Job Interview with DWP

306NOTOUT

iluvjohnsarg wrote: »

That's great advice I failed the AO interview then passed the EO one ... surprisingly.

:beer:

Just to echo what has been said here this really is good advice.

Im worked for JC+ for over 6 years. I was manager of the Frontline team for 2 years (signing on bit!!) Did recruitment panels on 3 seperate occasions before leaving just over a year ago.

Keep your answers to that format and you wont go far wrong. The people that are interviewing you want you to get through because they are desperate for staff. (where your going to sit is another matter altogether!! but I wont go into that now):rotfl: The ones I interviewed with were as nervous as hell aswell, so dont be scared of them!! You will probably think they are playing good cop, bad cop but that is not the case at all. It may just fall that the one asks you nasty questions and the other one does all the nicey nicey introductions.

One of my staff was once so scared to talk to me on her first day as she thought I was sooooo nasty!!

Dont talk about death. I asked a woman once "tell me about a time when you have had to deal with a difficult situation"

"I found a dead body in the canal" :eek:
Not quite was I was looking for.

Read the competencies you have got, think of instances in your life when you have experienced those things. DONT just use work answers, mix it up. Normally 3 questions so go for 2 work, 1 personal.

Its a great place to work, I met my wife while working there.:T
Oh and having worked in a few departments and areas of frontline offices:

Pensions
Incap
New Deal 50+ Advisor
New claims advisor
Front line manager
JC+ implementation team

I can tell you the front line is the hardest job out of all. So if you get a job as an advisor make sure you help the front line out!!! They are the most under paid staff in the department.

Good luck.

janeway123

306NOTOUT wrote: »

Just to echo what has been said here this really is good advice.

Im worked for JC+ for over 6 years. I was manager of the Frontline team for 2 years (signing on bit!!) Did recruitment panels on 3 seperate occasions before leaving just over a year ago.

Keep your answers to that format and you wont go far wrong. The people that are interviewing you want you to get through because they are desperate for staff. (where your going to sit is another matter altogether!! but I wont go into that now):rotfl: The ones I interviewed with were as nervous as hell aswell, so dont be scared of them!! You will probably think they are playing good cop, bad cop but that is not the case at all. It may just fall that the one asks you nasty questions and the other one does all the nicey nicey introductions.

One of my staff was once so scared to talk to me on her first day as she thought I was sooooo nasty!!

Dont talk about death. I asked a woman once "tell me about a time when you have had to deal with a difficult situation"

"I found a dead body in the canal" :eek:
Not quite was I was looking for.

Read the competencies you have got, think of instances in your life when you have experienced those things. DONT just use work answers, mix it up. Normally 3 questions so go for 2 work, 1 personal.

Its a great place to work, I met my wife while working there.:T
Oh and having worked in a few departments and areas of frontline offices:

Pensions
Incap
New Deal 50+ Advisor
New claims advisor
Front line manager
JC+ implementation team

I can tell you the front line is the hardest job out of all. So if you get a job as an advisor make sure you help the front line out!!! They are the most under paid staff in the department.

Good luck.

Hi 306NOTOUT - Very interesting, and amusing. Liked the good cop, bad cop. On reflection, my interviews DID seem like that. Can I ask why you left? I have heard 1 or 2 negative comments about working there, but the overwhelming majority that I have actually spoken to, seem to love the job. I have been successful in 3 interviews for AO, and am waiting while pre employment checks are completed.:TOn my last interview, one of the panel was a manager, and informed me that the job was actually interviewing people on a fortnightly cycle. This was the first I/V where a particular role was mentioned. :beer:

306NOTOUT

janeway123 wrote: »

Hi 306NOTOUT - Very interesting, and amusing. Liked the good cop, bad cop. On reflection, my interviews DID seem like that. Can I ask why you left? I have heard 1 or 2 negative comments about working there, but the overwhelming majority that I have actually spoken to, seem to love the job. I have been successful in 3 interviews for AO, and am waiting while pre employment checks are completed.:TOn my last interview, one of the panel was a manager, and informed me that the job was actually interviewing people on a fortnightly cycle. This was the first I/V where a particular role was mentioned. :beer:

I loved the job, but I got bored. At the time I left there was no promotion and it was getting to a stage where I needed more money to support my young family. It was a big decision to leave the safety of the Department. But it was something I now look back on and would still have done the same thing. I'm still in touch with alot of people there and they have been promoted in the recent climate which probably means I would have been aswell but I was not to know that at the time.

