schedule review
appointments. If my client could not make an appointment I asked
for a referral that I might be able to contact to schedule for a financial
planning session. Using this method allowed me to get my production
back on track, and I finished the contest in the top five.

Coaching
l Very good logical answer with some details and
specifics to make your answer credible.
l Remember that your answers need to be conversational,
and the first part of your answer is just too long. Take
a breath! Use shorter sentences to avoid dominating
the conversation or just boring the interviewer.
l Give more details to support how hard you worked to
make the goal. How many clients were on your list?
How late did you stay each night? 9 p.m.? Keep in
mind that what is late for one person does not always
seem late to another.


Tell me about why you have been successful in sales.
I develop a relationship with my clients built on trust and respect.
I try to work with my clients using a team approach so that they
feel that I have their best interests at heart.

Coaching
l Good introduction, but you need to support your
answer with some specific examples of when you have
developed client relationships in the past, at former
employers such as American Express and Fidelity. You
will build your own credibility with the interviewer by
citing clients who have referred business to you or
given a larger percentage of their overall net worth to
you to manage. Remember that most interviewers are
taught that past behavior is the best predictor of future
behavior. So by giving examples of when you have
developed productive relationships in the past, you
are providing evidence you will be able to develop
them in the future.

Interview—Conclusion
After the interviewer has completed asking the competency-
based behavioral interview questions that are included in his
interview guide, he will probably ask you if you have any questions
for him. If you don’t ask questions, the interviewer will simply
perceive you as not being that interested in the position. You should
always have some questions to ask.


So what are good questions to ask the interviewer?
1. Questions that demonstrate a genuine interest
in the work. The interviewer is talking to you
because he needs help doing the work.
2. Questions that demonstrate you were listening

Ask questions such as these:
l When you think about the other people you’ve seen working
in this position, would you tell me about the employee that
you think has been the most successful? What did she do
in her first year (or six months) to help her be so successful?
(Note: Pay attention to the answer. It can give you very
good information about what the manager is looking
for in a good employee.)
l What are your goals for the department? Tell me about
them, and why they are important to the organization.
l Tell me about how you have the work divided in the
department.
l When you were talking a little earlier, you mentioned that:

l Example 1: The company planned to acquire another
company in the next year or two.

l Example 2: The organization was starting to work with
competencies.

l Example 3: The department was getting some new
technology applications soon.

(Note: Follow up any of these examples by asking the
interviewer to tell you more about it.)


You may be thinking that these questions look quite similar to
the behavioral interviewing questions that you’ve been learning about
throughout this book. Congratulations. You’re thinking as a good,
highly competent professional now. The reasons you should ask
these kinds of questions are:
l They help demonstrate that you want the position and are
willing to learn from your future manager.
l They give the manager an opportunity to talk and give you
some good information that may help you understand the
position, the coworkers, the manager, and the organization’s
culture better.
l They show the interviewer that you are smart, current, and
savvy, in a good way.

After you have asked a few questions, see if the interviewer
takes back the control of the interview. If he doesn’t, you might
want to tell him, “I know I could keep talking with you for a long
time because I think this opportunity is really interesting, and I’m
having a good time talking with you, but I’m sure you have some
other important things that you need to do.” See what he says.
When one client used this approach during a second interview with
a powerful senior vice president at the company, he looked at her,
smiled, and said, “Okay, you can ask me two more questions.” So
she did, and she received a job offer three hours later.
Usually, interviewers will tell you what to expect next before
you leave the interview. If your interviewer doesn’t volunteer this
information, tell him that you’ve been very impressed with everyone
you’ve met and are even more interested in the position than you
were before the interview. Ask the question, “What’s the next step?”
in a nice, professional way.
And make sure you have contact information for every
interviewer. The easiest way to get their names, e-mails, mailing
addresses, and phone numbers is to ask for their business cards if
they don’t automatically give one to you.


When you leave, make sure to write down some notes about
what was said during the interview. Try to do this when you get to
your car or when you get home that day. You’ll need the notes to
write targeted, competency-based thank-you notes to the
interviewers.

Chapter 11

Learn From Other
Interviewees

In the last chapter, you learned about the way a fairly
typical competency-based interview flows. You read the
answers given by a financial sales professional to some
competency-based interview questions and had the
opportunity to learn from the coaching comments.
Confucius said, “By three methods we may learn
wisdom: First by reflection, which is noblest; second, by
imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which
is bitterest.” In this chapter, you’re going to be able to gain
some wisdom from the interview experience of three real
people: an IT project manager, a compensation and benefits
consultant, and a financial analyst.
The examples included in this chapter specifically do
not include the introductions or concluding parts of the
interview to make it easier for you to focus on the types of
questions that are included in typical competency-based
interviews. The answers the candidates gave were not
perfect—few answers are ever perfect. So to give you
some idea of how the answers could be better, I’ve included
coaching comments.
Read through these questions and answers carefully.
Look for examples that you can relate to. Take some notes

155


and notice if an answer, part of an answer, or a coaching comment
helps trigger an idea for how you might give a better answer in your
next interview. Remember that our goal is not perfection, but, to
paraphrase Confucius, to gain wisdom. At least about interviewing.

IT Project Manager, Interviewing for Another
Opportunity Within His Company
Tell me about a time when you led a team to complete a
project. Give an example of a challenge that significantly
impacted the project, and describe how you resolved the issue.
The project was to lead a team of 10 people to complete
installation of new software for Website access to client data. The
challenge was the team consisted of 10 people but several were
contract offshore technical resources that were partially allocated
to my project and were only dotted-line reporting to me. What made
the situation even more difficult were the time differences between
Bangalore, India, and the Ft. Lauderdale office, the language
differences, and not being trained on the new software.
What I did to mitigate the issues was to pair the contact
individuals with a U.S. counterpart. I set up a buddy system to
complete specific project task items. The U.S. member was
responsible to support the contract partner with needed information
or obtain a trained person to support completing the task. Specific
weekly conference calls in the evening in the United States to
coincide with India’s next-day morning were scheduled to track the
progress and identify solutions for outstanding issues. Items that
required more time to complete that impacted the time line were
communicated to management as a risk.

Learn From Other Interviewees 157

Coaching
l Basically, good answer with enough details to make
the example credible.
l If you realize that one of the most important
competencies targeted with this question is achieve
results, you need to focus more on the project results
to make this answer even stronger. This is a good
example of why understanding the purpose of a
competency-based interview can make a huge
difference in the quality of your answer.
l Make sure you use conversational language. Most of
us rarely use words like mitigate or obtain when we
talk—we might say manage the issues or get instead.
However, if the organization you are interviewing with
does commonly use these specific words in
conversation, go ahead and use them.
l Take credit for the steps you took to lead the project.
Who decided to schedule the weekly calls? Who
actually scheduled them?
l Use more active language to describe your role. Who
communicated the items that took more time to
management? Avoid using passive language.

Give an example of when you had to deliver bad news. Tell
how you delivered it and what the response was.
The situation was the delivery of an enhancement to a large
database share by multiple systems without interrupting current
operations. The enhancement would facilitate down-line reporting
to a business unit that is not an owner of the database. This project


is an exception to provide data that would generate $1 million in
incremental revenue for the company. The bad news was a higher
priority project for the database owners was approved without
considering it would delay the “outside” project by a forecasted
three months. I had to deliver the news to unreceptive senior
management sponsors. I immediately communicated a summary of
the “potential” delay, and what I had done to address the risk. I
deliberately said “potential” to communicate the risk without alarming
the project sponsors by giving too many details. I immediately
escalated to my senior management to advise them of the risk. I
also suggested a compromise solution to blend the two projects as
an option for my senior management. After negotiation between
senior management sponsors, the solution was accepted. The actions
of immediate escalation and providing a solution for my management
to offer were key to implementing a prompt solution and prevented
a major conflict.

Coaching
l Some good information in this answer, but it needs to
be more concise and conversational.
l Use active language to describe the situation, action,
and result. Say, “I was told by my manager that a higher
priority project had been approved that would cause a
delay in several areas—including the project I was
working on.”
l Try to be consistent with the tenses you use when
you are giving your answers.
l Be specific. How many senior management sponsors
did you deliver the news to?


l Take credit for the things that you have done and be
clear about who did what. Who negotiated between
senior management sponsors? Did you take the actions
of immediately communicating with your senior
management and providing a solution? If so, make that
clear when you are giving your answer!

Tell us about a time when you demonstrated your ability to
effectively communicate to a group. Describe the situation and
explain how you knew if you got your message across.
There is an annual company Tech Conference where more
than a thousand clients attend. My responsibility was to present a
Management Information product session. The presentation intent
was to convey a reporting product is simple and flexible enough to
support individual users while sophisticated enough to provide global
report consolidation. What made it successful was focusing on the
benefits of the core product and value to audience via the use of
samples of real situations and conducted the session from the value
to the audience perspective. In the presentation I overlaid the power
of reporting over the true power of the data with comparisons to
alternative options. I focused on data management and
assumptions—not on the tool. The presentation also included data
flow charts and report samples. My presentation received the highest
rating out of 50 sessions in the conference via attendee surveys.
Not only is this presentation style successful for conference clients,
but also with internal peers and colleagues in training sessions.


Coaching
l Be more concise and conversational. This whole
answer is too wordy.
l Make sure you identify details such as when the event
happened.
l The first two sentences would be more effective if
reduced to one statement such as, “I was asked to
present a Management Information product session
at the company’s 2004 Tech Conference.” It is probably
reasonable to assume that, because this interview is
for another position within your company, the
interviewers would know about the size of the
conference and how important it is to the company.
l Use more active language, such as “I knew that the
presentation needed to get across how easy the
product is to use for individuals while being
sophisticated enough to provide global report
consolidations.”
l Talk about your result—getting the highest rating at
the conference—earlier. That’s the most impressive and
important part of your answer, and talking about it as
your second sentence would give it the emphasis it
deserves.
l Good conclusion, but it would be stronger if you
phrased it so that it shows what you learned from
working on and delivering the presentation. Start the
sentence with “I learned that….”


Provide an occasion when you made a sound decision even
though you didn’t have as much information as you would have
liked.
I was managing a project integrating new software that had
not been implanted anywhere in the company. There was no
experience with installing. The vendor had no experience with how
our company wanted to configure and utilize the features. By the
second milestone, it became clear the installation would not be
completed in one year, and I would need to ask for additional time
and funding to complete the project. Given the urgency to migrate
from the old system to the new, senior management needed to
understand what the real estimate would be before authorizing the
scope change. I asked the technology and servicing team to analyze
and assess the phasing of the project. My recommendation was to
use an unrelated but similar project as a baseline assumption, and
my managers agreed. Once we completed a deep level of analysis,
I was able to extrapolate a new time line and scope for the first
year delivery with current funding and a reasonable level of risk.
Additionally, I also presented the consequences of not continuing
the project to better balance the investment decision. The outcome
was that the phased project approach was accepted.

Coaching
l Basically, a good answer.
l Use more active language. For the second sentence,
say, “No one in the company knew about installing the
software.” For the last sentence use, “The senior
managers accepted my recommendation to phase the
project in.”


Describe how you handled a situation to make sure you
stayed on track and completed the tasks needed to drive results.
The project was in response to an urgent senior executive
request to complete a one-off development enhancement to the
product for a high-visibility client to use. I was told I needed to
complete the project without interrupting the work on any of my
other projects. To be successful and meet my manager’s needs, I
reviewed the expected deliverables with the client. I needed to
understand the detailed information about their needs to then use
the information in providing an estimate. As estimates include time,
cost, and scope, and talking with the client immediately helped me
identify that I would need to reset expectations on the delivery time
line. An expectation for an early delivery was improperly
communicated to client. The requirements needed development of
a new process design. I organized a team of subject matter experts
and whittled the options down to the optimal option that could be
incorporated into an existing project. Although there were numerous
issues that required changes in design and subsequently project
scope, the project was completed within the year without incremental
cost to the client or the existing project the enhancement was
incorporated into. Sharing existing resources was key in completing
the enhancement. The key tool in contributing to timely delivery
was my maintaining a project plan to identify resource availability
and task prioritization.

