Added new employability pages covering competency interviews and intr…#1722
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Added new employability pages covering competency interviews and intr…#1722jcholyhead wants to merge 1 commit intoCodeYourFuture:mainfrom
jcholyhead wants to merge 1 commit intoCodeYourFuture:mainfrom
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…oducting yourself
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nparker94
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Jan 29, 2026
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| ## A bonus tip | ||
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| But what if you can’t tailor your answer or if the question is too specific to use any of your pre-prepared answers? Here’s my secret tip…Offer an alternative question and answer that instead. To continue with the conflict resolution with a co-worker example, let’s say I’ve never quarrelled with a co-worker, or at least, I don’t have an answer ready for that, but I do have a conflict resolution scenario with a customer ready to go…ask the interviewer if you can answer _that_ question instead — and then answer it. Not only does it sidestep awkward silences, it shows adaptability, flexibility and gives you an opportunity to showcase your experience in a different way. I’ve done this in many interview situations, and nobody has ever pulled me up on it or refused to let me answer my alternative question. |
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I agree this is a good strategy but I think it's important to highlight that you should tell the interviewer you are answering a slightly different question. I know you've said that but I think it would be good to emphasise it more because I have had so many people answering different questions to the one I've asked in interviews which can often be a sign or poor listening skills.
nparker94
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Jan 29, 2026
| - Criticism of yourself — this isn't the time to tell me you suck at paperwork (true story) | ||
| - Inappropriate personal information — I don't need to know that you have a bad relationship with your family (true story) | ||
| - Badmouthing current/past employer — don't do this; no matter how eloquently you describe your past employer's faults, there's a little voice in the back of my head wondering if you were the problem (many true stories) | ||
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Another answer that puts me off that I've seen a lot here is if a candidate goes straight in for the hard sell, "I am Natalie and I'd be great for this job because of X,Y,Z". No harm in highlighting all your great skills and experience but I didn't ask "Why should we hire you".
nparker94
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Very useful content :)
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kfklein15
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I love it - I can see you when I read it all.
I just chaged the first person to third person, to stay with our curriculum standard :)
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| Competency based interviews require you to give examples from your past experience when you have demonstrated a particular skill (or competency). They often appear in the form of "Tell me about a time you..." questions. | ||
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| In this article I’m going to reveal the strategy I use to make these interviews less of a memory challenge and more of a victory lap. |
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| In this article I’m going to reveal the strategy I use to make these interviews less of a memory challenge and more of a victory lap. | |
| In this page we'll reveal the strategy used by many to make these interviews less of a memory challenge and more of a victory lap. |
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| So why do some hiring managers consider them to be less that useful? | ||
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| 1. Interview-induced amnesia. The stress and nerves of an interview can cause a candidate to completely freeze up when put on the spot (something I hope this article will prevent happening to you). I’ve seen people with years of experience in the service industry be unable to think of a single time they delivered good customer service. |
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| 1. Interview-induced amnesia. The stress and nerves of an interview can cause a candidate to completely freeze up when put on the spot (something I hope this article will prevent happening to you). I’ve seen people with years of experience in the service industry be unable to think of a single time they delivered good customer service. | |
| 1. Interview-induced amnesia. The stress and nerves of an interview can cause a candidate to completely freeze up when put on the spot (something we hope this content will prevent happening to you). People with years of experience in the service industry can freeze and be unable to think of a single time they delivered good customer service. |
| So why do some hiring managers consider them to be less that useful? | ||
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| 1. Interview-induced amnesia. The stress and nerves of an interview can cause a candidate to completely freeze up when put on the spot (something I hope this article will prevent happening to you). I’ve seen people with years of experience in the service industry be unable to think of a single time they delivered good customer service. | ||
| 2. They disproportionately disadvantage younger/less experienced candidates. These questions become easier to answer the more life and work experience you have. Some may argue that’s a good thing — that more experienced candidates are better and should be preferred. I don’t think it’s that simple, and I don’t think experienced candidates should get that kind of systematic head start in the hiring process. |
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Too much?