Fortnightly cycles is the area that I managed, it really is the hardest working area that I experienced. (Sorry!!) Good fun though, you will meet loads of interesting people and some of the customers will have you in tears in a good and bad way!!

reebok-bolton

Further to my last post, I have found out from another HR contact about two weeks ago that all my pre-recruitment checks have now been completed, and it was just a case of waiting for 'the call' as she was unable to give me any further info. Has anyone else received a call yet with a job offer in relation to the Jobcentre EO roles in the Sunderland area? I'm still applying for other jobs and quite frankly all I want to know is where I stand with the DWP job... even a timescale of 3 months down the line for a start date would be ok by me, but it's the not knowing that is driving me round the twist !!! Help anyone ?!!!

ekul84

Hi everyone,

Do you start on the bottom of the salary band? Or has anyone started at either mid or top end of the band?

Thanks

sportfan

ekul84 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Do you start on the bottom of the salary band? Or has anyone started at either mid or top end of the band?

Thanks

I believe you start at the bottom whatever the case

Aaliyah_2

:wall:

Hi! All,

Thought I would give you the continuation of my story so far...
After applying for an AO postion back in March 2009, passing the selection tests and being interviewed twice (by DWP and Manpower) I decided to give both the DWP and the Disclosure Office in Scotland a call to see how my application was doing as I have heard nothing!
The DWP in Newcastle told me that the interviews for these positions had only finished this week, and that they had not yet received any information as of yet. Therefore, they have no idea at the moment who has been successful at interview stage and who hasn't.
However, the very kind and patient gentleman at the other end of the phone said that if the paperwork is received by today, then all successful and unsuccessful letters would be sent out at the same time, possibly next week.
I then decided to give Scotland a ring about my Disclosure Form (bearing in mind I have filled in two forms during the past 2 months!) and they have no record of me at all yet! And obviously that is because the DWP have not yet received my scores from the interview stage.
So, the saga continues. The only thing I'm concerned about really is that if I am lucky enough to be selected for a position, I have to work 4 weeks notice with my current employer which will prolong the situation even longer! Therefore, I'm hoping I hear something sooner, rather than later.

Still Living in Hope,
Aaliyah x

PS:Anyone wanting to contact Newcastle about their application-use the number on the PAPERWORK YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

PPS:The number for Disclosure in Scotland is: 0870-6096006.

Tobiwan_Kenobi

ekul84 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Do you start on the bottom of the salary band? Or has anyone started at either mid or top end of the band?

Thanks

I tried to negotiate on salary, i.e. I asked for an extra £2.5k on what they offered and it came back as a no. They did, however, change the location of the offer, so I won't have fuel costs getting to and from work.

ferien_uk

sportfan wrote: »

Has anyone applied recently for DWP with the new competencies and had an interview? What questions were you asked? Also nowadays DWP are having 1hr online tests before interview? What tests are these?

I did one of these online tests yeterday. It gives you several different case studies and you have to answer questions on them. Some of them are comprehension questions, such as 'Which of these statements is definitely true according to the passage?'. Some of the them are Maths based. Some of them involved you making a decision. All multiple choice.

It involves a lot of reading, so I would recommend doing it at a time when you are ready to really concentrate.

Can I just repeat the posters original question about interviews? I had one a couple of months ago, was unsuccessful, but have had feedback so I think I know how to do better on my next one (this Thursday). However, my first one was with the old competencies. This time it is based on the new competencies.

Has anyone had an interview since the new competencies came in? And can you give me some example questions. I am trying to prepare example scenarios, but some of the comptencies seem to include a lot of different things and I'm not sure how to come up with an example that includes them all. In my last interview, I had come up with general scenarios about each of the competencies, but for one of them, the question was quite specific, didn't really fit in with the example I had prepared and I found it hard to answer.

Thanks,

Kathleen

qadsey

Hello about the interview think of 2-3 good examples for each of the competencies and talk about them and if they want to know more they will ask you.

Questions could include:

Delivering a customer focused service:

Give an example of when you gave good customer service?

Building Capability

Give an example of when you developed your skills?

e.g communication skills, Numeracy skills.

Managing people and Performance

How have you improved your performance in the past?
e.g. Looked at books, shadowed work colleagues, learned from mistakes.

Leading

Give an example of when you lead a team through a difficult situation?
Or they could ask Give an example of how you handled a difficult situation?

They will only ask you four main questions for each of the above competencies. However if they need to find out more they will prompt you.

I hope this helps you don't have to fulfill each of the bullet points just one or two. They just want to see examples of when you have carried out each competency area.

Hope this helps!!