Coaching
l Good example with enough details to be credible. Going
through the steps you took, step by step, works well.


l Think through your entire answer and edit it to
eliminate unnecessary words and details. Focus on
what is critical for the interviewer to know to understand
the example. This answer seems as though it would be
a first draft in a paper—you need to be talking in final
draft form to be really effective in the interview.
l Start your answer by explaining your role (“I was asked
to be the project manager for…”).
l Use more active—not passive—verbs.
l Take credit for the things you and the other people did
on the project by being more direct in your statements.
l Avoid using words like various and numerous when
you are answering questions. These words don’t add
anything to the content. You’ve already shown that
there is more than one issue simply by adding an “s”
and making it clear that you are talking about issues.

Consultant
Tell me about yourself.
I’m a problem-solver who thrives on new challenges, and I
enjoy following a project through to completion and assessing the
team’s performance. I prefer working in a team and appreciate the
opportunities to share my own ideas and learn from others. I am
generally very quick to see connections between parts of a project,
or between a project and the areas of the organization that it is
intended to impact. I don’t mind hard work and long hours,
particularly if a project presents the chance to build my knowledge
and skills.


Coaching
l Good answer to part of what you need to talk about,
but you need to do a better job of answering the
question of “Can you do the job?” covered in
Chapter 3.
l It would be a definite plus for you to include, at the
end of the answer to the question, a statement about
what you want to do next and why you are ready to
do it.
l Try to make your answer just a little more conversa-
tional, with shorter sentences and slightly more infor-
mal language.
l This answer would also be stronger if you led with
your profession—“I’m a senior consultant.”
l Unless you are confident that a position is 100 percent
teamwork, avoid the possible perception that you
can’t work alone by adding the statement that you
are also good working independently when you talk
about teams.
l Avoid using neutral language such as you don’t mind
something because it can create the perception that
you actually do have a problem with it.


Tell me about a time you felt particularly good about the
results you were able to get on an assignment.
I worked with a partner on an assignment to revamp the salary
and incentive compensation program for a major retailing
conglomerate. Initially, we worked with two of their larger divisions,
store chains based in Ohio and Texas. As their management watched
our progress, and we shared our preliminary findings, they were so
impressed that they asked us to extend the project timetable to
incorporate four additional divisions. Ultimately, we also conducted
an executive pay study with personnel at the corporate headquarters.

Coaching
l Overall, very good answer.
l This answer would be a little stronger if you started
with the “bottom line”—a statement summarizing the
basic answer. Here’s an example: “I worked on a project
for Home Depot, and they were so happy with the
quality of work that the client added two new divisions
to the project after the first month. That meant more
than $250,000 in additional consulting fees for the firm.”
l Be more specific. Give names of clients and details of
projects, including size and scope. Quantify—with
statistics and overall consulting fees whenever
possible. (It is okay to estimate or round if you don’t
have the exact number. Take the time to go through
your notes or call a former colleague to verify the
information if possible.)
l Make sure that the language you use is conversational.
The word ultimately is a little more formal than you
need to be in an interview.
l Remember to stay current with the words you use. Use
employees instead of personnel.


Tell me about a situation when you had to think outside the
box to come up with a good solution.
We try to use published surveys to determine appropriate salary
levels for organizations, but we’ve encountered some situations in
which the data just doesn’t exist. In working with a major
telecommunications company, we found several unique jobs that
were difficult to place in the company’s hierarchy. To determine
values for these jobs, we used two approaches. First, we worked
with senior management and the managers of these positions to
develop very clear job requirements and responsibilities, and we
then were able to suggest comparable jobs in the company as well
as in other industries. We also used our own sources, including
clients, and asked our client contact to provide us with some sources,
to obtain salary data at competitive organizations, with the agreement
that we would share the data with any organization that contributed
to the survey. Through these two avenues, we were able to get
more accurate pictures of these jobs, both internally and externally,
and client management felt that our results were very credible.

Coaching
l You need to explain why the two approaches you
mentioned are really “outside the box.” It is hard to tell
from your answer. It would seem that most
organizations would have some unique jobs, and your
consulting group would have figured out a basic
approach to use. So give more of an explanation here,
and, if you can’t, consider choosing a different example.


l Be careful about using the word we when talking about
your work. Clarify your own role. Many interviewers
would perceive that as showing that you still think of
yourself as part of your past or current employer’s
team—and that you would have trouble making the
transition to working for the new manager or employer.
l Make the answer more conversational. Use shorter
sentences.

Have you managed a project where it was difficult to meet
the deadline or stay within the budget?
Yes.
Tell us what happened. How did you address the situation?
We were hired to complete an incentive compensation study
for a public utility. Although senior management was involved in
the initial meeting, our major contact, the project manager, was at
a lower level in the organization. The project manager was con-
stantly trying to extend the scope of the project, asking us to do
weekly reports and to cost out many more alternative scenarios
than we normally produced. After almost a month of his requests,
we asked our relationship manager to contact the senior manag-
ers for a progress meeting. When it became clear to the senior
managers that we were doing much more than the planned work,
they asked us to elaborate on the expected results of our efforts.
The end result of the meeting was that the project scope was
officially extended, with a revised budget and timetable, so that
we could produce some of the additional requested studies and
recommendations.


Coaching
l I suspect you missed an opportunity to show the
interviewer some evidence of your organizational
awareness and agility or interpersonal savvy
competencies. Take the time to explain why you asked
for a progress meeting. Did you ask for the meeting
because you weren’t sure the project manager was
keeping her senior management informed? Or because
you wanted to make sure that the executives wanted
the expanded scope of the project—and would be
willing to pay for it? Either reason shows the interviewer
some good things about the way you think and handle
yourself professionally.

Describe a time that you had to use your ability to influence
a manager to be able to do a good job.
I was assigned, along with a project manager, to complete a
relatively simple compensation study at a hospital. The project
manager had asked to be assigned to a bigger, more-high-profile
assignment that was given to another consultant in our group, so he
was less than enthusiastic about our project. Once I realized the
issue, he and I strategized about ways to complete the project under
budget and ahead of schedule, while still maintaining the expected
quality and client satisfaction levels. Although we ultimately spent
the full budget, the work was completed two weeks ahead of
schedule, and our group manager considered that performance in
promoting my colleague to a unit manager, which happened about
six months after we completed our project.


Coaching
l Very strong example. It not only shows good
influencing skills, but you also are providing evidence
of several other competencies, including achieving
results and interpersonal skills.
l Be more specific—what is relatively simple to one
person may not be simple to another.
l Use more conversational language, and be a little more
concise. For example, in the last statement, say, “when
he promoted my colleague to a unit manager six months
later.”

Tell us about a time you worked with a difficult person on
your team.
One of our compensation consultants was well-known for his
domineering style in managing projects. He insisted on leading every
meeting with the clients and allowed the other team members to
talk only rarely. At the same time, he required his team members to
prepare all of the materials for each meeting, which he would critique
quite candidly in front of the whole project team. In an attempt to
help him recognize and change his style, the group managers assigned
the two of us as coleaders of a project with a major aircraft
manufacturer. He asked to be reassigned to another project, but
the managers refused his request. When it became clear that we
would need to work together closely, he gave me his opinion of how
the project should be run, and it was clear that he expected me to


just accept his ideas. Based on our conversation, I put together a
timetable for the project, showing major activities and meetings. I
then sat down with him and said that, though I agreed with his
concept of how the project should be structured, I wanted to share
more of the workload with him. Although it took a couple of sessions
with my chart to get agreement on “sharing the load,” we did reach
what I considered to be an acceptable compromise to his original
plan, and our managers were impressed that we both were able to
modify our working styles to accommodate each other and our
client.

Coaching
l Good choice for your answer. It demonstrates to the
interviewer how strong your interpersonal skills are
and your matter-of-fact, pragmatic approach to working
with a difficult personality.
l It is critical to give an answer to this question. It is just
not credible to say that you have never worked with
someone difficult. But if you show anger, judgment, or
another negative emotional response in your answers
or in your nonverbal communication, the interviewer
will perceive you negatively. Be careful. Pick an example
showing your wisdom and professional approach to
problem-solving.
l Be more conversational with the language you use,
and work on being a little more concise and to the
point. Ideally, you want to give your answers using
final-draft language—without redundancies and extra
words that don’t add to the content.


Financial Analyst With Experience in Banking
and Healthcare, Interviewing for Position With
Major Hospital System
Tell me about your background.
I have 15 years experience in banking as a financial analyst
and have worked for the last year in healthcare. Over the years, I
have completed studies in banking departments that have included
Process Reengineering and improving operating departments
through streamlining processes. I’ve also most recently managed
the Customer Profitability Reporting area, where I have focused
on the profitability of our customers and ways to cross-sell and
increase revenue.

Coaching
l Be careful not to emphasize the number of years of
experience you have. As one manager explained,
“Someone can have the same year of experience 15
times.” This is especially important for those of us
older than the age of 35 or 40 who may be concerned
about age discrimination. The important thing to
emphasize in your answer is your relevant experience:
evidence to prove to the interviewer that you are
competent in the key competency areas that are needed
for someone to be successful in the position.
l Good job of explaining your overall background
concisely. Typically, the answer to this question takes
two minutes to present, so in my opinion, most
interviewers would view this answer as being too brief.
l This answer would be stronger if you added an
explanation of what has motivated you in the past,
what your strengths are, what you want to do next,
and why you want to do that type of work.


Tell me about a project you worked on where your analytical
skills were critical.
As manager of the Customer Profitability Group at BankOne, I
had to look at the profitability of the bank’s customers and determine
which customers were the most profitable and offered the most
opportunity for future revenue growth. I also focused on customers
with the least revenue potential and initiated exit strategies.

Coaching
l Be more conscious of using language that makes you
sound positive. “I had to look at the profitability” could
be perceived by the interviewer as if someone made
you do that and that you were a victim. Fix the problem
by saying, “I analyzed the profitability….”
l Give some numbers, statistics, dollars, or some other
measurement to let the interviewer know the size of the
project.
l This answer is okay, but it would be much stronger
with more details. How many customers did you review?
What process did you use to analyze the information?
Did you set up a spreadsheet or database program to
help you analyze the information?
l For a much better answer, tell the interviewer what
your final recommendation to your manager was, and
explain how the bank (or your department) benefited
from the analytical work.


Think about a time when you had to put in extra effort to
get the results you needed at work. Tell me about it.
This is an ongoing issue. I’m always going the extra mile. If I
need to get a report deadline made, I will make it happen by initiating
the result needed and making whatever calls I need to get all the
pieces to the puzzle complete and on time.

Coaching
l Good general answer, but it would be much better
if you brought it down to a specific example. In
this case, after giving the general answer, add
details such as, “Here’s one recent example. Last
week, my manager came to my office after lunch
and asked me to step in and finish a report for a
colleague who had to leave work early when she
found out that her fifth grader had broken his leg
in a soccer game. The report was due the next
morning. I called my colleague on her cell phone,
got the details from her, tracked down the
information for the monthly report from key
department heads, entered the data, and had the
report finished and e-mailed to my manager by
8 p.m. that evening.”


Have you dealt with some difficult clients or customers while
working at the bank or hospital? Pick a situation and tell me
about it.
Yes, there are always difficult customers, whether they are
internal to the organization or external. One of the most successful
strategies is to ask them about ways to improve processes and get
their input. By including them in the discussion and valuing their
input and finding out what you can improve, many times you win
them over. This happens again and again.

Coaching
l As with the previous answer, this one shows your
generally good and professional attitude about your
customers and your work.
l It would be a much better answer if you backed up
your points by giving a specific example to prove what
you are saying.
l The interviewer asked you to pick a situation—you
needed to do that to do really well on your answer. By
not bringing it down to a specific situation, your
interviewer may perceive you as not having very good
listening skills. I know you, so I know this isn’t true.
Next time, just pay a little closer attention and answer
every part of questions you are asked.


Tell me about a time you had to persuade someone to do
things the way you thought they should be done.
I had to convince executives that it was very important to develop
a strategy focused on calling on bank customers. I persuaded them
that it was critical to focus on the customers with the greatest
revenue potential and to know which customer segment is the most
profitable. Maybe we needed to focus on a different market segment
if the customers did not meet the increased profitability goals.

