"competencies" based interviews- stupid or what? A

[ABCwarrior]

This is something really bizarre to me, a leeching in of Human Resource based psycho-babble to the the building trade....I'm considering jacking in my current job and going back to being a stonemason- but the application form is a minefield!!
It's full of stupid questions on "delivering excellent service" , "teamwork", "communications" etc and wants a Situation/Task/Action/Result format of answers or you won't get an interview!
It is of course a stupid format designed for doughnut office workers. In the trade if you don't deliver excellent service you'd be sacked, you'd be a f*cking danger to everyone if you can't communicate, and working as part of a team, planning etc are all par for most trades....
How stupid it is is that 2 months ago I reapplied for my old job- the one I'd done for 9yrs perfectly. I filled in a the application and this daft pen pushing bint at HR decided I didn't meet the competencies so I never got an interview, you really couldn't make it up, my old boss was well p*ssed as he wanted me back in the squad. I've seen 3 different posts at different depots keep getting punted back out because nobody can pass these stupid competencies. This one is at a closer depot than my old one hence the reason I may go for it again.
I'm thinking on just making some up as they don't strictly have to be job related. Like the time I was working on the space shuttle/saved Reagan from Hinckley/rescued the hostages from the Iranian Embassy etc....what an utter crock....How could they prove it was bullsheet anyway?
Anyone any ideas?????!!!!!

 

[conny]

They ask bulls&it questions give them bulls&it answers.
If you fail to get an interview ask what areas you failed on and then ask them to clarify the type of response they expected. If their answers seem like bull to you put in a formal complaint and ask to see the qualifications of the person who set the questions. To my mind, if they are not time served in a trade they can't set relevant questions. We repair industrial electric motors. Our last manager was a time served turner. He practically ran our branch into the ground before he was replaced by a tradesman manager. In the first two months of his tenure he has put us back in the black.

 

[chapeau]

It's the way it is now in a lot of places. Huge numbers of us would not get into the same line of work we started decades ago.

And if you want the job you have to play the game. These competency based questions aren't actually that hard when you work out what they are trying to get out of you. So if you want the job then find that out.

Everybody else who is going for the job thinks the same as you do and have to go through the same format. They don't like it either. Even some of the guys doing the interview don't like them but that's what they are told to do.

All it involves is thinking of a situation in the past which is relevant to the question. Tell them what the problem was, what your role was, how you helped solve the problem, and what the end result was.

Simple stuff.

And this applies equally to building sites as offices. Like what happened when the bricks arrived and they were missing a special brickl. Tell them you were the brickie, you realised something was missing, you immediately went to check, didn't find it, told your boss. You said you could do something else while he sorted it out. The missing brick arrived later that day and you spent 5 minutes at the end of the day laying it. End result happy customer and your input was vital to getting that done.

That's what they want to hear.

All good old fashioned BS but you need to play the game.

And if you came to me for a job and started getting arsey and asking questions about my qualifications you would 100% be back at the dole office on Monday morning with the rest of the people with bad attitudes making them unemployable.

 

[luke_vibert_uk]

In addition to the above...

Remember STAR for every response you give...

Situation - what the situation was you were presented with
Task - What it was you did
Action - How you did it
Result - What happened good or bad and how it effected you (your work)

Competency based interviews are based on a set of competencies (funny that!) that the interviewers will be using and are usually (should be) avaliable from propestive employer websites or included within Interview packs.

They give you the answers to the questions the interviewers will be asking.

Apply the above principle and its in the bag.

 

[EddieM]

In addition to the above...

Remember STAR for every response you give...

Situation - what the situation was you were presented with
Task - What it was you did
Action - How you did it
Result - What happened good or bad and how it effected you (your work)

Competency based interviews are based on a set of competencies (funny that!) that the interviewers will be using and are usually (should be) avaliable from propestive employer websites or included within Interview packs.


They give you the answers to the questions the interviewers will be asking.

Apply the above principle and its in the bag.

