UN Competency-Based Interviews: How to Prepare and Ace Them
A competency-based interview is the UN's standard format — the same questions to every candidate, scored on evidence rather than impressions. This guide covers the current UN Values and Behaviours Framework, how to build STAR answers, three worked UN-style questions, and the mistakes that fail otherwise strong candidates.
A UN interview is not a conversation about your career. It is a structured, competency-based interview (CBI) — the same questions to every candidate, scored on evidence of what you have actually done.
Under the Secretariat’s selection rules (ST/AI/2016/1), every panel member must first complete training in competency-based interviewing, and the interview tests whether you possess the competencies named in the job opening.
What Is a Competency-Based Interview — and Why Does the UN Use One?
A CBI rests on one premise: past behaviour is the best available predictor of future behaviour. The panel asks for a real example, then probes it. The UN Office at Geneva’s applicant guidance uses that form — for instance, “Tell us about a challenging assignment when you went above and beyond your manager’s expectations.”
Every candidate answers the same questions in the same order, so the panel can compare them directly: the score measures demonstrated competence, not likeability.
What the Panel Is Really Scoring
- Your role, not your team’s. “I” beats “we”.
- Concrete evidence. A project with dates, numbers and outcomes beats a general description.
- Fit to the job opening. You are assessed against the competencies printed in that vacancy notice.
What Does the UN’s Competency Framework Actually Say?
Older guides list competencies that are no longer current. The framework published by the UN Office of Human Resources is the UN Values and Behaviours Framework, which succeeded the 1999 “Competencies for the Future”. It has four values and five behaviours — nine elements — and informs recruitment and performance management.
The four values: Inclusion (dignity and respect for all), Integrity (act ethically to UN standards of conduct), Humility (self-awareness; learn from others) and Humanity (the UN’s purposes: peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet).
The five behaviours: Connect and Collaborate, Analyse and Plan, Deliver Results with Positive Impact, Learn and Develop and Adapt and Innovate.
“Its nine elements, the result of a co-creation process involving nearly 4,500 staff, should guide how we build relationships, how we perform our jobs, and how we experience the organization on a daily basis.” — UN Office of Human Resources, UN Values and Behaviours Framework
The funds, programmes and agencies publish their own frameworks. The vacancy notice is always authoritative.
The STAR Method: How to Structure Every Answer
Panels expect a structure, and the one used across the UN system is STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result. The UN’s own applicant guidance is more compact — Situation, Action, Result — but the four-beat version forces out the two things panels weigh most: the task that was yours alone, and what your action produced.
- Situation — 15 to 20 seconds of context: where, when, what was at stake.
- Task — the responsibility that fell to you specifically.
- Action — what you did, step by step. Keep this the longest.
- Result — the outcome, with a number if you have one, and what you learned.
A long Situation and a thin Action is the commonest failure. Cut background, never detail.
Three Worked Examples of UN-Style Questions
These outlines are illustrative — written to show structure, not official UN questions.
1. Competing Demands (Analyse and Plan)
“Tell us about a time when a number of demands were made on you at the same time.”
- S: Three donor reports due in the same fortnight, mid-mission.
- T: I owned delivery of all three.
- A: Mapped each against its deadline, ran sections in parallel, renegotiated one internal deadline.
- R: All submitted on time; the approach was reused next quarter.
2. A Difficult Colleague (Connect and Collaborate)
“Give an example of a time you dealt with a difficult team member.”
- S: A working group stalled when one member stopped responding.
- T: I needed that input to stay on schedule.
- A: Asked for a short call, found the delay came from an unclear remit, rewrote the terms of reference.
- R: The member delivered within a week; the group met its deadline.
3. A Mistake and What It Taught You (Learn and Develop)
“Describe a time you made a mistake at work. What did you learn?”
- S: A briefing note I prepared cited an outdated figure.
- T: I had to correct the record and prevent a recurrence.
- A: Flagged it that day, issued a correction, added a source-check step to the team’s checklist.
- R: The correction was accepted and no further sourcing errors occurred.
Common Mistakes That Fail Otherwise Strong Candidates
- Speaking as “we”. The panel cannot score a team. No “I” means no evidence.
- Staying hypothetical. “I would generally…” invites a follow-up you cannot answer.
- Forgetting the result. Stopping at the action leaves the result unknown.
- Reusing one story. Prepare two or three examples per competency.
- Skipping the vacancy notice. The competencies to be tested are listed there.
- Not preparing a question for the panel. The UN’s own guidance tells candidates to bring one.
Where Does CBI Fit in the Wider UN Selection Process?
The interview is usually the last stage. The UN Careers portal sets the sequence out: your application is evaluated on experience, education and skills; if you meet most or all of the requirements you may be invited to an assessment, and only then shortlisted for the interview.
The assessment varies — a written test on the UNOETS platform, an asynchronous pre-recorded video interview, a request for work samples, or an assessment centre. Under ST/AI/2016/1 a passing threshold on the written assessment decides who is invited to interview.
The interview may be by telephone, video conference or in person. Panels are small and mixed — hiring manager, technical expert and an HR representative — and UNDP’s CBI guidance gives the common shape as 45 to 60 minutes, four to five questions and three to five interviewers. Candidates recommended but not selected are often placed on a roster.
How to Prepare in the Time You Actually Have
Work backwards from the interview date, not forwards from today.
- Two weeks out: list every value, behaviour and competency in the vacancy notice, and collect two stories per item, each with a numeric result.
- One week out: write each story into four lines — S, T, A, R — and time yourself delivering it in two minutes.
- Two days out: research the department’s current work programme so your examples connect to live work.
- The day before: rehearse aloud with someone who has passed a UN interview, and prepare your question for the panel.
Competency-based interviewing rewards preparation more than any other format: the scoring is published and the questions are predictable in shape. You can browse every open vacancy and filter by grade, agency or duty station to find openings worth building your examples around.
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