Coaching
l Biggest question here: What was the outcome? Did
you convince the executives? How did this benefit the
bank?
l Always use positive language, not “I had to
convince….”
l Provide more details in your answer (the way you
provided them for the executives when you made your
case to them). You will always be more credible as a
candidate if you can site the numbers and details. This
is particularly critical if you are in a profession using
quantitative information and details, such as finance,
engineering, accounting, or many areas of law.
l Ending your answer with a sentence starting, “Maybe
we needed to focus…” would probably cause many
interviewers to perceive you as hesitant and unsure of
yourself. Try something that is more certain, such as,
“After changing the sales strategy, the bank increased
profitability by 10 percent the next year.”

Chapter 12

Send a Thank-You
Note, Follow Up,
Get the Offer,
and Negotiate
Imagine that you’ve just finished your final gymnastics
routine at the 2008 Olympics. You’ve practiced for years
and have spent a significant portion of your life on the bars
or in floor exercises. You know you have worked hard with
your coach, and you just gave a very good performance.
Now you are waiting for your final score from the judges.
Will you get the gold or the silver or the bronze medal?
Like the gymnast, you just finished your interview, and
you liked the interviewers you met. This is your own version
of the Olympics, because you know you really want this
position.
The interviewers asked almost all of the competency-
based interview questions you expected. Because you’d
worked through the process of identifying the competencies
and did a good job of anticipating questions, you were able
to give thoughtful answers to prove how strong you are in
each key competency area. And you know that you did
well in the interview. Now you are waiting to find out
whether you will get the offer.
You know you did a good job during the interview. You’re
ready to relax. But it is just a little too early. Don’t celebrate
yet. You aren’t finished with the process. You haven’t heard
from the employer yet. What’s left? First, you need to try

177


to be as objective as possible and assess the interview. Ask yourself
these questions:
l What did I do well?
l What could I have done during the interview to be perceived
as a stronger candidate?

I believe that debriefing the interview is extremely important.
Talk to your personal consultant or coach, go through the questions
and answers, and look for opportunities to fine-tune your answers
to make them more specific, concise, logical, or positive.
Ask yourself if there is anything you can think of that you did,
verbally or nonverbally, that may have sent a negative message to
the interviewers. You may be good, but you can always be better. I
tell students in communications classes that I’d probably give Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. a 98 or 99 on his “I Have a Dream” speech,
which is generally considered one of the best speeches of the 20th
century. Your interviewing skills, like your writing and presentation
skills, can always improve to the next level.
So what else is important at this point? You need to send a
good, competency-based thank-you note to the interviewers, and
plan to follow up at the right time. When you get an offer, you may
decide to negotiate with the employer. If you don’t get an offer, you
may choose to follow up to show the interviewer your interest in
being considered for other opportunities in the future.

Send a Thank-You Note
During the interview, you remembered to ask for business cards
from each interviewer you met. If they didn’t have business cards
with them, you made sure to include their names in your notes,
which you made immediately after the interviews. You also jotted
down some of the specific details that you remembered from each
interview, so you would be able to write personal, nongeneric thank-
you notes. And you made a list of the questions you were asked

Send a Thank-You Note, Follow Up, Get the Offer, and Negotiate 179

Thank-you notes are still important in today’s world. They can
make a positive difference in the interviewer’s perception of you
as a candidate. But they can also be negative. I’ve seen candidates
eliminated by interviewers because they sent thank-you notes with
poor grammar and smiley faces, or with the name of the interviewer
or organization spelled incorrectly.
Remember that you want your thank-you notes to be perceived
as polished and professional as you are. So proof your notes and
put them through spell-check. Use:
l Capital letters at the beginning of sentences and in the
places your teachers taught you.
l Complete sentences.
l Good punctuation, grammar, and spelling.

Avoid using smiley faces, Internet lingo such as lol, and emoticons
such as :) in your thank-you notes.
In today’s business environment, most candidates should to plan
send their thank-you notes within 24 hours using e-mail. Think about
the perception you want the interviewer to have of you. Using e-
mail shows that you are current with technology and not outdated.
The only exception I can think of to this recommendation is
with nonprofit organizations, where many professionals are still
expected to write personal handwritten notes to donors and
volunteers. According to Delphia York Duckens, Senior Vice
President, Fund Development, Girl Scouts USA, even nonprofits
are beginning to change. She told me, “We’re starting to see e-mail
used more for thank-you notes and other communication.” So if
you are trying to make a decision about whether to send your thank-
you note to a nonprofit using e-mail or snail mail, consider how
technologically advanced the nonprofit seems to be.
Send the thank-you note between the hours of 6 a.m. and
midnight, when most people are awake. Remember, your e-mail
will show the time it was sent. The only exception to the timing


would be if your interview is for a position at night, on the “graveyard
shift.” Wait at least three hours after your interview to send the
thank-you notes, so that the interviewers won’t perceive you as
desperate.

Steps to Writing a Good, Competency-Based
Thank-You Note
Before you start writing the thank-you note, ask yourself
these questions:
l What competencies did I learn the organization
needs for the position I interviewed for?
l Was there a competency the interviewers
mentioned that I didn’t talk about in the
interview? Or that I didn’t give enough detail
about my strengths?
l What did each interviewer discuss that I was
impressed with?
l Was there something I left out that was important
or that I could have explained better?
l What did I learn about the organization, the
corporate culture, and the management style that
will help me explain more effectively why I am a
good match for the position?
When you write the thank-you note:
l Address each thank-you note to a specific
interviewer, even if you had a group or panel
interview. Individual, tailored thank-you notes
are always more appreciated.
l First, tell the interviewer thank you—that you
appreciate her time or the opportunity to have
an interview. Tell her that you enjoyed meeting
her and learning more about the position.


l Second, tell her something about how, after
talking with her, you are even more interested in
the position and are convinced that you would
be successful in the position. Identify how your
competencies match her needs (use competency
synonyms to be a little more subtle but still get
your point across) and will benefit her department
or organization. Relate your comments to
something that was said in the interview (for
example, “I was particularly impressed when you
talked to me about…).
l Third, tell her you are looking forward to hearing
from her in the near future and would be happy
to answer any questions or provide any
additional information that she might need.
l Make sure you remember to put the interviewer’s
name at the top of the e-mail and your name at
the bottom. If you want to start the e-mail with
the words Dear [interviewer name], make sure
to close with a salutation (Sincerely,) before your
name.
Always do a final edit to make sure the e-mail is a good
reflection of your own professionalism.

Follow Up
At the end of the interview, most good interviewers should have
told you:
l What the next steps were.
l What period of time they thought they’d need before getting
back to you.


If they didn’t give you this information, you should have directly
asked for it at the end of the interview by saying, “I’m very interested
in this opportunity. What’s the next step?” Also ask them, “When is
a good time for me to follow up with you?”
Many interviewers and human resources professionals are too
optimistic about the timing and may, with good intentions, tell you
they’ll get back to you in a certain period of time—such as one or
two weeks. When you work in an organization, the priorities keep
changing, and sometimes there are good business reasons that the
process takes longer than expected. During my years as a human
resources professional, I learned to overestimate the time we’d
need to give the candidate an answer to keep from disappointing
him. Remember that the interviewers always have other important
projects, assignments, and even a crisis or two to deal with. Manage
your own expectations and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Learn to double the amount of time the
interviewer tells you it will take to get back to you
after an interview. Be pleasantly surprised if she
is able to respond to you sooner.

If the interviewer told you to follow up in two or three weeks,
do it. Don’t be a pest, but do be persistent and professional. Use
your judgment, but please be respectful of the interviewer’s time.
Don’t even think about calling daily unless you are interviewing for
a position as a stalker. In most situations, following up every week
or two is appropriate. If you are told the position has been put on
hold, ask the interviewer when you should follow up to touch base
with him.


If you receive an offer, make sure you call or e-mail the
interviewers at other organizations you’ve interviewed with. Tell
them that you’ve received an offer. If you are interested in their
opportunity, let them know that you are still interested and it is your
first choice (or one of your top choices).

Negotiate
Congratulations! You’ve just received a good job offer, and even
though you are excited, you know it could be better. What should
you do now?
l Thank the interviewer or human resources professional,
and let him know that you really appreciate the offer.
l Ask for the offer in writing. Let the employer decide how
to send it to you. In most cases today, they will probably e-
mail the offer and explain how to look up information about
benefits on the organization’s Website.
l Tell the interviewer that you want to review all the
information and that you are sure you are going to have
some questions. Ask if it would work for him if you called
him in two or three days with your answer (or questions).
l Talk to your network to help you do some intelligence work.
Our president in the United States may have the CIA, but
most of us can find out all sorts of information that could
help us negotiate more effectively from the people we
know—or the people they know. Remember the theory
behind six degrees of separation: that we can get to anyone
we want (or find anything we need) if we ask our contact’s
contact’s contact’s contact’s contact.
l Try to find out information about the salary range for the
position in your geographic area, whether the organization
will negotiate, what’s normal for vacation, and what special


deals (signing bonuses, car allowances, bonuses, benefits,
memberships, and so forth) the organization may have
offered other people in similar jobs or at a similar level.
l Do your homework and know what is likely to be negotiable
and what is not. I’m just going to give you a few guidelines
here to help you with this process. Salary and vacation are
certainly negotiable in many organizations, particularly once
you’ve had a few years of work experience. Qualified
benefit plans, including 401(k)s or other retirement plans,
are set up organization-wide and are heavily regulated.
Don’t waste your bargaining chip trying to get an
organization to make an exception for you on a plan that
has legal restrictions. If you are working with a recruiter,
he or she may know some of this information—or be willing
to help you find out.
l Realize that negotiating well requires good information and
good judgment. Each situation is different, and it is difficult
to identify a set of rules that work in all situations. You
probably would benefit by talking about the offer to someone
with inside information or a good knowledge of the market
in your field.
l If you decide to negotiate, remember that your goal is win-
win. You want the people you’ll be working with to want to
work with you after you’ve finished negotiating and
accepted the position. Identify your top three to five priorities
that you want to negotiate, and go through them during
your first conversation. It is not fair to settle things one at a
time and then come back to negotiate the next priority. You
may get what you want in the short-term but lose the long-
term trust you need to build effective working relationships
and do the job. So treat the person representing the
organization in the negotiation, whether your future manager
or human resources professional, with respect.


l Always emphasize the positives at the beginning of any
negotiation, and let the other person know how excited you
are about the opportunity. Tell the person representing the
organization how impressed you are with the people there,
and list everything good about the opportunity that you can
think of. Then, explain again why you are such a good
match or fit for the position. After that, say something like,
“I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the [salary,
vacation, and so on], and I’m wondering if there’s room to
negotiate.” Then pause and see what the person says.
l Remember the old saying, “If you don’t ask, you won’t
get.” You’ll rarely have regrets if you negotiate with respect
and professionalism, and you just may get what you want—
and feel even better about accepting the job opportunity.

By the way, the judges just came back. Don’t tell anyone, but
you did win the gold.



Don’t be a pest, but do be persistent and professional.
If you don’t ask, you won’t get.
When you finish the interview, Not yet. You need to debrief the
can you relax? interview, send a competency-based
thank-you note, and follow up at
appropriate times.

What questions do you need to What did I do well during the
ask yourself after the interview? interview?
What could I have done to be
perceived as a stronger candidate by
the interviewer?

What information do you need Make sure you have the correct names
before writing your thank-you and titles for each interviewer and the
notes? right e-mail addresses.
How should you send your Use e-mail unless you have a very
thank-you note to the good reason to use snail mail. Send
interviewer? the thank-you note by e-mail within
the first 24 hours after you leave the
interview, but not within the first
three hours. Remember to avoid
sending any e-mail to an employer
between midnight and 6 a.m., unless
you are interviewing for a position
working for the “graveyard shift.”
What else should you remember l Don’t be too informal in your
about the thank-you note? e-mail thank-you note. Capitalize
where appropriate, check spelling/
punctuation/grammar, and avoid
Internet lingo and emoticons.
l Write individualized notes to each
interviewer.
l Edit the note and put it through a
spell-check.



How do you write a Look for an opportunity to include
competency-based thank-you something in the thank-you note
note? about how your experience addresses
the competencies the employer needs
to be successful. Back up your point
about the relevant experience by
giving a specific example.