Suggested change
| 2. They disproportionately disadvantage younger/less experienced candidates. These questions become easier to answer the more life and work experience you have. Some may argue that’s a good thing — that more experienced candidates are better and should be preferred. I don’t think it’s that simple, and I don’t think experienced candidates should get that kind of systematic head start in the hiring process. | |
| 2. They disproportionately disadvantage younger/less experienced candidates. These questions become easier to answer the more life and work experience you have. Some may argue that’s a good thing — that more experienced candidates are better and should be preferred. At CodeYourFuture, we believe the opposite - our Software Engineers are as talented as any other professional. So we want to give you the tools to stand out. |
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| That’s an answer worthy of a gold STAR — if I do say so myself. |
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| That’s an answer worthy of a gold STAR — if I do say so myself. | |
| That’s an answer worthy of a gold STAR. |
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| ## A bonus tip | ||
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| But what if you can’t tailor your answer or if the question is too specific to use any of your pre-prepared answers? Here’s my secret tip…Offer an alternative question and answer that instead. To continue with the conflict resolution with a co-worker example, let’s say I’ve never quarrelled with a co-worker, or at least, I don’t have an answer ready for that, but I do have a conflict resolution scenario with a customer ready to go…ask the interviewer if you can answer _that_ question instead — and then answer it. Not only does it sidestep awkward silences, it shows adaptability, flexibility and gives you an opportunity to showcase your experience in a different way. I’ve done this in many interview situations, and nobody has ever pulled me up on it or refused to let me answer my alternative question. |
Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Suggested change
| But what if you can’t tailor your answer or if the question is too specific to use any of your pre-prepared answers? Here’s my secret tip…Offer an alternative question and answer that instead. To continue with the conflict resolution with a co-worker example, let’s say I’ve never quarrelled with a co-worker, or at least, I don’t have an answer ready for that, but I do have a conflict resolution scenario with a customer ready to go…ask the interviewer if you can answer _that_ question instead — and then answer it. Not only does it sidestep awkward silences, it shows adaptability, flexibility and gives you an opportunity to showcase your experience in a different way. I’ve done this in many interview situations, and nobody has ever pulled me up on it or refused to let me answer my alternative question. | |
| But what if you can’t tailor your answer or if the question is too specific to use any of your pre-prepared answers? Here’s the secret tip… Offer an alternative question and answer that instead. To continue with the conflict resolution with a co-worker example, let’s say I’ve never quarrelled with a co-worker, or at least, I don’t have an answer ready for that, but I do have a conflict resolution scenario with a customer ready to go…ask the interviewer if you can answer _that_ question instead — and then answer it. Not only does it sidestep awkward silences, it shows adaptability, flexibility and gives you an opportunity to showcase your experience in a different way. You are still giving an example of the competency they are evaluating.. |
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| - Criticism of yourself — this isn't the time to tell me you suck at paperwork (true story) | ||
| - Inappropriate personal information — I don't need to know that you have a bad relationship with your family (true story) | ||
| - Badmouthing current/past employer — don't do this; no matter how eloquently you describe your past employer's faults, there's a little voice in the back of my head wondering if you were the problem (many true stories) |
Contributor
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Suggested change
| - Badmouthing current/past employer — don't do this; no matter how eloquently you describe your past employer's faults, there's a little voice in the back of my head wondering if you were the problem (many true stories) | |
| - Badmouthing current/past employer — don't do this; no matter how eloquently you describe your past employer's faults, there's a little voice in the back of the interviewer wondering if you were the problem (many true stories) |
| - Criticism of yourself — this isn't the time to tell me you suck at paperwork (true story) | ||
| - Inappropriate personal information — I don't need to know that you have a bad relationship with your family (true story) | ||
| - Badmouthing current/past employer — don't do this; no matter how eloquently you describe your past employer's faults, there's a little voice in the back of my head wondering if you were the problem (many true stories) | ||
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| ## Examples | ||
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| So that's all theory — what might this answer look like in practice? Below I've drafted a few brief (but not too brief) answers to this question that I might have asked at various points in my career. |
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| So that's all theory — what might this answer look like in practice? Below I've drafted a few brief (but not too brief) answers to this question that I might have asked at various points in my career. | |
| So that's all theory — what might this answer look like in practice? Below are a few brief (but not too brief) answers to this question that this volunteer might have asked at various points in my career. |
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| --- | ||
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| I hope this has been useful. It might seem like a lot of effort for what is, after all, just one of many questions you will be facing in your interview. But remember: **you only get one shot at a first impression. Make it a good one.** |
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| I hope this has been useful. It might seem like a lot of effort for what is, after all, just one of many questions you will be facing in your interview. But remember: **you only get one shot at a first impression. Make it a good one.** | |
| It might seem like a lot of effort for what is, after all, just one of many questions you will be facing in your interview. But remember: **you only get one shot at a first impression. Make it a good one.** |
| 5. Time management: _“Tell me about a time you had to organise your time effectively”_ | ||
| 6. Learning/Development: _“Tell me about a time you had to learn something new to complete a task/objective”_ | ||
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| There’s many more, but those are the ones that come up all the time in my experience. So your job is to have 2–3 prepared answers to these 6 underlying questions. Why 2–3? Because sometimes interviewers ask two questions from the same category and you don’t want to repeat yourself. |
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| There’s many more, but those are the ones that come up all the time in my experience. So your job is to have 2–3 prepared answers to these 6 underlying questions. Why 2–3? Because sometimes interviewers ask two questions from the same category and you don’t want to repeat yourself. | |
| There’s many more, but those are the ones that come up all the time. So your job is to have 2–3 prepared answers to these 6 underlying questions. Why 2–3? Because sometimes interviewers ask two questions from the same category and you don’t want to repeat yourself. |
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This generally looks great, thank you so much!
A couple of thoughts:
- In the introducing yourself section (and indeed in your example intros at the bottom), I'd probably also mention that people should come across as interested in the particular company/role? Even "Early career James" reads to me a little generic "I'm interviewing at 20 companies and don't remember which one this one is". A little "And I've heard how well YourCorp supports juniors" or "I love that YourCorp builds an app I use every day, and how the app never breaks" or something goes a long way.
- We have an "introducing yourself in interviews" workshop in class and also some prep we expect people to do beforehand. It feels like we should do a little consolidation here? Maybe that prep piece can just become "Read this guide"? (And maybe we should fold a couple of pieces from the prep into this guide too)? The prep (https://github.com/CodeYourFuture/curriculum/blob/main/common-content/en/module/induction/interview-introductions/index.md?plain=1) if there are any edits you're interested in making :)
I've also given you write permissions to this repo - in the future if you push a branch directly to it, you will get deploy previews automatically :)
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What does this change?
Adds a new guide on introducing yourself in job interviews and competency based interviews
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@kfklein15 @nparker94