A panel is not a conversation where the friendliest person wins. Before you walk in, the panel has a list of five to eight questions and a scoring sheet. Each question tests one competency from the vacancy notice, for example budgeting, teamwork or working under pressure, and each answer gets a score, usually from 1 to 5. Every candidate gets the same questions in the same order.
At the end the scores are added up. The written test score is often added too. The person with the highest total is offered the job, after reference checks. This is why a candidate with less experience can beat one with more: the panel can only score what it hears.
- 1Read the vacancy notice and underline every skill or quality it asks for. Those are the competencies on the scoring sheet.
- 2For each one, prepare one real example from your work, studies or volunteering, with a number or a result.
- 3In the interview, answer every part of the question. If a question has two parts, say “First… Second…”. Unanswered parts score zero.
- 4Use the advert's own words. If it says “donor reporting”, say “donor reporting”, not “paperwork”. The scorer is looking for those words.