When should you follow up after It depends. Hopefully, at the end of
the interview? the interview, the interviewer told you
when you could expect to hear
something. Double the timeframe the
interviewer gave you. If the interviewer
told you when to follow up, call when
you were told to call.

What should you do immediately l Thank the person giving you the
when you get an offer? offer.
l Ask for the offer in writing.
l Tell the interviewer you’re sure
that you’re going to have some
questions, and you’ll get back to
her once you’ve reviewed the offer
and benefits.

Why should you try to negotiate Many employers will offer you only
with the employer? the basics because they expect you to
negotiate. If you don’t ask for the extra
vacation, salary, sign-on bonus, or
better relocation package, you won’t
get it. If you don’t try, you may regret
it. If you do negotiate, you just may
come out ahead!



What is important to do to l Do some intelligence work—learn
prepare for negotiating with an about typical salaries for the
employer? position in your geographic area,
whether the organization has a
history of negotiating, what’s
normal for vacation, and other
benefits and perks.
l Know what is usually negotiable
(salary and vacations, for example)
and what is never negotiable ( 401k
and other retirement vehicles).
l Decide the most important item to
negotiate, and then two to three
other things to focus on during your
negotiation with the employer.

What outcome do you want Win-win. You want to get the most
when you negotiate your offer? you can while ensuring the key people
at the employer still want to work
with you.

Chapter 13

Actively Manage
Your Career in
Competency-Based
Organizations
Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied
at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge
around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had
everything to do, and you’ve done it.
—Margaret Thatcher
Congratulations! You’ve learned what it takes to win
in a competency-based interview, and you are getting ready
to start that great job you really wanted. You’re excited
about the opportunity and you want to do well.
What do you need to know to actively manage your
career in a new, competency-based organization? Or to
capitalize on your promotion to a new position in a different
part of your own organization?
When you were in school, you learned that the best
students made an effort to understand their assignments
and do what the teachers asked. Robert Fulghum makes
the case that we probably learned this type of behavior
when we were very young in his book , All I Really Need
to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. In your new position,
you need to be a good student again. It is important to
understand the system and learn how to work within it if
you want to be successful.

189


You’ve already taken the first few steps toward managing your
career in a competency-based organization. You’ve identified the
competencies you need to be successful in the position, and you’ve
thought about how your accomplishments help prove you are
competent in the most critical areas. In addition, you’ve learned
how to talk about your accomplishments to be able to answer
competency-based behavioral questions.
As you continue your career, you need to be aware of how
important it is to build, track, and master the right competencies.
To help ensure you are perceived as the star that I know you are, I
have seven suggestions for what you can do to actively manage
your career the competency-based way:
1. Learn to write competency-based accomplishment
statements to use in employee development plans, self-
appraisals, and other situations.
2. Set up and use a system to track your competencies.
3. Develop your critical competencies to a higher level.
4. Identify and overcome your competency gaps, if you need to.
5. Work towards developing competencies you’ll need for
future positions.
6. Promote your career by making sure your managers know
your competencies.
7. Give your manager a current list of your accomplishments
in each key competency area before your performance
appraisal.
Let’s look at each of these recommendations in more detail.

Actively Manage Your Career in Competency-Based Organizations 191

Learn to Write Competency-Based
Accomplishment Statements to Use in Employee
Development Plans, Self-Appraisals, and Other
Situations
Think about your answers to competency-based interview
questions. As you prepared for the interview, you put together a
list of your accomplishments in each relevant competency area.
You’ve already done the thinking about your examples. Now
you just have to turn them into true accomplishment statements—
in other words, write them down!
Here are a few other tips about how to write good competency-
based accomplishment statements:
l Focus on your accomplishments proving your
competencies.
l Say as much as you can in as few words as you can.
Don’t use complete sentences or extra words that don’t
add to the content, such as a, an, the, various, and
numerous.
l Always start with an action verb.
l Make sure you’ve thought through the situation/task/
problem, action, and results parts of every accomplishment.
Decide whether the result, the action, or the process is
going to matter the most to the employer and make that
the first part of your accomplishment statement.
l Try to give numbers, statistics, or financial figures to help
the reader understand the scope of the assignment or
project. Be specific and give enough details to be credible.
l Assume the readers are intelligent but may not know the
details about your immediate business or professional area.


l Make your accomplishment statements as strong as you
can without lying. Remember: We talked about spinning
your answer in as positive a way as possible while still
being honest in Chapters 4 and 5.
l Try to include high-profile examples that your senior
executives might know about, whenever possible.

A few examples of good competency-based
accomplishment statements:
l Worked as key member of focus group looking at best
practices for data management; helped create business
case for buying more disk space.
l Recognized by vice president for successfully leading
project team reducing utility processing from three
hours to 10 minutes per day and increasing accuracy
30 percent; improved customer relationships with six
major clients.

Set Up and Use a System
to Track Your Competencies
It is important to spend some time thinking about setting up a
system to track your accomplishments and the competencies that
are demonstrated in each accomplishment. Very few, if any,
organizations have developed this kind of system for their employees,
so you probably need to think about setting up a system that will
work for you. Whether you use a Word table, an Excel spreadsheet,
an Access database, software programs for your PDA or
BlackBerry, or an old-fashioned paper filing system, you should
include accomplishments related to:
l The competencies identified for your current position.
l The competencies you would need for positions you would
like to be considered for in the future.


Develop Your Critical Competencies
to a Higher Level
Once you know the critical competencies for your current
position, you need to identify the accomplishments that prove your
own competence in each area. Look for opportunities to gain
experience showing that your work is at an even higher, more
sophisticated level of competency. Ask your manager to be
considered for certain assignments. Find a mentor or a coach to
help you develop. Take classes offered by your organization or at
colleges and universities or in the community. Consider doing
volunteer work or teaching classes at a university or college to
build your competencies.

Identify and Overcome Your
Competency Gaps, if You Need To
In some cases, your weakest competency areas can offer you
the biggest opportunities for growth. What are the competencies
that you cannot prove because you do not have any direct experience
in that area to draw from? These are your competency gaps, and
you may make the decision that they need to be developed, bridged,
and overcome.
In many cases, though, people decide that they can compensate
for their gaps by using other competencies. Perception matters.
The key question in this case is this: Does your manager perceive
the gap as a weakness that needs to be overcome? If he does,
work on it!
When a good employee transfers into another functional area,
it is reasonable to expect some competency gaps. Think about an
engineer transferring into finance or sales. Or a human resources
manager who becomes a line manager in manufacturing. In these
cases, the new manager and other key people typically put together
an extensive on-the-job and classroom training schedule, and actively
coach the transferred employee. Everyone benefits when the
transfer is recognized as successful and the transferred employee
has overcome his competency gaps.


Work Towards Developing Competencies
You’ll Need for Future Positions
What kind of position do you want for your next assignment, or
in five or 10 years? In addition to the competencies you need for
your current position, you need to start doing some work now that
will help you prove you have the competencies you need for higher
level positions later. If you consciously do this, when you are being
considered for your next promotion, it should be clear to the critical
decision-makers that you have been working at that higher level for
some time. You’ve proved your competence in the key areas
required to do a good job.

Promote Your Career by Making Sure Your
Managers Know Your Competencies
Have you ever complained that you didn’t get an assignment or
position because the manager making the decision didn’t realize
that you had experience in a certain area? Don’t let that happen to
you another time. Try to make sure that your managers know about
your competencies and accomplishments that are not being used in
your current position, but that could be used in the future.
For example, if you know your company is looking at an
acquisition in Argentina and you lived there for three years before
college, make sure the right managers know that you have those
interpersonal understanding or multicultural sensitivity
competencies, and that you can prove them. Even if you mentioned
it to your manager two years ago in your interview, remind her that
you are bicultural and bilingual and would love to have the
opportunity to work on the acquisition.
When you have an accomplishment related to one of the critical
competencies for your position, make sure your manager knows.
Simply call your manager over to your office to tell her how excited
you are because a particular project is going well, and make sure
you give her any results that you know. If you are working virtual,
make sure you include the news about your accomplishment in
telephone sessions with your manager.


Give Your Manager a Current List of Your
Accomplishments in Each Key Competency Area
Before Your Performance Appraisal
Because you’ve been tracking your accomplishments by
competency area for several months or a year, you should be ready
to provide this information to your manager whenever it may help
him. But for your own career, one of the best times to make sure
your manager has an updated list of easy to understand, well written,
thorough, and concise accomplishments is three or four weeks before
your performance appraisal. List each accomplishment under the
most relevant competency. You may also want to identify the other
competencies shown by the accomplishment for your manager.

Conclusion
If you consider competencies when you actively manage your
career, and you follow the tips in this chapter, you will be ahead of
most of the people that you currently consider your competition in
the organization. I’m not surprised. I always thought you were a
star.


The best job goes to the person who can get it done
without passing the buck or coming back with excuses.
—Napoleon Hill


What can you do to manage your l Learn to write competency-based
career the competency-based accomplishment statements to use
way? in employee development plans,
self-appraisals, and other situations.


What can you do to manage your l Set up and use a system to track
career the competency-based your competencies.
way? (Continued) l Develop your most critical compe-
tencies to a hight level.
l Identify and overcome your compe-
tency gaps.
l Work towards developing compe-
tencies you will need for future
positions.
l Promote your career and accom-
plishments to your managers.
l Give your manager a list of your
accomplishments in each competen-
cy area immediately before your
performance appraisal.
What should you keep in mind l Focus on your accomplishments
when you write competency- proving competencies.
based accomplishment l Say as much as you can in as few
statements?
words as you can.
l Don’t use complete sentences or
extra words that don’t add to the
content.
l Always start with an action verb.
l Make sure you have thought about
the situation/task/problem, action,
and results portion of each of your
accomplishments.
l Decide whether the result, the ac-
tion, or the process is going to
matter the most to the employer
and make that the first part of
your accomplishment statement.
l Make your statements as strong
as you can without lying. Spin
your answer.


l Try to give numbers, statistics, or
financial figures to help the reader
understand the project/assignment
scope. Be specific and give enough
details to be credible.
l Assume the readers are intelligent but
may not know the details about your
immediate business or professional
area.
l Try to include high-profile ex-
amples that your senior executives
might know about, whenever pos-
sible.
What type of system should you If your employer doesn’t have a system,
set up to track your competencies? figure out what will work the best for
you. You can use a Word table, Excel
spreadsheet, database, PDA software, or
old-fashioned filing system.
What do you need to track? Accomplishments and the
competencies they show.
What do you need to remember Use these opportunities to develop
when you have input into your your competencies to a higher level for
training and development or your current position and future job
future assignments? possibilities. You can also use this as a
way to overcome any competency gaps
you need to overcome.
What else is important to do in a l Communicate with your managers
competency-based organization about your accomplishments in key
competency areas.
l Don’t be too modest.
l Use the language of competencies.
l Give your manager a list of your
accomplishments sorted by compe-
tency area three to four weeks be-
fore your performance appraisal.

Chapter 14

Use Competency-
Based Resumes to
Get Your Next
Interview
Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never
regains its original dimensions.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
When I read Oliver Wendell Holmes’s quote about how
a new idea stretches a person’s mind so it can never be the
way it was before, I thought about my new idea: competency-
based resumes. It’s true that my mind has never been the
same, and I’d really like to think it is better. So, in this case,
with all my personal respect to Mr. Holmes, please substitute
the words A person’s mind for Man’s mind in the quote.
Giving employees some background so they can learn
to thrive in a competency-based organization is another new
idea. You’ve spent most of this book learning how you can
be more successful in a competency-based interview to help
you get the job you really want.
In Chapter 13, you learned how to write competency-
based accomplishment statements to help you advocate for
yourself when you are writing your self-evaluations and
employee development plans. You also started thinking about
how to track and develop your competencies, and how to
communicate more effectively with your managers about
your competencies. You’re in that great job now, you’re
doing well, and you’ve proven how competent you are over
a period of time.
199


But don’t let yourself get too comfortable. It’s time to stretch
yourself by starting to think about your next opportunity, and you
need to be ready. It’s time to write your first competency-based
resume, or to revise the competency-based resume you used to
win your last position.

