Competence based interviewing skills: Target Indicators

Case 1: The Talkative Interviewee

You are interviewing Ritesh for the position of an ASM. He has spent 8 years in the industry and comes from one of your most fierce competitors. He appears to have all the knowledge that is needed to perform this job successfully at Canon. While you are interviewing him, he is giving you very less time to talk and is going on and on about his achievements, often giving irrelevant details.

• What type of behavior will you demonstrate?
• What type of questions will you ask?

Case 2: The Reticent Interviewee

You are interviewing Ajay for the position of ASM. He seems to be a complete fit when you look at his CV. He has all the relevant experience and seems to be a ‘go getter’- that is JUST what you need for this job.
While Interviewing him he is giving you very brief and objective answers, he is answering mostly in Yes/ No and is comfortable with phases of silence in between the conversations

Case 3: The Deflective Interviewee

You are interviewing Ram for the position of Accounts Manager. He fits the technical aspects of the job very well. While Interviewing he appears to be a very confident person, however he is avoiding to answer questions about his past:
The conversation is like this:

You- “So tell me about a situation in your past where you had to make a difficult decision”
Ram- I am a hard working person, I get things done every time, no matter what the scenario is I am able to handle the situation”
You- “ So what was the scenario when you handled such a situation”
Ram- “These situation occur everyday, I don’t keep a count of them”

Derailer- 1

In your table groups, go through the next slide, in the role of an interviewer

• Discuss in your groups and highlight the irrelevant points detailed by the interviewee, and where the interviewer could intervene to bring the discussion back on track
• Share what points could have been described better with an example

Candidate’s profile:

Name: Ashish Pradhan

Age: 38 years

Qualification: B. Tech- IIT Kanpur

Years of Experience: 12 years

Interviewer

“Describe a scenario where owing to the dynamic changes in the environment you had to change the initial course of your action. How did you translate and manage the impact of these changes on your team? How did it impact your work scenario? What was the final outcome?”

Interviewee:

“14 years back as a part of the student affairs committee, our team was suppose to organize the flagship event of the fest within a limited budget. Knowing that the budgets were limited, we planned all the logistics accordingly. However, at the last moment, the sponsorship team of the fest highlighted that they were unable to arrange for the required resources that they had promised at the meeting. We were told to manage this extra cost within the allocated budgets.

 Since further cut down in the budgets would have impacted the quality, our team decided to look for sponsorship themselves. This impacted the overall planning of the program as lot of time was spent on cold calling and market visits, which otherwise could have been utilized for practicing further.

 However, at the end, the team managed to get the sponsorship and the event went off well.”

Preparing for an Interview: Checklist to keep in mind for Job Requirements

Job Duties:

Experience:

Behavior Specifications (factors favorable for success):

What aptitude is required for the job- Numerical, Language, Technical

Mental Ingenuity, Judgement, Interpretation, Selection and Analysis

Critical Personality Traits

Training available and duration

Degree of Supervision/Independence

Degree of connect with others- External/Internal

Responsibility of others

Working Conditions

Interview Checklist

• Emotional maturity: the ability to behave as an adult, to take the bitter with the sweet, to face up to failure without rationalizing or passing the buck, to acquire self-insight, to establish reasonable vocational goals and to exercise self-control.
• Assertiveness: aggressiveness in social situations; impact of one’s personality upon other people-not to be confused with drive to get a job done.
• Tough-mindedness: willingness to make difficult decisions involving people for the good of the organization, to stand up for what one thinks is right and not to shrink from confrontations with others when necessary.
• Social sensitivity: awareness of the reactions of others; judgment in social situations.
• Conscientiousness: willingness to put in additional time and effort on a given task in order to complete it in accordance with one’s personal standards.
• Self-discipline: ability to carry out the less pleasant tasks without undue procrastination.
• Emotional maturity: the ability to behave as an adult, to take the bitter with the sweet, to face up to failure without rationalizing or passing the buck, to acquire self-insight, to establish reasonable vocational goals and to exercise self-control.
• Assertiveness: aggressiveness in social situations; impact of one’s personality upon other people-not to be confused with drive to get a job done.
• Tough-mindedness: willingness to make difficult decisions involving people for the good of the organization, to stand up for what one thinks is right and not to shrink from confrontations with others when necessary.
• Social sensitivity: awareness of the reactions of others; judgment in social situations.