LOL that sounds like accidenture base bullsh*t !! I've done loads of them, just post the questions, and I'll make up the answers for you

 

[ABCwarrior]

Thanks for those replies folks, very useful. They're asking 200 words per competency(max), will just have to start making things up. I've a friend who's a fairly high up manager with one of the councils up here, she says they're easy and is coming over on Saturday to help sort them out. I just found out one of the stores persons elsewhere, who's current employment was actually as a subcontracted job not with the "official" company, went for the job when it came up as a full time post with the "official" company- he had help from one of the senior managers to fill the application in...and didn't meet the competencies!!!
I can see the value in whittling down numbers for graduate based jobs, but when you have skills, qualifications and experience, plus a proven track record which is good and you know all the people involved, to be refused an interview in this basis is just insane....
I mean- "delivering excellent service" for example? Situation- I was working at XXXXX castle, on a chimney head replacement and indenting program, the Task was to cut a difficult indent to match the existing profile of the adjacent stone, and time was running short as sourcing suitable stone to use had been problematic, and the scaffolders were due in at the end of that week to start taking down the hired scaffold. What Action did I take?I volunteered to stay late and lone work for the next two evenings to ensure the stone was cut and ready to be put in place. The Result was that the job finished on schedule and this saved the company any excess charges for additional hire of the scaffolding....

How's that? (It's a true story actually....)

 

[chapeau]

That's exactly what they want to hear.

It shows you can communicate, use common sense, work as part of a team, are flexible, know what you are doing, have the customer at the centre of what you do.

If you put that down you would be well ahead of most others, I bet. Make sure it's true as some places will take you through your answers....

 

[luke_vibert_uk]

LOL that sounds like accidenture base bullsh*t !! I've done loads of them, just post the questions, and I'll make up the answers for you

It sounds like an easy way to remember what to say when put under pressure in an interview...

Got a better idea?

 

[JBR]

They ask bulls&it questions give them bulls&it answers.
If you fail to get an interview ask what areas you failed on and then ask them to clarify the type of response they expected. If their answers seem like bull to you put in a formal complaint and ask to see the qualifications of the person who set the questions. To my mind, if they are not time served in a trade they can't set relevant questions. We repair industrial electric motors. Our last manager was a time served turner. He practically ran our branch into the ground before he was replaced by a tradesman manager. In the first two months of his tenure he has put us back in the black.

Well said, Conny. This country's built on bullshit. It's like I had to do before I retired - just tick the appropriate boxes and keep the pen-pushers happy. Practicality doesn't come into it.

Yes, follow Conny's suggested procedure. It would be interesting to see just who these 'experts' are.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

What Action did I take?I volunteered to stay late and lone work for the next two evenings to ensure the stone was cut and ready to be put in place. The Result was that the job finished on schedule and this saved the company any excess charges for additional hire of the scaffolding....

How's that?

Baaaad! Working alone and at height? Deffo a yellow card at least on H&S grounds........

 

[ABCwarrior]

Not at height! Safely back in our depot on ground level, no power tools involved all hand hewn...!
Only problem with that example is that one of the reasons there was a problem with the stone in the first place was our manager measured it up and recorded the sizes wrong....nobody beyond his grade knows this, and after some searching about our yard we were exceptionally lucky to get a bit that would just take the template!!! If I put this down as an example they might start asking questions!
May have to use another example but kinda getting what they're looking for now.
They're looking for advanced craft C&G masons too, not exactly ten a penny like brickies(no offence), so putting anyone through the mill with these kind of stage one application processes is really taking the p*ss!!!!

 

[Harbourwoodwork]

I remember phoning up for a job as a chippie on a new build site in swiss cottage I got the site agent an irish guy with a whiskey voice and he say's are ye tastie and of course answer in the affirmative and get the start for the next morning and if you couldn't cut it you'd be down the road before lunch time and that 's fair enough for me but I see that things have moved on, have you thought of working for youself and have a bit more dignity

 

[hansthebear]

Competancy based interviews are designed to check to make sure you are not making stuff up just to sound good, a decent interviewer will pick up on what you say and ask probing questions on topic.

As long as you use the star format when answering then you are automatically giving an example thus proving you are not talking ****e, as its very easy to spot someone lying when answering in that format.

Be honest, give an example for everything and if there was a negative outcome explain what you learned from it.

Easy