Why You Should Write a
Competency-Based Resume
Competency-based resumes are much more effective than more
traditional resumes. They give you an edge with employers because
they are more focused and target the competencies the employers
are looking for in today’s labor market. Competency-based resumes
consider the employer’s needs first, then help prove you match
what the employer is looking for. A well written, competency-based
resume includes crisp, targeted accomplishment statements and a
summary section aimed at the competencies the employer needs to
be successful now and in the future.
Why should you use a competency-based resume? It will sell
your experience more effectively to employers and increase your
chance of getting the interview. Even in non competency-based
organizations, a competency-based resume will give you an edge
because it is written to target the real needs of the employer.

Steps to Writing a Competency-Based Resume
The approach to writing competency-based resumes is different
from the way you may have written your resume in the past. To
write a good competency-based resume, you need to follow these
steps:
1. Identify competencies for the position.
2. Think about what you have done that demonstrates expertise
or experience with each of the competencies.
3. Develop accomplishment statements for as many of the
competencies as you can.

Use Competency-Based Resumes to Get Your Next Interview 201

4. Write the summary section so it emphasizes your experience
and strengths related to the key competencies for the
position.
5. Determine which competency-based resume format—
chronological, functional, direct competency, or combination—
best fits your needs, and prepare your first draft of the
resume.
6. Remember to include sections on your education and any
other specific information relevant to potential employers.
7. Add additional competency-related accomplishment
statements and, if you still have space, other accomplishment
statements.
8. Prioritize competency-related phrases in your summary
section and competency-based accomplishments within the
appropriate sections of the resume.
9. Review and polish your resume. Ask other professionals
for input.
10. Finalize your resume. Develop an electronic version of the
resume with a keyword summary section.
Writing a good, competency-based resume should make sense
to you. You’ve already read Chapter 2 and gone through the process
of identifying competencies for your last position. Now you need to
repeat the process and identify the competencies for the new position
you are interested in.
You’ve also learned how to write effective competency-based
accomplishment statements and have kept track of your
accomplishments in a good table, spreadsheet, database, or filing
system. Look at Chapter 13 if you want to review these career
management tips, and pull out your list of accomplishments before
beginning to write your resume.


Example of a Competency-Based Resume
Let’s look at one example of a competency-based resume. This
particular resume is a competency-based functional resume for the
same financial sales professional whose answers to competency-
based interview questions are included in Chapter 10. We chose to
use this format because we wanted to emphasize her
accomplishments in certain key categories that were important to
the organization she was interested in working for.
Donna Johnson’s resume, shown on pages 204–207, is one
example of a good competency-based resume. Please know that I
helped my client write this resume, but a few changes have been
made to protect her privacy. I’ve changed her name, contact
information, and the name of an employer or two.
Once Donna identified the position she was interested in, we
were able to determine the key competencies and write targeted
competency-based accomplishment statements. Then we worked
on the summary section.
Please know that what makes a resume competency-based is
the content, not the format. Each accomplishment statement is
competency-based. The summary also addresses the competencies.

What makes a resume competency-based
is the content.

There’s more than one format for competency-based resumes.
In addition to competency-based fuctional resumes, you can choose
to write competency-based chronological resumes that look more
traditional and focus on your work history with accomplishments
listed under each job. Direct competency resumes list your
accomplishments by competency and are good to use when you
want to provide your manager with a list of your accomplishments
before your performance appraisal.


Summary or Profile
This section is one of the most important parts of any resume
because, if it is well written, it sells your background to the employer.
It has replaced the objective on the resume because it is so much
more effective at communicating the most important reasons the
employer should consider you for the position.
One approach to writing a good summary section is to start with
what you call yourself professionally or the title listed for the position
you are interested in. Then write about your expertise, your job-related
strengths, and your strengths in the relevant competency areas. Some
career experts like to do a bulleted list of your strengths; others don’t.
Please be aware that career coaches have different styles of
writing summary sections. To make sure that your resume opens the
right doors for you, just be sure your summary is competency-based.

Technical Skills
You should plan to have a technical skills section if you work in
IT or another technical area where your knowledge of software,
hardware, or specific technical tools is required before a hiring
manager will consider you for a position.

Education
Please make every effort to check this section of your resume to
make sure it is accurate. Although I believe in putting the best possible
spin you can on your background, you either have a college degree or
you don’t.
Every year, it seems that we hear about a new example of
someone who is in trouble for claiming a degree that he doesn’t quite
have. For example, in 2002, the athletic director for Dartmouth College
resigned after his employer found out that he had not completed the
master’s degree he had listed on his resume. Please know that your
educational credentials can be easily checked by the employer.
As a general rule, if your degree is more than 10 years old, leave
the graduation date off your resume.

204
Donna B. Johnson
3202 Jasmine 303-555-5249
Denver, CO 80205 djohnson2@sbcglobal.net

SUMMARY

Finance professional with strong interest in financial analysis and sales. Proven track record of developing financial models to
streamline processes. Recognized for consistent ranking as top producer, understanding complex financial information and
communicating financial data to clients to encourage investment. Strengths include results orientation, analytical and teaching/
training skills, resourcefulness and initiative.
Licenses: Series 7, 63, 65 and 24 and Group 1.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Financial Analysis
l Recognized for developing first proprietary sell-to-cover model at company to calculate number of stock options to sell
at set market price; increased customer satisfaction 15% and created opportunity for additional commissions.
l Developed first Excel spreadsheet at company to calculate taxes for exercising stock options for United Kingdom
residents; provided competitive advantage to obtain 100% of IBM stock option business in United Kingdom; provided
additional $90,000 per year in gross commission.
l Audited online system for exercising stock options at firm; analyzed data and recommended changes to improve visual
presentation and quality of customer directions; increased online order submission 5%.
l Prepared competitive analysis of financial statements for five major oil companies while working as summer intern
at Amoco.

Financial Sales/Marketing
l Ranked in top four of 40 retirement specialists nationally at Fidelity for 12 consecutive months, 2001-2002.

Use Competency-Based Resumes to Get Your Next Interview
l Identified opportunity to increase assets by allowing customers to maintain their investments positions; persuaded three
senior managers to support change in business practice; increased retained assets by 20%.
l Increased long term care insurance sales by 10%; designed and delivered long term care sales seminar for 15 retail brokers.
l Produced $189k in first year commissions as Financial Advisor at American Express; ranked in top 25% of peer group.
l Recognized by manager for increasing small loan revenues 25%; created solicitation campaign for loans between
$500- $1,000.
l Developed risk management program to collect delinquent accounts; reduced 30 day delinquiency 30%.

Financial Training/Planning
l Trained 15 financial consultants on how to educate clients about annuities, long term care insurance and health insurance;
increased sales 30%.
l Delivered training program on mortgage disclosure documentation, loan documentation and loan processing using
proprietary system to 40 new employees.
l Developed training for 27 financial advisors at American Express on presenting client seminars for retirement, planning,
college planning and estate planning.

205
l Created financial plans for 150 individuals and 30 small businesses as American Express Financial Advisor 1998-2000.

206
Donna B. Johnson Page 2

WORK HISTORY

NATIONAL FINANCIAL, Denver, CO 2002-2005

Stock Options Department Supervisor, 2003-2005
Financial Consultant, 2002-2003

FIDELITY INVESTMENTS, Denver, CO 2000-2002
Senior Retirement Specialist

AMERICAN EXPRESS FINANCIAL ADVISORS, Dallas, TX 1998-2000
Financial Advisor, 1998-2000

BENEFICIAL INC., Denver, CO 1994-1998
Branch Manager, 1996-1998
Assistant Branch Manager, 1995-1996
Branch Service Manager, 1994-1995

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science, Marketing and International Business
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Use Competency-Based Resumes to Get Your Next Interview
207


Other Competency-Based Resume Tips
l Prioritize your accomplishments on the resume within each
section to emphasize the experience and competencies that
matter the most to the employer.
l Expect to use two pages on your resume unless you have
less than 10 years of work experience. Then you should
plan on having a one-page resume.
l Always have an e-mail address that sounds professional and
benign as part of your contact information. Consider setting
up a new e-mail address just for your job search.
l Use your cell phone number on the resume. Don’t waste
space identifying that a phone number is a phone number or
an e-mail is an e-mail.
l If you include an “Other Information” or “Community
Activities” section, only include information proving you’d
be effective at a specific job. Don’t include anything
controversial such as religion or politics unless you are
interested in a position with a church, mosque or temple, an
organization such as Catholic Charities, the Republican or
Democratic parties, or an elected official.
l If you have some special issues, such as not working for an
extended period of time, consider talking with a professional
about the best way to handle your situation on the resume.
You might want to use a competency-based functional
resume, to help the reader focus more on your
accomplishments than on your work history. If you have
been in one position for more than five years, you might
choose to write a combination-style resume, which would
show your accomplishments in your most recent job broken
into a few important categories or competencies. Each
situation is different, and a savvy professional can help you
figure out the best way to position your resume to show your
competencies and strengths the most effectively.
l Plan to rewrite or revise your resume and cover letter for
every new job opportunity. Once you have developed your


first competency-based resume, though, you should have most
of the information you’ll need to target future opportunities.

If you want more help with writing competency-based resumes,
read the book Competency-Based Resumes: How to Bring Your
Resume to the Top of the Pile (Career Press, November 2004) for
more examples and details about how to write extremely good resumes
targeting the competencies the employers need. (If you like
Competency-Based Interviews, I’m confident that you’ll also enjoy
Competency-Based Resumes.)


Focusing on the competencies the employer is looking for is a
very powerful way to approach one’s next job.
—Ward Klein, President and Chief Operating Officer, Energizer
Why should you write a compe- Competency-based resumes:
tency-based resume? l Are more effective.
l Are more focused and targeted to
meet the employer’s needs.
l Sell your experience that matters .
What are the steps to writing a 1. Identify competencies.
competency-based resume? 2. Think about what you have done
that demonstrates experience with
each key competency.
3. Develop accomplishment state-
ments for as many of the compe-
tencies as you can.
4. Write the summary section to em-
phasize your experience and
strengths related to the key compe-
tencies for the position.
5. Determine which competency-based
resume format (chronological, func-
tional, direct competency, or combi-
nation) best fits your needs, and
prepare your first draft of the resume.



What are the steps to writing a 6. Remember to include sections
competency-based resume? on your education and any other
(Continuted) specific information which
might be relevant to potential
employers.
7. Add additional competency-
related accomplishment state-
ments, and, if you still have extra
space, other accomplishment
statements.
8. Prioritize the competency-
related phrases in your summary
section and your competency-
based accomplishments within
appropriate sections.
9. Review and polish your resume.
Ask others for their input.
10. Finalize your resume. Develop
an electronic version of the resume
with a keyword summary section.

What makes a resume The content, not the format.
competency-based?

What are the different formats l Competency-based chronological
you could use for a competency- l Competency-based functional
based resume? l Direct competency
l Combination

What is important to remember l It is extremely important because
about the “Summary” section of if it is well-written, it will sell
your resume? your background to the employer.
l Start with a professional title,
then write about your expertise,
job-related strengths, and your
strengths in the relevant compe-
tency areas.

When should you include a If you work in IT or another area
“Technical Skills” section in your where your knowledge of hardware,
resume? software, or technical tools is
required before the employer will
consider you for a position.


What is important to remember l Don’t ever claim a degree or
for the “Education” section of educational credential you don’t
your resume? have.
l If your degree is more than 10
years old, don’t include your
graduation date.

What other tips should you know l Prioritize your accomplishments
before writing a competency- within each section to emphasize
based resume? experience and competencies that
matter the most to the employer.
l Expect to use two pages on your
resume unless you have less than
10 years of work experience.
l Say as much as you can in as few
words as you can.
l Always use an e-mail address that
sounds professional as part of
your contact information.
l Use your cell phone number on
the resume.
l Don’t waste space identifying that
a phone number is a phone number
or an e-mail is an e-mail.
l If you include an “Other
Information” or “Community
Activities” section, only include
information proving you’d be
effective at a specific job. Don’t
include anything controversial
such as religion or politics, as a
general rule.
l If you have some special issues,
consider talking with a professional
about the best way to handle them
on the resume.
l Plan to rewrite or revise your resume
for every new job opportunity.
If you want to learn more about Read Competency-Based Resumes:
competency-based resumes, How to Bring Your Resume to the Top
what should you do? of the Pile (Career Press, 2004).

