DWP employment waiting list

sweetikklemunchkin

mandie2106 wrote: »

Im glad your first day went well hunni, it seems like your really going to enjoy it there xx

thanks babes how u getting on

mandie2106

sweetikklemunchkin wrote: »

thanks babes how u getting on

Your welcome Yeah im great thanks! Trying to keep busy now that everything is sorted out and in place for starting work, i just cant wait to start! My friend had her new baby on Saturday tho so putting in plenty visiting time to keep me busy haha xx

sweetikklemunchkin

mandie2106 wrote: »

Your welcome Yeah im great thanks! Trying to keep busy now that everything is sorted out and in place for starting work, i just cant wait to start! My friend had her new baby on Saturday tho so putting in plenty visiting time to keep me busy haha xx

i know it must be murder having to wait so long babes, but what a way to keep busy awwwwww give the little one a hug from me too xx

sweetikklemunchkin

venus_in_furs wrote: »

Helloooooooooooooooooo! Just had my first day in my JC+ office....scaaaaaaary!!! Well, no it was okay. Everyone was lovely and very nice. There is one particular man who is very funny, and when people leave he writes and sings them a song. At least if my contract is not made permanent i can have that to look forward to!

Shadowed someone the whole of today. Got to see all the processes put into action, with the customer ineraction so i could see how it all fit together. There seems to be SO much to remember. So many different forms for everything to fill out. That is the only part i am really worried about. All the customers were nice. Suppose i have been there myself so understand how they feel. Anyway, i got to take up the claim cards and file them back and bring new claims to the man i was shadowing so i didn't just feel like some gooseberry just gawping at the people coming to sign on!! I did gawp at one person...that was probably because he was quite good looking, but shhhhhh don't tell anyone!

Anyway, back to training tomorrow. Tis annoying as the training systems are down this week so we can't do any online training with the practice LMS systems. But my JC+ manager lady said that they are going to be treating us like we are starting fresh anyway, so there will be no pressure for us to go there and be expected to know everything straight away. Phew!!!


Hope everyone is good. Congrats to the people with start dates n stuff.

he writes and sings them songs omg, he sounds a character lol, sounds like ur gonna like it there tho babes xx

mandie2106

sweetikklemunchkin wrote: »

i know it must be murder having to wait so long babes, but what a way to keep busy awwwwww give the little one a hug from me too xx

Aww thanks huni i will do xxxxx

jessbob

sweetikklemunchkin wrote: »

well thats my 1st day done and i can honestly say there are a bunch of nutters lol, every1 made me feel very welcome and even the sales ppl came over to welcome me, the office is very very relaxed, they use msn to talk to 1 another and when not busy use ebay and face book etc, there is no pressure, no irate ppl on phone just confused school admin staff lol, well the feeling i get is that im gonna love it there, my boss is bonkers its her bday tomo (42) but i swear shes going on 8 just like me lol, the only problem is now, if i do ever get the call from DWP unless its my perfect location etc i wudnt know what to do, but im not worrying about it until if/when it actually happens, hope every1 elses day went well xx

:j:j Glad you had a brill first day, Chuck:T

sweetikklemunchkin

jessbob wrote: »

:j:j Glad you had a brill first day, Chuck:T

thanks babes, hows ur stress free job going, is it still stress free lol

mandie2106

How did every1 else get on today?? xx

thefortune

Hi !

Me and my boyfriend have both got interviews this thurs for AO positions, and we're getting really nervous about the competency based interview part! I was hoping someone could tell me what questions get asked so we can prepare ourselves.. I skimmed a few pages looking for info and saw that heathertheblether said that there are 4 questions, but what will they be? And how long should the interview last? Any info will be much appreciated as we've never had these sort of interviews before, our past jobs were all really easy to get and didn't require much thinking!

thanks!

