DWP Recruiting Again - 2012

Lorac05

Well even though the overall status still shows 'Situation test complete' the feedback status under my Black Country application has now had all the comp scores set to 1 and the feedback for all of them states the following:

Please review Staffs and Shrops recruitment to access your feedback. If you are an external candidate (i.e. not currently employed in the Civil Service), and have progressed to the sift and/or interview stage, you will receive one set of sift feedback, and one set of interview feedback (if you have been interviewed), no matter how many applications you have submitted. If you are currently employed in the Civil Service and have applied both for external exercises and internal (Civil Service only) exercises you will receive separate feedback for the internal and external exercises.

Now I have been invited to an interview by Staffs/Shrops - which I am attending - as well as B'ham with scores of 77676 and a percentile score of 94%. Does the above mean I have also passed the interview criteria for BC and if I do well enough to get offered a job will that cover the BC areas as well as Staffs/Shrops and B'ham? It really isn't clear from the above and was wondering if calling the recruitment line would be able to clarify the situuation.

NB - I did accept the interview from B'ham as well as that came in prior to the Staffs/Shrops interview but subsequently received an e-mail from the recruitment office in Staffs/Shrops telling me I had 2 interviews booked but to chose one to attend as they would ensure the results would be passed onto the other district. I chose Stafford as that is a 10-15 min drive door to door whereas the B'ham one would be a 10 min drive, a 35 min train ride and then another 20 min to get to the imterview location.

baph

Precious1 wrote: »

Thanks baph.

What was the pass mark set at?

no problem. They said the passmark was the same countrywide (apart from east london which was lowered to 36%) They didn't say, but I think it was 40%

Precious1

baph wrote: »

no problem. They said the passmark was the same countrywide (apart from east london which was lowered to 36%) They didn't say, but I think it was 40%

oh so that is the pass mark for the online test.

is the pass mark for the appication competancies still 4 and above to get an interview?

baph

Precious1 wrote: »

oh so that is the pass mark for the online test.

is the pass mark for the appication competancies still 4 and above to get an interview?

Seemingly so. But I wonder how long it's going to take them to send the invites out...

Precious1

baph wrote: »

Seemingly so. But I wonder how long it's going to take them to send the invites out...

Well if they are expecting interviews to begin this saturday, then invites needs to go out asap right?

i think other districts gave applicants 5 days notice before the first interviews began.....

I really dont know....

avacado23

Lorac05 wrote: »

Well even though the overall status still shows 'Situation test complete' the feedback status under my Black Country application has now had all the comp scores set to 1 and the feedback for all of them states the following:

Please review Staffs and Shrops recruitment to access your feedback. If you are an external candidate (i.e. not currently employed in the Civil Service), and have progressed to the sift and/or interview stage, you will receive one set of sift feedback, and one set of interview feedback (if you have been interviewed), no matter how many applications you have submitted. If you are currently employed in the Civil Service and have applied both for external exercises and internal (Civil Service only) exercises you will receive separate feedback for the internal and external exercises.

Now I have been invited to an interview by Staffs/Shrops - which I am attending - as well as B'ham with scores of 77676 and a percentile score of 94%. Does the above mean I have also passed the interview criteria for BC and if I do well enough to get offered a job will that cover the BC areas as well as Staffs/Shrops and B'ham? It really isn't clear from the above and was wondering if calling the recruitment line would be able to clarify the situuation.

NB - I did accept the interview from B'ham as well as that came in prior to the Staffs/Shrops interview but subsequently received an e-mail from the recruitment office in Staffs/Shrops telling me I had 2 interviews booked but to chose one to attend as they would ensure the results would be passed onto the other district. I chose Stafford as that is a 10-15 min drive door to door whereas the B'ham one would be a 10 min drive, a 35 min train ride and then another 20 min to get to the imterview location.

I just called the helpline asking for my sift scores as they have all changed to 1's. The guy said they are aware of this happening. It is just a default rating (if you've applied for mroe than one region) and does'nt reflect what you'r competencies are worth so that's a confirmation on what you already told me. I asked if I could know my scores & the guy took my mobile no. to get a supervisor to call me back. He called back 5 min later and said they are waitng for scores for Staff and I should keep an eye on BC and Staff scores, hopefully they'd be updated soon. He also advised he has been told I should not've had this Birmingham interview & should only get one from home area but he advised that I should keep Birmingham until I hear anything from the others. Staff still says awaiting review and BC refers me to my Birmingham feedback. All the best to you for your interview!!! With such great test scores & impressive competency scores, you should do well. Good Luck.

JessStar

Apparently Black Country results 'came in yesterday' and there is 'one person sending out 1600 notifications' so you should hear this week.

E2A My mates just had an interview invite, so they really are finally sorted

Walter_Wall_3

Some nice apostrophes usage above, if I may say so. But I digress. Or should that be apostrophise? Cripe's I dun'no.

The recruitment line told me that the general pass mark, though not observed by all districts, as is now clear, is 50% (and as that's a percentile, if I'm understanding this one correctly, I guess it's been designed to eliminate precisely half the applicants). So, if you're not in East London, have scored at least 51%, and have no 3s on your competency feedback, you WILL get an interview*.

* At some point. When they're ready. If you haven't retired by then.

[Deleted User]

MakemBill wrote: »

KeyserSoze888; Your sift score of 8,8,8,8,8 is just about the best you can get according to my sources in DWP. They say the top mark is normally only given internally when management want to promote someone from within.

In my area your test score would not have made it ino the sift. Only 80% and above made the sift.

One point about the test scores everyone. 71% is not meaning you got 71%. It means that of the people who took the test, you were better than 70% of them. If you check you actual scores and convert them to a % you'll see it rarely lands anywhere near your test score.

I feel that 80% is too narrow a pool to draw on given the flaws within that test.

I scored 78% actual and was in the 78 percentile by coincidence. I got 20/24 in the fact based questions and I felt one or two of those where ambiguously worded.

More of the issue was the situational judgement test. I lost a bucketload of markets possibly by margins as thin as suggesting an action would be very good when it would merely considered good. One might call these different shades of gray.

Also there is a matter of the 'best-worst action' actually reflecting DWP values. I'm skeptical.

For example I looked at an example situational judgement test on google (non civil service related). It presented a scenario where you have seen a colleague stealing minor items of stationary from the office. Now a computer screen has gone missing. Rank actions best to worst.

One option was to search for evidence. I thought this was a good idea. Check CCTV footage and prove the item had been taken within minutes. According to the test this was in fact the worst option. It could waste significant time with no end result.

Meanwhile the best action was said to be to confront the person directly which I regard as catastrophic.

Needless to say I am highly suspicious of these types of tests and I for one felt I could argue for my choices to the hilt but i only scored 236/336.

So it is very unfortunate that any area should put so much faith in that test as to set the percentile above 80%.

On a more positive note I don't think I will be attending my interview for E. London as I've been offered a job. So it's 180 interviewees minus 1.

JoolesH

emmalou21 wrote: »

Hi MakemBill
Yes I got through with 51percentile but have no feedback or competencies scores as of yet. Not really hoping to get them before Wednesday now either which is a bit of a disapointment. Thank you for your help on guidance with the interview, do you have an interview yourself ?

Hi Emmalou
Can I just ask if this is via GIS (Guaranteed Interview Scheme)? My score was a bit higher and got the 'thanks but no thanks' email so I called a very helpful chap on the Recruitment Helpline today who explained that the pass mark for the North East was raised to 80%. Obviously if you have gotten through without GIS then I think it's going to seriously ruffle some feathers.
BTW Good Luck for interview!