Chapter 15

Think Long-Term
and Make Change
Work for You

The real voyage of discovery consists not in
seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
—Marcel Proust
When I first read Proust’s quote, I thought about the
changes competencies have brought to the landscape for
people who want to work at the best, most sophisticated
employers. In this book, you’ve learned some important
ways to make the competency-based systems at today’s
best organizations work for you.
Competencies have been used in the business world
for more than 20 years now, but today’s competency-based
systems are more sophisticated than they used to be. They
are continuing to grow and evolve. You don’t have to seek
a new landscape—the landscape has changed. The
landscape has changed everywhere, and your job is to make
sure that you notice the changes.
Because some employees and candidates resist
change, they may never see that the system has changed
around them. Many of us can remember secretaries who
didn’t think they had to learn about computers or word
processing. Technology changed the landscape. If they
didn’t change their own view and learn to work with
computers, those secretaries became obsolete.

213


If you don’t recognize change and adapt,
you’ll become obsolete.

What can we expect for the future? How will the landscape
change? How will our perception of those changes affect our
success?
In the short term, you can expect more and more organizations
to continue to work with competencies. It just makes sense.
If your organization isn’t working with competencies yet, it may
be in the future. Thinking about what is most important to your
employer first will help you be more successful even in a non
competency-based organization.
Many of the most sophisticated employers have worked closely
with consultants to develop effective competency-based human
resources systems that are working well for them. Managers at
these organizations usually decided to use competency-based
systems because they saw it as a way to help them improve the
overall performance of their employees.
Those organizations with good competency-based systems are
in a strong position to build the key characteristics that it will take to
be even more successful in the future. Their managers recruit,
interview, and hire employees who are strong in the competencies
they need. They evaluate their employees based on goals and
competencies, and coach or train their employees to develop the
competencies the organization needs to ensure success.
The best organizations have invested considerable time and
money into these competency-based systems. But are they working
as well as they could? Based on my consulting, the answer is no.

Think Long-Term and Make Change Work for You 215

Employers need to collaborate with their employees to make
their competency-based systems work more effectively. There are
six major reasons it makes sense for employers to partner with
employees and make more of an effort to explain their own
competency-based system to their employees1:
1. To improve the competency levels of their employees
faster. If each employee understands the competency-based
system and takes responsibility for managing the relevant
competencies (in addition to training or coaching provided
by the organization), the overall competency levels within
the organization will improve much faster.
2. To provide managers with better information about the
competencies of their employees. If employees advocate
for themselves more effectively by providing better-written,
clearer, competency-based information about their
accomplishments, or if they are able to give good
explanations during competency-based interviews, it will
give managers the information they need to make better
decisions about assignments and opportunities.
3. To enable companies to sell their services more effectively
to competency-based customers. For companies providing
consulting, engineering, project management, or
architectural work to competency-based organizations, it
just makes sense for the proposed project team to develop
competency-based resumes to include in the proposal
package targeting the competencies the decision-makers
are measured against. When the competency-based
customer asks to interview the project team, the interviewees
will be more successful if they are prepared for
competency-based interviews. (Please know that improving


the way you present your employees cannot overcome an
extremely high bid for the contract. But it can make a
difference in other cases.)
4. To empower employees and improve morale. If employees
understand what they can do to actively manage their
careers in competency-based systems, they are much more
likely to buy into the system and be committed to making it
work.
5. To support diversity efforts. By making more of an effort
to train employees about competencies in their organizations,
employers are demystifying what it takes to get ahead. On
a practical level, they are helping to clarify the rules for
everyone, without regard to race, sex, age, national origin,
or disability status. More employees have a chance to be
successful, and more types of employees will be successful.
6. To improve the quality of employee development and
succession planning. If managers have better access to
good information about the competencies of the candidates
for promotions, they can do a better job with succession
planning. Learning to communicate more effectively about
your competencies to managers simply helps the key
decision-makers make better decisions about your future
opportunities.
Because it makes business sense, expect to see the better
employers offer their employees more training about what they can
do to be successful in the organization’s competency-based system.
When I’ve worked with managers at companies such as American
Express and BP to offer this type of program, there’s been a strong
level of interest from the employees. They recognize that the system
has changed, and they want to know what they can do to be more
successful on the new playing field.

Think Long-Term and Make Change Work for You 217

At BP, the human resources department in Houston sponsored
a pilot program called “How to Thrive in BP’s Competency-Based
System.” My contact in human resources sent an e-mail to 200
people inviting them to a lunch-and-learn session a few months
ago. Within an hour, 100 people had responded saying they were
interested in attending.
At American Express, one of the IT directors sponsored an
initial program teaching employees how to thrive in their own
competency-based system. I trained them to be more aware of the
relevant competencies and showed them examples of competency-
based accomplishment statements. The next step, which has already
been scheduled, focuses on teaching the same group how to write
effective competency-based accomplishment statements for their
employee development plans and employee questionnaires before
mid-year and year-end performance reviews.
In addition to formally sponsored training programs, special
interest groups within the larger companies sometimes bring in guest
speakers. The Women’s Network within JPMorganChase sponsored
me to come in and speak to its members about how to be more
successful working within its competency-based system.
When you see your own organization begin to offer these types
of programs to give employees tools that they can use to thrive with
competencies, make sure you are one of the first to take advantage
of the opportunity.
Learn everything you can about the competencies for your
current position and possible future positions. Think about what
competencies are important for success now and in the future. Of
course, while you’re doing that, remember to continue to do your
job.
Understanding how competencies can work for you and help
you be more successful is critical to help you plan and navigate


your career for the future. Being smart and using this information
to help advocate for yourself within your organization can make a
difference.
Learning about competencies can help you see your professional
future with new eyes. Your eyes may still be brown or blue or
green or hazel, but your vision will be clearer, and you can now
come closer to seeing your goal for your career.

Appendix A:
List of Core
Competencies

I. Competencies Dealing With People
The Leading Others Cluster
Establishing Focus: The ability to develop and
communicate goals in support of the business mission.
l Acts to align own unit’s goals with the strategic
direction of the business.
l Ensures that people in the unit understand how
their work relates to the business mission.
l Ensures that everyone understands and
identifies with the unit’s mission.
l Ensures that the unit develops goals and a plan
to help fulfill the business mission.
Providing Motivational Support: The ability to enhance
others’ commitment to their work.
l Recognizes and rewards people for their
achievements.
l Acknowledges and thanks people for their
contributions.

219


l Expresses pride in the group and encourages people
to feel good about their accomplishments.
l Finds creative ways to make people’s work rewarding.
l Signals own commitment to a process by being
personally present and involved at key events.
l Identifies and promptly tackles morale problems.
l Gives talks or presentations that energize groups.
Fostering Teamwork: As a team member, the ability and desire
to work cooperatively with others on a team; as a team leader,
the ability to demonstrate interest, skill, and success in getting
groups to learn to work together.

Behavior for Team Members
l Listens and responds constructively to other team
members’ ideas.
l Offers support for others’ ideas and proposals.
l Is open with other team members about his/her
concerns.
l Expresses disagreement constructively.
l Reinforces team members for their contributions.
l Gives honest and constructive feedback to other team
members.
l Provides assistance to others when they need it.
l Works for solutions that all team members can support.
l Shares his/her expertise with others.
l Seeks opportunities to work on teams as a means to
develop experience and knowledge.
l Provides assistance, information, or support to others
to build or maintain relationships with them.

Appendix A 221

Behavior for Team Leaders
l Provides opportunities for people to learn to work
together as a team.
l Enlists the active participation of everyone.
l Promotes cooperation with other work units.
l Ensures that all team members are treated fairly.
l Recognizes and encourages the behaviors that
contribute to teamwork.
Empowering Others: The ability to convey confidence in the
ability of employees to be successful, especially at challenging
new tasks; delegating significant responsibility and authority;
allowing employees freedom to decide how they will accomplish
their goals and resolve issues.
l Gives people latitude to make decisions in their own
sphere of work.
l Is able to let others make decisions and take charge.
l Encourages individuals and groups to set their own
goals, consistent with business goals.
l Expresses confidence in the ability of others to be
successful.
l Encourages groups to resolve problems on their own;
avoids prescribing a solution.
Managing Change: The ability to demonstrate support for
innovation and for organizational changes needed to improve
the organization’s effectiveness; initiating, sponsoring, and
implementing organizational change; helping others to
successfully manage organizational change.

Employee Behaviors
l Personally develops a new method or approach.


l Proposes new approaches, methods, or technologies.
l Develops better, faster, or less expensive ways to do
things.

Manager/Leader Behaviors
l Works cooperatively with others to produce innovative
solutions.
l Takes the lead in setting new business directions,
partnerships, policies, or procedures.
l Seizes opportunities to influence the future direction
of an organizational unit or the overall business.
l Helps employees to develop a clear understanding of
what they will need to do differently, as a result of
changes in the organization.
l Implements or supports various change management
activities.
l Establishes structures and processes to plan and
manage the orderly implementation of change.
l Helps individuals and groups manage the anxiety
associated with significant change.
l Facilitates groups or teams through the problem-solving
and creative-thinking processes leading to the
development and implementation of new approaches,
systems, structures, and methods.
Developing Others: The ability to delegate responsibility and to
work with others and coach them to develop their capabilities.
l Provides helpful, behaviorally specific feedback to
others.
l Shares information, advice, and suggestions to help
others be more successful; provides effective coaching.

Appendix A 223

l Gives people assignments that will help develop their
abilities.
l Regularly meets with employees to review their
developmental progress.
l Recognizes and reinforces people’s developmental
efforts and improvements.
l Expresses confidence in the ability of others to be
successful.
Managing Performance: The ability to take responsibility for
one’s own, or one’s employees’ performance, by setting clear
goals and expectations, tracking progress against the goals,
ensuring feedback, and addressing performance problems and
issues promptly.

Employee Behaviors
l With his manager, sets specific, measurable goals that
are realistic but challenging, with dates for
accomplishment.
l With his manager, clarifies expectations about what
will be done and how.
l Enlists his manager’s support in obtaining the
information, resources, and training needed to
accomplish his work effectively.
l Promptly notifies his manager about any problems that
affect his ability to accomplish planned goals.
l Seeks performance feedback from his manager and
from others with whom he interacts on the job.
l Prepares a personal development plan with specific
goals and a timeline for their accomplishment.
l Takes significant action to develop skills needed for
effectiveness in current or future job.
Manager/Leader Behaviors


l Ensures that employees have clear goals and
responsibilities.
l Works with employees to set and communicate
performance standards that are specific and
measurable.
l Supports employees in their efforts to achieve job goals.
l Stays informed about employees’ progress and
performance through both formal and informal
methods.
l Provides specific performance feedback, both positive
and corrective, as soon as possible after an event.
l Deals firmly and promptly with performance problems;
lets people know what is expected of them and when.

Communication and Influencing Cluster
Attention to Communication: The ability to ensure that
information is passed on to others who should be kept informed.
l Ensures that others involved in a project or effort are
kept informed about developments and plans.
l Ensures that important information from his
management is shared with his employees and others
as appropriate.
l Shares ideas and information with others who might
find them useful.
l Uses multiple channels or means to communicate
important messages.
l Keeps his manager informed about progress and
problems; avoids surprises.
l Ensures that regular, consistent communication takes
place.

Appendix A 225

Oral Communication: The ability to express oneself clearly in
conversations and interactions with others.
l Speaks clearly and can be easily understood.
l Tailors the content of speech to the level and
experience of the audience.
l Uses appropriate grammar and choice of words in oral
speech.
l Organizes ideas clearly in oral speech.
l Expresses ideas concisely in oral speech.
l Maintains eye contact when speaking with others.
l Summarizes or paraphrases his understanding of what
others have said to verify understanding and prevent
miscommunication.
Written Communication: The ability to express oneself clearly
in business writing.
l Expresses ideas clearly and concisely in writing.
l Organizes written ideas clearly and signals the
organization to the reader.
l Tailors written communications to effectively reach
an audience.
l Uses graphics and other aids to clarify complex or
technical information.
l Spells correctly.
l Writes using concrete, specific language.
l Uses punctuation correctly.
l Writes grammatically.
l Uses an appropriate business writing style.


