In this guide
Interviews and salary conversations
How competency-based interviews work and how to prepare
How employers turn competencies or behaviours into questions and scores, and how to build an evidence map so every competency has a strong example ready.
Where the competencies come from
Most employers list them somewhere: a person specification, essential criteria, a values statement or a published framework. Some publish frameworks in detail. The UK Civil Service, for example, describes behaviours such as making effective decisions or working together, tailored to the grade of the job, and tells candidates which ones a vacancy will assess.
If nothing is published, the responsibilities in the job description are your list. Each one implies a competency: “manage supplier relationships” implies negotiation, communication and handling problems.
How answers are scored
Interviewers usually have indicators of a strong answer and a weak one for each competency. Strong answers tend to show a specific situation, the candidate's own actions rather than the team's, sound reasoning and a result. Weak answers stay general (“I always try to…”), describe what the team did, or end without an outcome.
| Moves the score up | Moves the score down |
|---|---|
| One specific occasion with a date range | Describing what you usually do |
| “I decided”, “I spoke to”, “I changed” | “We” throughout, with your part unclear |
| Why you chose that action | Actions with no reasoning |
| A result, a lesson or what changed afterwards | Stopping when the story stops |
| Pitched at the level of the role | An example far below the responsibility of the job |
Build an evidence map
Before you practise any wording, map examples to competencies in a grid. Aim for one strong example per competency and a backup for the most important ones. One rich example can cover two competencies, but avoid relying on the same story for every answer.
Illustrative example
Evidence map for a customer services team leader role
- Leading people: coached a new starter through a difficult complaint queue over six weeks.
- Making decisions: chose to pause a callback campaign when an IT fault doubled call volume.
- Communicating: rewrote the standard refund email after repeated follow-up calls.
- Delivering at pace: cleared a two-week backlog during a staff shortage by re-ordering the queue.
- Backup for leading people: covered the manager's weekly one-to-ones during a leave period.
Pitching examples at the right level
Frameworks often describe the same competency differently at each grade. For a first-line role, handling a difficult conversation well may be enough; for a manager role, the interviewer will expect you to have set direction or changed how others work. If you are stepping up, choose examples where you already did part of the bigger job, even informally.
Practising without memorising
Learn the outline of each example, not a script: the situation in one line, your two or three key actions, and the result. Say each one aloud against a timer of about two minutes, then ask someone to ask a follow-up such as “What would you do differently?”
Common questions
Can I use the same example for two questions?
Occasionally, if it genuinely shows both competencies and you stress a different part each time. Using one story for most questions suggests a narrow range of experience.
What if I have no work example for a competency?
Use education, volunteering, caring or community examples, and be clear about the setting. The behaviour matters more than where it happened.
Sources
- Success Profiles: candidate overviewGOV.UK (Civil Service) · UK · checked 3 October 2026
Put it into practice
Prepare with interview practiceDrafted with AI assistance and checked against Luceria’s editorial standards. Examples are illustrative, not real people’s results. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.