Let’s talk about the competency-based interview and why it is important to approach every interview prepared to share your competencies. Not long ago, one of our recruiters presented two experienced CRAs to two of our clients, each for a role at a different company. Both candidates were very well qualified, and both were invited to interview. But when the interview feedback came back from our clients, the two companies said nearly the same thing: when the interviewer asked about the candidate’s therapeutic experience, the answers were too general to show what the candidate had actually done.

Neither candidate moved forward.

It isn’t about your years of experience

Feedback like this is the reason our team encourages senior-level professionals to treat every interview as a competency-based interview…regardless of whether it is called one. A competency-based interview focuses on how a candidate handled real situations on the job, and the interviewer listens closely to the details in every answer. Our recruiter believes both companies moved forward with candidates who had fewer years of experience but who answered every question with specific, detailed examples. At the senior level, that kind of detailed answer often counts for more than long tenure or a longer resume.

However, that outcome surprises many experienced professionals. A person with ten, fifteen, or twenty years of experience can hear that a company chose “a more senior candidate.” And that feedback can be very hard to make sense of. Many of these professionals ask our team the same thing: how can another candidate be considered more senior when I have more years of experience?

This episode answers that question.

In this roundtable, our recruiting team talks through what hiring managers listen for when they decide whether someone is senior-level. We share behavioral interview examples that fall short, and what a complete answer includes. We also talk about how professionals changing careers can keep their seniority in a new field. And we dig into interview red flags that make an experienced professional sound junior. Every example comes from the candidates our team interviews each week and the feedback our clients share with us after their own interviews.

Listen to Secrets of a CRA Recruiter on Your Favorite Channel! 

To Your Success,
Angela Roberts, Managing Partner of craresources