Got an interview tomorrow

**MPwannadecentincome** · 22 January 2009, 17:28

Originally posted by suityou01 View Post

Agency is on the PSL for this company, and has a strict SLA which meant I had to go to London for a face to face with the agent first, then sit a raft of online technical tests - which I passed with merit of course, and tomorrow I have a 3 hour drive to the interview in Cheshire.

Been racking my brains on how to prepare for this interview. I am told they will be asking "competency based questions", and the interview will last no more than 45 minutes.

I have been through hoops for this, and I know I am fortunate to even have an interview, but really am finding the prospect quite daunting. I have been benched for quite a while, and am keen to get back out there, and am putting pressure on myself to do well.

I am letting the "what ifs" creep into my brain. I don't want that to creep into my interview.

How can you demonstrate competency in 45 minute interview? Why so short? What are "competency based questions"? Are all companies making us have first and second interviews with entrance exams?

Melting my brain. What's wrong with a good old fashioned grilling by the development manager and his senior developer.

Do you have a job spec? Does it have competencies listed? All they will do is ask questions which will illustrate to them that you are 'competent' in the categories they are looking for, e.g. teamwork, responsibility - see http://www.wikijob.co.uk/wiki/compet...ased-questions for more info - you can find more by googling 'competency based interview'.

Good Luck - let us know how you get on!

**PM-Junkie** · 22 January 2009, 17:36

Seems to me that this has been the best week for CUK'ers getting off the bench for quite a few weeks - maybe a couple of months.

Interesting...

Oh, and good luck. Knock 'em dead!

**BrowneIssue** · 22 January 2009, 17:38

It is perfectly reasonable to phone the client and ask them what form the tests will take and what sort of things you will be tested on.

**suityou01** · 22 January 2009, 18:13

Originally posted by MPwannadecentincome View Post

Do you have a job spec? Does it have competencies listed? All they will do is ask questions which will illustrate to them that you are 'competent' in the categories they are looking for, e.g. teamwork, responsibility - see http://www.wikijob.co.uk/wiki/compet...ased-questions for more info - you can find more by googling 'competency based interview'.

Good Luck - let us know how you get on!

Annoying there is no job spec. The email from the agency states

The interview will be with XXX who is the Business Systems Lead. It will just be the one stage and should last about 45 minutes. The interview is likely to consist of competency based questions and questions about your experience etc, and possibly some technical questions. It will also be a good opportunity for you to find out more about the projects this role focuses on and the team there at YYY.

From my experience working with XXX in the past, he is really just looking for someone confident, enthusiastic and driven, as character is one of the most important aspects he looks for in interviews!

So I have researched this on google and the link you provided and am getting an idea of the sorts of things I will be asked. I am a little concerned as my research tells me that this interview technique is for permies, and for grads who have little or no industry experience.

As such I have inferred that all "Permy" type competencies will not be asked, and rather the more character related stuff like, when was the last time you were under pressure, how did you handle that?

It has come as a bit of a shock as I thought I had left all this behind when I became a 'tractor. Anyone else had a competency based interview for a contract role? What kind of thing were you up against?

**BlasterBates** · 22 January 2009, 18:22

Originally posted by suityou01 View Post

Agency is on the PSL for this company, and has a strict SLA which meant I had to go to London for a face to face with the agent first, then sit a raft of online technical tests - which I passed with merit of course, and tomorrow I have a 3 hour drive to the interview in Cheshire.

Been racking my brains on how to prepare for this interview. I am told they will be asking "competency based questions", and the interview will last no more than 45 minutes.

I have been through hoops for this, and I know I am fortunate to even have an interview, but really am finding the prospect quite daunting. I have been benched for quite a while, and am keen to get back out there, and am putting pressure on myself to do well.

I am letting the "what ifs" creep into my brain. I don't want that to creep into my interview.

How can you demonstrate competency in 45 minute interview? Why so short? What are "competency based questions"? Are all companies making us have first and second interviews with entrance exams?

Melting my brain. What's wrong with a good old fashioned grilling by the development manager and his senior developer.

Contractor interviews are usually just string of technical questions about whatever it is your applying for. If you passed a technical test already, I would have thought it would be no problem.

**suityou01** · 22 January 2009, 22:22

Originally posted by PM-Junkie View Post

Seems to me that this has been the best week for CUK'ers getting off the bench for quite a few weeks - maybe a couple of months.

Interesting...

Oh, and good luck. Knock 'em dead!

Thanks. Yes I think things will look up. As a wise forum member stated the other day, there are far more companies using IT than in the last recession. There is only so long industry can dwindle their resources down, then they will need to make things happen in 09, and that means IT. I do hope this week is the start of an improvement.

**Liability** · 22 January 2009, 23:35

I can tell you now the questions will be

"describe to me when you have...."

It will be around how you have dealt with things in the past, how you can demonstrate your tranferable skills, and basically putting you in a position where you have to reel out examples of the said key words in their questions.

HR may be in on the interview and they will be ticking or crossing the check boxes.

Good luck!

**suityou01** · 23 January 2009, 19:35

Well the interview was after all an informal chat with not much structure, however I did try to bring real world examples of what I had done in that past and this went down well.

I got offered this afternoon and have accepted, contract to follow in the post. I am new to this forum, and didn't know whether to post that I got the job or not, but I figured from other posts that this indicates that if I got off the bench then other contractors see that things are picking up. I have been benched for a fair while, and am quite relieved.

I agreed a rate of X with the agency in principal before the interview, and then when I rang him after the interview to give feedback he mentioned the rate, and I said we should finalise details IF I got offered. He agreed and that was that.

When he rang this afternoon with the offer, soon after the congratulatory comments had died down, he pitched straight in with the aforementioned rate, which I ok'd.

He said he would email through the details, and he has, but the rate in his email is X+£7 /hr more. Clearly a mistake, and as one other contractor got hired today to do the same job my guess is he is on £7 more an hour than me. That's business I guess.

I replied to his email saying this was more than we discussed, but was happy to accept the new higher rate.

This is rather an interesting situation about to play out on Monday. Has anyone else had this?

Also, one of my other contractor friends who has also been benched since November also found her way back in this week, so I really think the trend is things are picking up, despite what the BBC say.

**bogeyman** · 23 January 2009, 19:37

Good luck.

Let us know how you got on.

Got an interview tomorrow