• Conscientiousness: willingness to put in additional time and effort on a given task in order to complete it in accordance with one’s personal standards.
• Self-discipline: ability to carry out the less pleasant tasks without undue procrastination.
• Initiative: self-starter; willingness to try new methods, provide one’s own motivation without undue prompting from superiors.
• Analytical capacity: ability to break down a given problem into its component parts in a logical, systematic manner.
• Ability to plan and organize: ability to lay out a given task in logical sequence, approaching first things first in a systematic manner, planning future steps in such a way as to accomplish the whole task efficiently and thoroughly.
• Critical thinking: ability to dig down deeply in order to get to the bottom of problems, to probe beneath the surface in order to test the findings in terms of one’s own experience, hence, not to take things at face value.
• Self-confidence: willingness to take action based upon a realistic assessment of one’s own abilities.
• Emotional adjustment: ability to stand up under pressure, to take a reasonably cheerful outlook on life, to be at peace with oneself.
• Team worker: willingness to do one’s share of the work, ability to get one’s along with other members of the team, willingness to subordinate one’s ego to the extent that one does not try to become the “star” of the team or to claim too much credit for the joint accomplishment.
• self-starter; willingness to try new methods, provide one’s own motivation without undue prompting from superiors.
• Analytical capacity: ability to break down a given problem into its component parts in a logical, systematic manner.
• Ability to plan and organize: ability to lay out a given task in logical sequence, approaching first things first in a systematic manner, planning future steps in such a way as to accomplish the whole task efficiently and thoroughly.
• Critical thinking: ability to dig down deeply in order to get to the bottom of problems, to probe beneath the surface in order to test the findings in terms of one’s own experience, hence, not to take things at face value.
• Self-confidence: willingness to take action based upon a realistic assessment of one’s own abilities.
• Emotional adjustment: ability to stand up under pressure, to take a reasonably cheerful outlook on life, to be at peace with oneself.
• Team worker: willingness to do one’s share of the work, ability to get one’s along with other members of the team, willingness to subordinate one’s ego to the extent that one does not try to become the “star” of the team or to claim too much credit for the joint accomplishment.

Sample Summary

Inderpreet seems to have been able to make most out of whatever opportunities he has got so far in life. Without much early financial, educational or cultural advantages, he has managed to attain a very good record of achievement in both his previous organizations.

He has done this primarily as a result of his tremendous energy, his willingness to work hard and analytical ability. He seems to show a Quality mindset.

He seems to have a natural leadership ability as a result of his personality, self -confidence and tough mindedness.

He seems to have a knack for crisis- management and seems to be technically sound and has held progressive roles during the tenures with his previous organization.

While he shows limited strategic orientation, he is able to understand and execute strategy. He may need the right coaching and guidance to build his strategic capabilities. He may tend to be a little pushy and needs to develop some tactfulness.

Overall his assets outweigh his opportunity areas and he seems to be a good candidate for the for first level supervision role. He should be able to progress to mid- management level but will have to put in tremendous effort and develop intellectually to go beyond that point.

Factors to consider for Screening Interview

• Thumb Rules: Proficiency Continuum
• Displays limited number of behaviors on the Competency versus progressively increasing behaviors.
• Displays behaviors with limited frequency listed under the Competency and variation in consistency vs. higher frequency and consistency
• Continuum of mostly reactive responses to proactive management of situations
• Manages to complete tasks in this competency as required with some supervision to high level of independence in handing tasks.
• Lower level of difficulty and complexity to higher level of difficulty and complexity in displaying the competency
• Focus limited to immediate issues and tasks at hand vs. focus on broader issues