Persuasive Communication: The ability to plan and deliver oral
and written communications that make an impact and persuade
their intended audiences.
l Identifies and presents information or data that will
have a strong effect on others.
l Selects language and examples tailored to the level
and experience of the audience.
l Selects stories, analogies, or examples to illustrate a
point.
l Creates graphics, overheads, or slides that display
information clearly and with high impact.
l Presents several different arguments in support of a
position.
Interpersonal Awareness: The ability to notice, interpret, and
anticipate others’ concerns and feelings, and to communicate
this awareness empathetically to others.
l Understands the interests and important concerns of
others.
l Notices and accurately interprets what others are
feeling, based on their choice of words, tone of voice,
expressions, and other nonverbal behavior.
l Anticipates how others will react to a situation.
l Listens attentively to people’s ideas and concerns.
l Understands both the strengths and the weaknesses
of others.
l Understands the unspoken meaning in a situation.
l Says or does things to address others’ concerns.
l Finds nonthreatening ways to approach others about
sensitive issues.

Appendix A 227

l Makes others feel comfortable by responding in ways
that convey interest in what they have to say.
Influencing Others: The ability to gain others’ support for ideas,
proposals, projects, and solutions.
l Presents arguments that address others’ most important
concerns and issues and looks for win-win solutions.
l Involves others in a process or decision to ensure their
support.
l Offers trade-offs or exchanges to gain commitment.
l Identifies and proposes solutions that benefit all parties
involved in a situation.
l Enlists expert or third parties to influence others.
l Develops other indirect strategies to influence others.
l Knows when to escalate critical issues to management,
if own efforts to enlist support have not succeeded.
l Structures situations to create a desired impact and to
maximize the chances of a favorable outcome.
l Works to make a particular impression on others.
l Identifies and targets influence efforts at the real
decision-makers and those who can influence them.
l Seeks out and builds relationships with others who can
provide information, intelligence, career support,
potential business, and other forms of help.
l Takes a personal interest in others to develop
relationships.
l Accurately anticipates the implications of events or
decisions for various stakeholders in the organization,
and plans strategy accordingly.


Building Collaborative Relationships: The ability to develop,
maintain, and strengthen partnerships with others inside or
outside the organization who can provide information,
assistance, and support.
l Asks about the other person’s personal experiences,
interests, and family.
l Asks questions to identify shared interests, experiences,
or other common ground.
l Shows an interest in what others have to say;
acknowledges their perspectives and ideas.
l Recognizes the business concerns and perspectives
of others.
l Expresses gratitude and appreciation to others who
have provided information, assistance, or support.
l Takes time to get to know coworkers, to build rapport
and establish a common bond.
l Tries to build relationships with people whose assistance,
cooperation, and support may be needed.
l Provides assistance, information, and support to others
to build a basis for future reciprocity.
Customer Orientation: The ability to demonstrate concern for
satisfying one’s external and/or internal customers.
l Quickly and effectively solves customer problems.
l Talks to customers to find out what they want and
how satisfied they are with what they are getting.
l Lets customers know he is willing to work with them
to meet their needs.
l Finds ways to measure and track customer satisfaction.
l Presents a cheerful, positive manner with customers.

Appendix A 229

II. Competencies Dealing With Business
The Preventing and Solving Problems Cluster
Diagnostic Information Gathering: The ability to identify the
information needed to clarify a situation, seek that information
from appropriate sources, and use skillful questioning to draw
out the information, when others are reluctant to disclose it.
l Identifies the specific information needed to clarify a
situation or to make a decision.
l Gets more complete and accurate information by
checking multiple sources.
l Probes skillfully to get at the facts, when others are
reluctant to provide full, detailed information.
l Routinely walks around to see how people are doing
and to hear about any problems they are encountering.
l Questions others to assess whether they have thought
through a plan of action.
l Questions others to assess their confidence in solving
a problem or tackling a situation.
l Asks questions to clarify a situation.
l Seeks the perspective of everyone involved in a
situation.
l Seeks out knowledgeable people to obtain information
or clarify a problem.
Analytical Thinking: The ability to tackle a problem by using a
logical, systematic, sequential approach.
l Makes a systematic comparison of two or more
alternatives.
l Notices discrepancies and inconsistencies in available
information.


l Identifies a set of features, parameters, or
considerations to take into account in analyzing a
situation or making a decision.
l Approaches a complex task or problem by breaking it
down into its component parts and considering each
part in detail.
l Weighs the costs, benefits, risks, and chances for
success in making a decision.
l Identifies many possible causes for a problem.
l Carefully weighs the priority of things to be done.
Forward Thinking: The ability to anticipate the implications and
consequences of situations and take appropriate action to be
prepared for possible contingencies.
l Anticipates possible problems and develops
contingency plans in advance.
l Notices trends in the industry or marketplace and
develops plans to prepare for opportunities or problems.
l Anticipates the consequences of situations and plans
accordingly.
l Anticipates how individuals and groups will react to
situations and information and plans accordingly.
Conceptual Thinking: The ability to find effective solutions by
taking a holistic, abstract, or theoretical perspective.
l Notices similarities between different and apparently
unrelated situations.
l Quickly identifies the central or underlying issues in a
complex situation.
l Creates a graphic diagram showing a systems view of
the situation.

Appendix A 231

l Develops analogies or metaphors to explain a situation.
l Applies a theoretical framework to understand a
specific situation.
Strategic Thinking: The ability to analyze the organization’s
competitive position by considering market and industry trends,
existing and potential customers, and strengths and weaknesses
as compared to competitors.
l Understands the organization’s strengths and
weaknesses as compared to competitors.
l Understands industry and market trends affecting the
organization’s competitiveness.
l Has an in-depth understanding of competitive products
and services within the marketplace.
l Develops and proposes a long-term strategy for the
organization based on an analysis of the industry and
marketplace and the organization’s current and
potential capabilities as compared to competitors.
Technical Expertise: The ability to demonstrate depth of
knowledge and skill in a technical area.
l Effectively applies technical knowledge to solve a range
of problems.
l Possesses an in-depth knowledge and skill in a technical
area.
l Develops technical solutions to new or highly complex
problems that cannot be solved using existing methods
or approaches.
l Is sought out as an expert to provide advice or solutions
in his technical area.
l Keeps informed about cutting-edge technology in his
technical area.


The Achieving Results Cluster
Initiative: Identifying what needs to be done and doing it before
being asked or before the situation requires it.
l Identifying what needs to be done and taking action
before being asked or the situation requires it.
l Does more than what is normally required in a situation.
l Seeks out others involved in a situation to learn their
perspectives.
l Takes independent action to change the direction of
events.
Entrepreneurial Orientation: The ability to look for and seize
profitable business opportunities; willingness to take calculated
risks to achieve business goals.
l Notices and seizes profitable business opportunities.
l Stays abreast of business, industry, and market
information that may reveal business opportunities.
l Demonstrates willingness to take calculated risks to
achieve business goals.
l Proposes innovative business deals to potential
customers, suppliers, and business partners.
l Encourages and supports entrepreneurial behavior in
others.
Fostering Innovation: The ability to develop, sponsor, or support
the introduction of new and improved methods, products,
procedures, or technologies.
l Personally develops a new product or service.
l Personally develops a new method or approach.
l Sponsors the development of new products, services,
methods, or procedures.

Appendix A 233

l Proposes new approaches, methods, or technologies.
l Develops better, faster, or less expensive ways to do
things.
l Works cooperatively with others to produce innovative
solutions.
Results Orientation: The ability to focus on the desired result
of one’s own or one’s unit’s work, setting challenging goals.
Focusing effort on the goals, and meeting or exceeding them.
l Develops challenging but achievable goals.
l Develops clear goals for meetings and projects.
l Maintains commitment to goals in the face of obstacles
and frustration.
l Finds or creates ways to measure performance against
goals.
l Exerts unusual effort over time to achieve a goal.
l Has a strong sense of urgency about solving problems
and getting work done.
Thoroughness: Ensuring that one’s own work and information
are complete and accurate; carefully preparing for meetings
and presentations; following up with others to ensure that
agreements and commitments have been fulfilled.
l Sets up procedures to ensure high quality of work.
l Monitors the quality of work.
l Verifies information.
l Checks the accuracy of own and other’s work.
l Develops and uses systems to organize and keep track
of information or work progress.
l Carefully prepares for meetings and presentations.


l Organizes information or material for others.
l Carefully reviews and checks the accuracy of
information in work reports provided by management,
IT, or other individuals and groups.
Decisiveness: The ability to make decisions in a timely manner.
l Is willing to make decisions in difficult or ambiguous
situations, when time is critical.
l Takes charge of a group when it is necessary to
facilitate change, overcome an impasse, face issues,
or ensure decisions are made.
l Makes tough decisions.

III. Self-Management Competencies
Self-Confidence: Faith in one’s own ideas and capability to be
successful; willingness to take an independent position in the
face of opposition.
l Is confident of own ability to accomplish goals.
l Presents self crisply and impressively.
l Is willing to speak up to the right person or group at
the right time, when he disagrees with a decision or
strategy.
l Approaches challenging tasks with a “can-do” attitude.
Stress Management: The ability to keep functioning effectively
when under pressure and maintain self-control in the face of
hostility or provocation.
l Remains calm under stress.
l Can effectively handle several problems or tasks at
once.

Appendix A 235

l Controls his response when criticized, attacked, or
provoked.
l Maintains a sense of humor under difficult
circumstances.
l Manages own behavior to prevent or reduce feelings
of stress.
Personal Credibility: Demonstrated concern that one be
perceived as responsible, reliable, and trustworthy.
l Does what he commits to doing.
l Respects the confidentiality of information or concerns
shared by others.
l Is honest and forthright with people.
l Carries his fair share of the workload.
l Takes responsibility for own mistakes; does not blame
others.
l Conveys a command of the relevant facts and
information.
Flexibility: Openness to different and new ways of doing things;
willingness to modify one’s preferred way of doing things.
l Is able to see the merits of perspectives other than his
own.
l Demonstrates openness to new organizational
structures, procedures, and technology.
l Switches to a different strategy when an initially
selected one is unsuccessful.
l Demonstrates willingness to modify a strongly held
position in the face of contrary evidence.


The list of competencies included in this appendix was
identified by the authors, Edward J. Cripe and Richard S.
Mansfield in their book The Value-Added Employee published
by Butterworth-Heinemann in 2002. The focus is on 31 major
competencies along with some behaviors associated with each.

Reprinted from The Value-Added Employee—31 Skills to Make Yourself
Irresistible to Any Company, Edward J. Cripe et. al., pp. 134-144, 2001, with
permission from Elsevier.

