Just wondering if anybody would like to share their experience of structured competency interview, especially with regard to the timing.
The Ultimate EU Test Book mentions that if you have 5 competencies tested, you may expect 25 questions in 50 minutes. Theoretically it's 2 minutes per question, but let's face it, by the time you deduct the time for introduction, asking a question, or even 5 seconds between questions, you will end up having max 1min30 seconds per question which is rather short and definitely a challenge to carry your point across.
Would anydbody mind sharing their experience? Is it really that little time we got? Would the assessor interrupt if we speak too long?
Thanks, and good luck to us all!
Hi!
Hi!
I just had my CBI yesterday (AD5 generalists). The interview was divided into:
- CBI (30 minutes)
- Motivational Interview (20 minutes).
For my competition, it was specified in the notice for competition that 3 competencies would be checked at CBI, so I advise you to double check this.
When I entered the room, I had 4 minutes to present myself and explain how I would contribute to the EU (questions from the application form). I was left with 26 min for interview. I was asked about 15 questions so, indeed as you said, you have around 1,5 min per question. On your question - yes, they can interrupt you a lot if you are too vague and not going straight to the point. It can even get a bit nasty. So I advise you to have your examples in mind and be concise. On the good side, I used the EU Ultimate Test Book to prepare for this part and to found examples for all the sample questions provided in the chapter for CBI. It was a great preparation. I had no unexpected questions in the CBI so you can really rely on the sample questions provided in the book.
Good luck!
Thank you so much for your
Thank you so much for your detailed reply, It was posted after my interview, so sadly it wasn't helpful in my preparation.
However, I 100% agree with what you wrote. I had the same impression from my interview, although for some competencies I think I had less questions, and some of them were quite bizarre (mostly in resilience).
Thank you again for taking your time to share your comments, good luck to you too!
Best of luck to you too :D
Best of luck to you too :D