How to structure answers to competency questions

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The importance of context

When discussing your competencies, it’s important that you back up your statements. In other words, explain how you developed these skills you claim to possess, and always consider whether your examples really demonstrate the skills you are discussing.

It’s also key that you give proper context about each experience, and this is something that people often forget. Don’t assume the reader or interviewer will have any background knowledge about you, the organisations you have contributed to, and the nature of the roles you highlight. So with this in mind, I’ll talk through a structure that I find to be particular effective when discussing competencies.

Using your structure to make your answers personal and credible

If you’re working on a “why you” type question, or the why you section of a cover letter, you could start with an introductory sentence, for example “I believe I have developed a foundation of the key skills required of commercial lawyers…”. You could then back this statement up by talking through a number of your experiences, including what you did and the skills you developed from each. And this applies equally when discussing a specific competency that you’re asked about.

1. As mentioned, start by giving context about the organisation and your position

Was the organisation international, regional, high street, or university-based? If it’s a professional services firm, is it full-service or boutique? Does it have a particular specialism? Is it highly regarded (this can be a particularly important point to make if you’ve worked abroad, as graduate recruiters might not have heard of it)? Were you employed, freelancing or volunteering? Part-time or full-time? Were you selected for the role through a competitive process? Elected? Invited to participate? For example, you might say:

“Whilst employed full-time as a paralegal at Organisation Z, a regional full-service law firm, I…"

or

“As the elected president of X Society, which aims to enhance access to the legal profession, I…”

2. Next, explain what your role or contribution involved.

Use “I” rather than “we” where possible, as they want to know about you specifically. For example:

"I… was responsible for drafting transaction documents such as powers of attorney and board minutes, as well as project managing due diligence processes, signings and completions".

or

“I…was responsible for recruiting and managing a committee of 10, growing the society’s member base, sourcing speakers for events, and creating resources to facilitate members’ professional development”.

3. Finally, highlight the skills that your contributions enabled you to develop or demonstrate.

For example: "this honed my attention to detail, developed my project management skills, refined my communication skills, demonstrated my ability to work effectively in a team whilst under pressure, or required an ability to interact professionally with clients."

At this stage, in the context of a “why you” type question, you could then elaborate further on your first experience, by drawing out other aspects of the role (and the corresponding skills you developed or demonstrated), or you could move onto the next experience.

How to determine which skills to focus on

When deciding which skills to draw out for “why you” type questions, perhaps check the firm’s website to see which key skills they highlight, then try to cover these off. If instead you’re asked about one specific competency, then focus on skills relating to that competency.

For example. if asked specifically about team working skills, perhaps focus on directly related skills such as your ability to effectively: communicate, delegate, adapt, interact positively with team members, motivate others, and build relationships, as opposed to less relevant attributes such as attention to detail and legal acumen.

More broadly, when progressing through this answer structure, it’s important to make sure that the aspects of your role that you choose to highlight actually evidence the skills you decide to mention. If the two elements of your answer don’t align, then the recruiter might not be convinced that you’ve actually developed the skills you’ve identified.

For example, if you mention that you’ve drafted legal documents, it’s pretty clear that this would have required some level of legal acumen and attention to detail. However, if you link this aspect of your role to a skill such as teamworking, the link is not quite so obvious. And your answer might therefore fail to convince a recruiter that you can work effectively in a team.

If, conversely, you’re asked to demonstrate your ability to work in a team, then consider which skills are required to enable you to do so (I like to refer to these as the mechanics of teamwork). And then make sure you highlight aspects of your role that demonstrate this.

For example:

• Communication is key to effective teamwork, so perhaps discuss any examples where you established clear and regular channels of communication, kept track of progress, and encouraged team members to share ideas and exchange opinions.
• To bring the examples to life, you could go into specifics, for example by mentioning that you set up a Slack channel, Facebook or WhatsApp group, recurring Zoom meetings, and so on, to facilitate regular communication.
• Delegation is another key aspect of teamworking. To demonstrate that you’ve acquired and practised this skill, perhaps highlight instances where you’ve encouraged team members to discuss their skills and experiences, then allocated tasks that play to each person’s strengths.
• Adaptability is also important, especially when working with people who have different working styles, preferences and attitudes. Demonstrating that you’ve successfully navigated such differences in the past can evidence your ability to work well with others.
• Effective teamwork can also depend on the motivation (and confidence) of each team member. So think about whether you’ve actively motivated others in a group scenario, for example by encouraging others to contribute and take ownership over their work, staying upbeat to maintain a positive atmosphere, and doing whatever it takes to accumulate a diverse range of ideas.
• Building relationships can be another key aspect of teamworking. If you’ve previously worked with people who you hadn’t known at the time, what did you do to break the ice and build that initial rapport? Did you arrange coffees or a team social?
• If you collaborated with people from different academic or professional disciplines (e.g. for a group project involving lawyers and engineers), did you suggest anything creative to ensure the team works cohesively? For example, did you suggest temporary role swaps so that team members could understand the role of the other disciplines and if so, did this help to ensure you were all truly aligned and able to contribute ideas across disciplines?

Hopefully you get the idea!

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