You will probably have been told what to expect. Forms of assessment include:
It’s likely that most of the questions you’ll be asked will be ‘competency-based’, linked to the criteria on the Person Specification.
They will ask about previous experience (‘Tell us about a time when…’, ‘Give us an example of…’) or describe a hypothetical (‘In this situation, what would you do?’).
You can use the STAR technique to construct effective answers which will give the interview panel all the information they need.
S
Situation
What situation or event were you involved in? What is the context of the story you are about to tell?
T
Task
What was your job within that situation? Were there any barriers – deadlines, technical problems, costs?
A
Action
What did you do, and how? How did your activities demonstrate the competency the interview is asking about?
R
Result
What was the outcome of what you did? How do you know? Can it be quantified in any way? Any lessons learned?
Question: Have you had experience of working with a team to resolve a problem?
Questions about problem-solving, and working with others, are very common. Using ‘we’ in situations like this is easy to do, but remember – the interview panel needs to know how you contributed in this situation. Only use ‘we’ if you’re really talking about everyone in the team.
Here’s an example of an answer to this question, using STAR. Notice that the ‘Action’ part is longest – this is where you’re explaining how you displayed the competencies being asked about.
I was working with my team to deliver an event when our caterer pulled out at short notice.
I was responsible for sourcing a replacement.
I asked around other members of my team, and asked them to use their own networks, to identify potential replacements. I then contacted some by phone to explain the situation, and two colleagues volunteered to contact the others. Three were able to work at short notice. We came together to compare notes around cost, quality and customer feedback, and on that basis I contacted the caterer we chose
The event was a success. The catering cost slightly more than we had budgeted for, but a lot of our feedback reflected that the quality of food and drinks was much higher than expected.
There is some more information on the STAR model in this LinkedIn Learning resource.