Appendix B:
Competencies for
Case Studies

Corporate Attorney
Key Competencies:
l Achieves Results
l Customer Service
l Analytical Skills
l Strategic Agility
l Team Orientation

Questions:
1. Tell me about a time where you used your judgment
to persuade a partner or senior manager to make a different
decision in a case.
l Customer Service
l Team Orientation
l Achieves Results
2. Tell me about a time you used complex litigation
analysis in a case. What was the result?
l Achieves Results
l Analytical Skills
237


3. Have you used a litigation strategy? Describe a case where
you used a litigation strategy to help you manage the case, and tell
us the steps you went through to determine the right litigation
strategy to use. What happened?
l Strategic Agility
l Analytical Skills
l Achieves Results
4. Tell us about a time you had to deal with a difficult issue
with an employee. How did you handle it? What happened?
l Team Orientation
l Customer Service
5. Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult
client. How did you handle the situation?
l Customer Service
l Team Orientation
l Strategic Agility
6. Tell us about a time when you used your skills and
knowledge to help the team. What was your role? What was the
outcome or result of your input?
l Team Orientation
l Achieves Results

Appendix B 239

Human Resources Vice President
Key Competencies:
l Achieves Results
l Customer Focus
l Building Business Partnerships, Relationships,
and Teams
l Consulting

Questions:
1. Describe a time that you had to work especially hard to get
a good result. What did you do?
l Achieves Results
2. Tell us about a time that you had to influence a group of
people to be able to lead them effectively.
and Teams
l Customer Focus
l Achieves Results


3. When you first started with your current employer, what
did you do to learn the specific things about the industry that you
needed to know to be effective in human resources? How did you
decide what was especially important?
l Customer Focus
l Consulting
4. Tell us about one of the most effective business partnerships
you’ve been involved in building. What did you do to help make it so
effective? Did you have to overcome any obstacles? Describe what
happened.
and Teams
l Achieves Results
l Customer Focus
5. Have you been involved with introducing any new ideas or
programs into your organization? Tell us about the program, and
describe the steps you used to improve the acceptance for the
program.
l Achieves Results
l Customer Focus

Appendix B 241

and Teams
l Consulting
6. Tell us about a time you made a mistake. What did you
learn from it?
l Customer Focus
and Teams
l Consulting

Director, Information Technology
Key Competencies:
l Drives Results
l Exceeds Customer Expectations
l Risk-Taking
l Acts Decisively
l Treats People with Respect
l Develops People
l Manages Change


Questions:
1. Tell us about a situation where you had to take several
actions over a period of time and overcome obstacles in order to
achieve a business objective.
l Drives Results
2. Describe a time when you had to identify some key issues
in order to guide a group toward the right decision.
l Drives Results
l Acts Decisively
l Treats People With Respect
l Develops People
3. Think of a time when you had many challenging projects
with different priorities to manage. Tell us about it.
l Drives Results
l Exceeds Customer Expectations.
l Risk-Taking

Appendix B 243

l Acts Decisively
l Treats People With Respect
l Develops People
l Manages Change

College Graduate, Engineering
Key Competencies
l Achieved Results
l Initiative
l Analytical Skills
l Customer Service
l Engineering and Computer Competencies

Questions:
1. Tell me about an assignment in school or at work where
you needed to have strong analytical skills to do well. How did you
plan and organize the work? How did you decide what information
you would need?
l Analytical Skills
l Initiative
l Achieved Results
l Technical Competencies

Appendix C:
Examples of Illegal
Pre-Employment
Interview Questions

1. What is your country of citizenship?
2. When were you born?
3. Where do you go to church?
4. What is your native language?
5. Where were your parents born?
6. Are you married?
7. Do you plan to have children?
8. Are you gay or straight?
9. What are your childcare arrangements?
10. Do you have any disabilities?
11. Have you had any recent illness or operations?
12. What type of military discharge did you obtain?
13. Tell me about your family.
14. When did you graduate from high school?

245

Notes

Chapter 1

1
Lou Adler, “The Best Interview Question of All Time.”
www.erexchange.com June 28, 2001.

Chapter 2
1
www.ohr.psu.edu/competencies/ohr/Employee
%20handbook%20final.pdf
2
Adapted from Robert Wood and Tim Payne,
Competency-Based Recruitment and Selection
(Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, 1998), 28.

Chapter 3
1
Source for statistic: www.eeoc.gov/stats/charges.html.

Chapter 6
1
The last seven tips on this list are adapted from DeVito,
Joseph A., Human Communication: The Basic
Course, Fifth Edition (HarperCollins Publishers, 1991),
153.

247


Chapter 7
1
Robin Kessler and Linda A. Strasburg, Competency-Based
Resumes: How to Bring Your Resume to the Top of the Pile
(Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press, 2004), 175-177.

Chapter 9
1
Robin Kessler and Linda A. Strasburg, Competency-Based
Resumes: How to Bring Your Resume to the Top of the Pile
(Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press, 2004), 38.

Chapter 15
1
Robin Kessler, “Collaborate with Employees to Make Your
Competency-Based Systems Stronger.” Employment Relations
Today, Wiley Periodicals, Autumn 2004, 28-30.

Bibliography

Adler, Lou. Hire With Your Head: Using Power
Hiring to Build Great Companies, Second Edition.
Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.
Adler, Ronald B., and Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst.
Communicating at Work: Principles and Practices
for Business and the Professions, 8th edition.
Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004.
Boyatzis, Richard. The Competent Manager: A Model
for Effective Performance. New York: John Wiley
and Sons, 1982.
Cooper, Kenneth Carlton. Effective Competency
Modeling and Reporting: A Step-by-Step Guide
for Improving Individual & Organizational
Performance. New York: Amacom, 2000.
Cripe, Edward J., and Richard S. Mansfield. The Value-
Added Employee. Woodburn, Mass.: Butterworth-
Heinemann, 2002.
DeVito, Joseph. Human Communication: The Basic
Course, 9th edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2002.
Dobkin, Bethami, and Roger C. Pace. Communication
in a Changing World. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2003.

249


Fry, Ron. 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview
Questions, Third Edition. Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press,
1996.
Green, Paul C. Building Robust Competencies: Linking
Human Resources Systems to Organizational Strategies.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
Kessler, Robin, and Linda A. Strasburg. Competency-Based
Resumes: How to Bring Your Resume to the Top of the
Pile. Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press, 2004.
Lombardo, Michael M., and Robert W. Eichinger. The
Leadership Machine: Architecture to Develop Leaders
for Any Future. Minneapolis: Lominger, 2001.
Powers, Dr. Paul. Winning Job Interviews: Reduce Interview
Anxiety / Outprepare the Other Candidates/Land the Job
You Love. Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press, 2004.
Quinn, Carol. Don’t Hire Anyone Without Me!: A
Revolutionary Approach to Interviewing & Hiring the
Best. Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press, 2001.
Spencer, Jr., Lyle M., PhD, and Signe M. Spencer. Competence
at Work: Models for Superior Performance. New York:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1993.
Wendleton, Kate. Interviewing and Salary Negotiation. Clifton
Park, N.Y.: Thomson Delmar Learning, 1999.
——. Mastering the Job Interview and Winning the Money
Game. Clifton Park, N.Y.: Thomson Delmar Learning, 2005.
Wood, Robert, and Tim Payne. Competency-Based Recruitment
and Selection: A Practical Guide. Chichester, England:
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Yates, Martin. Knock ‘Em Dead 2005: The Ultimate Job
Seekers Guide. Avon, Mass.: Adams Media Corporation,
2004.

Index

A Blink: The Power of Thinking
Without Thinking, 145
Achieving Results Cluster, BlueCross BlueShield, 13
232-235 BP, 12
Adler, Lou, 24, 28
All I Really Need to Know I
Learned in Kindergarten, 189
C
American Express, 12 CareerBuilder.com, 13, 37
Anheuser-Busch, 12 Carlson Companies, 12
appraisals, competency-based, 12 Case study
Armstrong, Lance, 9-10, 11 attorney, 128-132
attorney, case study of, 128-132 college graduate, 139-143
director of information
B technology, 136-139
human resources, 133-135
Bank of America, 12 Cingular Wireless, 13
Behavior Coca-Cola, 12
managers and, 222-223 job advertisement, 34-36
questions of, 26 college graduate, case study of,
team leaders and, 221-222 139-143
team members and, 220 Communication and Influencing
behavioral interview, 15 Cluster, 224-229
behavioral questions, 29 communication, nonverbal, 51
overview of, 62 Competence at Work, 14
behaviors, employee, 222, 223 competencies
Ben & Jerry’s, 33 dealing with others, 219-229
BHP, 12 benefits of, 14
core, 14
251


competencies (continued) D
definition of, 14
for case studies, 237-243 Dell, 34
key, 34 Deloitte, 13
Self-Management, 235-236 Dice.com, 40
standard, 42 discrimination, interviews and,
steps to finding, 37-38, 40, 46-47 49-50, 52-53
tracking your, 192 statistics of, 54
competency gaps, 105 dress code, interviews and, 86
overcoming, 193 Drucker, Peter, 61
competency levels, 44
competency-based E
appraisals, 12
behavioral questions, 62 employee behaviors, 222, 223
competency-based interview employer, needs of, 117
questions Ernst & Young, 13
responses to, 62-63 Ethics, examples of, 75-77
competency-based interviews importance of, 74
approaches of a, 115 evidence-based interview, 15-16
definition of, 15, 23 eye contact, cultures and, 87-88
nonverbal communication, 88-89 interviews and, 87
overview of, 23
styles of, 23-24 F
competency-based resume, 46 FEMA, 43
example of a, 202-207 financial analyst, interview example
step to writing, 200-202 for, 171-175
writing a, 200 follow-up questions, 16
competency-based selection
process, 12
competency-based thank-you G
notes, steps to writing, 180-181 General Electric, 12
Confucius, 155 General Motors, 12
Conn, Amy, 22 Girl Scouts USA, 12
consultant, interview, 163-170 Global-Leadership Profile, 38-39
core competencies, 14
list of, 219-236
Credo-based actions, 38, 55
H
culture, eye contact and, 87-88 HCA, 12
Customer Service, examples, 77-79 Heidrick & Struggles, 13
importance of, 74 Hitachi Consulting, 13

Index 253

Honeywell, 13 information technology, 156-163
HP, 12 legal problems and the, 52
human resources, case study of, nonverbal communication, 85-86
133-135 1-question, 28
preparation for an, 49, 63-64
I Results and Performance
Driven, 26
IBM, 12, 34 salary questions, 102-103
illegal interview questions, 245 STAR method and, 58-59
information technology, case study styles of, 23-24, 25
of, 136-139 thank-you notes and, 178
interview example for, 156-163 tips for the, 124
Ingersoll Rand, 13 interviewer
Initiative, example of, 65-67 needs of, 117
importance of, 64 questions to ask the, 152
Integrity, examples of, 75-77 questions of, 50
importance of, 74
nonverbal communication, 91-92
International Paper, 13
J
Interview questions, avoiding job advertisements, example of, 13
problems with, 81-82 job candidates, evaluation and, 15
responses to, 62-63, 80-81 job searching, Websites and, 40
Interview Johnson & Johnson, 12, 55
behavioral, 15 interview at, 25
body of the, 147
common questions, 100-101 K
competency-based, 15
conclusion of an, 151 Kaiser Permanente, 13
consultant example, 163-170 key characteristics, 15
discrimination and, 49-50, 52-53 key competencies, 34
dress code and an, 86 King, Martin Luther, 178
evidence-based, 15-16
eye contact in the, 87 L
financial analyst, 171-175
follow up and the, 181-183 legal problems, interviews and, 52
icebreaker questions, 146 levels, competency, 44
illegal questions in the, 245 Lipton Tea, 37


M resume (continued)
example of, 202-207
manager, behavior of a, 222-223 steps to writing, 200-202
Marsh & McLennan, 13 tips for writing a, 207-208
McGraw-Hill, 13 Royal Caribbean Cruises, 13
MetLife, 13
Monster.com, 13, 34, 37, 40
S
N Salary
negotiation and, 183-185
negotiate, steps to, 183-185 questions about, 102-103
Nike, 33 Sears, 13
nonverbal communication, 51 Shell Oil, 13
Southwest Airlines, 33
O St. Paul Travelers, 13
STAR method, 58-59
One Question Interview, The, 24 Starbucks, 33

P T
PDVSA, 12 Targeted Selection Interviewing, 23
Personnel Decisions, 22 team leaders, behavior of, 221-222
Preventing and Solving Problems team members, behavior of, 220
Cluster, 229-232 thank-you note, 178
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 13 steps to writing, a 180-181
style for a, 179
Q Toyota, 12
questions, asking , 152
common interview, 100-101 U
illegal, 245 U.S. Federal Reserve System, The 12
salary, 102-103 United Airlines, 33

R W
Radio Shack, 12 Wal-Mart, 13
Results and Performance Driven Websites, job searching and, 40
interview, 26 Wells Fargo, 12
resume Wilson, Woodrow, 33
competency-based, 46 Winfrey, Oprah, 9-10, 11

About the Author

Robin Kessler is president of The Interview Coach, a
human resources and career consulting firm based in
Houston; she also teaches Business and Professional
Communication and Interviewing Skills as an adjunct
professor for the University of Houston–Downtown. Robin
has more than 20 years of experience improving interviews,
resumes, presentations, and organization communication as
a human resources professional, consultant, and career
coach. She was the lead author for the book Competency-
Based Resumes: How to Bring Your Resume to the Top
of the Pile, published by Career Press in November 2004.
She has written articles on current issues in organization
communication and speaking skills for publications including
HR Magazine, Employment Relations Today, and the
Houston Chronicle; has been a guest speaker at
conferences; and has been interviewed for newspapers,
magazines, and radio and television programs. Robin
received her B.A. and M.B.A. (M.M.) from Northwestern
University. Please contact her with your comments at
intvcoach@aol.com.

255

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