Grantyy

I have been through the process but difficult to remember the exact questions,I think this was one Tell me about a time when you had an idea that helped? I used an example when I worked in a warehouse on the loading bay, I said we had pallets being dropped off from within the warehouse ready for dispatch faster than we could cope, the wrapping machines could do about 5 pallets in 3 minutes but they just were not fast enough So what did you do? I had a word with my team and suggested asking the bay manager for more people to help and that they could hand wrap which had never been done before (or had it), they agreed so I told the bay manager that If we had another 3 people hand wrapping pallets we would get the bay cleared otherwise we could not cope, he agreed So What did you achieve? by having the extra help it was as good as having a 3rd machine and we gradually got the bays cleared what would have happened had you not sought help? with nowhere to put the incoming pallets the whole operation would have come to a standstill, they still use hand wrappers now and then to this day.

There was an interviewer and an assesor, the paragraph above is an example of how the interviewer asks a question and then prompts you or guides you through it, this was my experience at least.
My advice would be to prepare 5 or 6 scenarios based on the prompts above, the first one will be a slightly different question to which you should be able to adapt one of your scenarios to, you will explain the situation then he/she will ask what did you do? you explain and then they ask what did you achieve? thats it really, I know I used a fourth prompt above but that was just for clarification on that question, I'm not sure but think there are 4 questions and they all have the Question and then 2 main prompts, so by memorising say 5 experiences you should be ok.
Remember you don't have to use work examples you can use real life ones too, these are good as back ups for example they asked me a question and I used a particular scenario which was shorter than the one above and easy to fit to most questions but then they asked me a question which it would have been better for and they knew it too, I said I have just used my best one but I have others, you can take notes in with you, I took a printed sheet of A4 with 5 scenarios on, think it is 4 and my best advice would be to have one or two open scenarios , the best one I can thing of would be a sport as you could adapt any game you are familiar with to fit most questions
One question that will probably be there is something like Name a time when you helped as part of a team? I used 5 a side football as an example, I said we play every week and one particular player is so much better than every one else, he scored 19 goals one week, we were against him so I had a word with my team and took responsibility for him but also said if I was unable to mark him when the other team get the ball I will ask for help So what did you do? every time we lost possesion I got goal side of him and never left his side until we won the ball back, and what did this achieve? I said he was good right, I couln't stop him scoring but he only got 5 and has always got at least double that before, my plan was a success ans we won by 3 goals.

They told me to use the word I a lot, they like that, I had devised scenarios were I give other team members praise but when they told me that I just switched the credit to myself, of course you can make scenarios up but the real ones are easier to remember, I would suggest you get them together one night and run through them together the next, I went through mine on my own and I took my notes to inerview but never needed them which surprised me, I was nervous going in, not many wouldn't be but they put me at ease and I just focussed on the questions taking my time to think, I looked at my notes once just to show I had made the effort but as I said you are allowed them but I wouldn't reccomend purely reading from them, act confident and so long as you prepare your scenarios you will be fine, the interview did not last too long, maybe 15 miutes of the questions then about 5 which was just chit chat, they asked me if I had any questions so I asked about one of the call centres, how big it was just to show interest, the only one slip up I made was when they prompted me on one question and I just said No, it was something like did this affect the business? I thought they meant in a bad way but then it clicked and I redeemed myself, when asked the main Question explain the situation and then get to the point.
I was more worried about this than maybe I should have been but it does need preparation to maximise your chances of success, They do expect you to be nervous but just try to act confident and keep the question in mind, I memorised my scenarios but just altered them slightly to suit the question, also at the end there is no shame in making them know you would enjoy that type of job, she expressed concerns to me that some people get took on and then realise they don't want to be on the phones all day or doing repetetive work, who can be picky in times like these, hope this helps you both.

Just out of interest before I get on to my own question did everyone on here experience the same propted interview technique? as that could have just been my interviewers style, credit to him he put me at ease, if so of course you will just have to say so what happened is......, then what I achieved is...