DWP Recruiting Again - 2012

C00kie1

Erazor:- As camelot says, you have to have specific example(s) ready for each competency but hopefully they can be adapted to meet the question (that is what I am planning to do!) You can't be expected to cover all of it anyway in the time available.

Mechanical Music Machine: You passed them all so it could be a lot worse!!! Maybe all these folks with straight 7s and 8s are in the minority. Fingers crossed!:D

Erazor

C00kie1 wrote: »

Erazor:- As camelot says, you have to have specific example(s) ready for each competency but hopefully they can be adapted to meet the question (that is what I am planning to do!) You can't be expected to cover all of it anyway in the time available.

Mechanical Music Machine: You passed them all so it could be a lot worse!!! Maybe all these folks with straight 7s and 8s are in the minority. Fingers crossed!:D

Ok so I am assuming that if I was asked about Integrity in the leadership comp, I should cut it short and explain only the intergrity part of my competency that I had prepared, rather then talk about the whole competency that would also contain the integrity part.

Correct?

Edit:
Come to think of it I will probably just end up talking about the whole thing as its recommended to build the scenarios, actions, results and benefits. Wont be able to fill all those out on integrity alone lol.

Precious1

TC54 have u heard anything?

[Deleted User]

Erazor wrote: »

camelot1971, as example if I was to say I was working in a specific retail place, and then outlined different customers and different situations I face in my work environment to cover up more about the competency would this still count as specific example/s?

Or do I need to give ONE situation dealing with ONE customer because I would find it extremely hard to cover the whole competency with dealing with one customer to show all the qualities needed...

Ideally it would be one situation, however that wouldnt necessarily mean just one customer - if you try and cover lots of situations you might find theres not enough detail to make it a strong example. In your example think about the detail rather than the number of people and different situations.

You want to be telling a "story", with a situation, task, actions you did and the end result (STAR).

What you should do is think about your example and then see how many "ticks" you can put against that competency. If you get lots, chances are it is strong, very few and its not going to get you high marks.

Take a look at the sub headings under competency - they will give you the best chance of second guessing what questions will be asked. All the districts are asking different questions (but each district should be asking the same questions to all candidates to make it fair).

The questions are specific but fairly broad, if that makes sense? For example again, you might get "give me an example of when you felt you communicated well", so you would have to specifically answer that question, but the things they are looking for would be all under the specific competency (Building Capability off the top of my head).

The panel are not trying to trick you, but they dont want to know what behaviours you would use, its what you have used!

Happy to answer any other questions you have, unless its tell me what questions they will ask!! (And i couldnt anyway as each district is different and there are hundreds of standard ones).

claire0710

So glad I came across this thread! I have my interview on Friday. My competency scores were good (7,8,8,8,6) so I'm feeling OK about my examples.
I'll be taking notes with me as its impossible to remember everything, especially when put on the spot!
Quick few questions to those who've already done it:
1/ On the competency framework there is one for Analysing, Improving and Changing - this didn't appear on the application form so am I right in presuming I won't be questioned on this?
2/ The framework has bullet points for example: Delivering a customer focused service - responding to customer needs (a) . However, on the detailed framework there are several more bullet points under 'responding to customer needs' such as 'promoting new and flexible ways of delivering service' (b) - what I'm trying to establish is whether the questions will relate to the overall bullet point (a) or individual ones under that heading (b)?
Hope that makes sense??!

Erazor

camelot1971 wrote: »

Ideally it would be one situation, however that wouldnt necessarily mean just one customer - if you try and cover lots of situations you might find theres not enough detail to make it a strong example. In your example think about the detail rather than the number of people and different situations.

You want to be telling a "story", with a situation, task, actions you did and the end result (STAR).

What you should do is think about your example and then see how many "ticks" you can put against that competency. If you get lots, chances are it is strong, very few and its not going to get you high marks.

Take a look at the sub headings under competency - they will give you the best chance of second guessing what questions will be asked. All the districts are asking different questions (but each district should be asking the same questions to all candidates to make it fair).

The questions are specific but fairly broad, if that makes sense? For example again, you might get "give me an example of when you felt you communicated well", so you would have to specifically answer that question, but the things they are looking for would be all under the specific competency (Building Capability off the top of my head).

The panel are not trying to trick you, but they dont want to know what behaviours you would use, its what you have used!

Happy to answer any other questions you have, unless its tell me what questions they will ask!! (And i couldnt anyway as each district is different and there are hundreds of standard ones).

I see but this one situation thing is still confusing me.

Take [FONT=&quot]Managing People and Performance [/FONT]as an example here.

If I put the situation as my time selling on eBay and then outlined the things I did within my business over a long period of time that started to tick the competency box's would this be ok or would it be wrong?

I am not able to come up with a "task" here in this situation unless the task was to "run an ebay business".

Also the recruitment pack tells you to write it as SARB, Situation, Action, Result, Benefit. (swapping task out for benefit).

ehazard2012

camelot1971 wrote: »

Ideally it would be one situation, however that wouldnt necessarily mean just one customer - if you try and cover lots of situations you might find theres not enough detail to make it a strong example. In your example think about the detail rather than the number of people and different situations.

You want to be telling a "story", with a situation, task, actions you did and the end result (STAR).

What you should do is think about your example and then see how many "ticks" you can put against that competency. If you get lots, chances are it is strong, very few and its not going to get you high marks.

Take a look at the sub headings under competency - they will give you the best chance of second guessing what questions will be asked. All the districts are asking different questions (but each district should be asking the same questions to all candidates to make it fair).

The questions are specific but fairly broad, if that makes sense? For example again, you might get "give me an example of when you felt you communicated well", so you would have to specifically answer that question, but the things they are looking for would be all under the specific competency (Building Capability off the top of my head).

The panel are not trying to trick you, but they dont want to know what behaviours you would use, its what you have used!

Happy to answer any other questions you have, unless its tell me what questions they will ask!! (And i couldnt anyway as each district is different and there are hundreds of standard ones).

Hi, all this information is great, could i just clarify a few things, or get some advice on whether i am understanding all this:

you say in theory they could ask "name a time you communicate effectivly"

now if im asked a question like this, should i try and cover all the bullet points under the sub heading "communicating with impact" with makes up part of the building capability competencey.

so in theory my answer would include elements of the 4 bullet points (checking information was accurate, communicated it clearly and concisely, confirmed that it had the intended effect and communicated it to only those that it concerned)

If what i said above is correct does it mean that for each of the 5 competencies there could be a question relating to each of the sub headings under that competency and if this is the case then 2 examples from each sub heading which covers most bullet points will have to be memorised

poker21

Hi camelot1971, first time posting.
I have an interview for east London soon, wondered if you could give me some feedback on my competencies

Karins

ehazard2012 wrote: »

Hi, all this information is great, could i just clarify a few things, or get some advice on whether i am understanding all this:

you say in theory they could ask "name a time you communicate effectivly"

now if im asked a question like this, should i try and cover all the bullet points under the sub heading "communicating with impact" with makes up part of the building capability competencey.

so in theory my answer would include elements of the 4 bullet points (checking information was accurate, communicated it clearly and concisely, confirmed that it had the intended effect and communicated it to only those that it concerned)

If what i said above is correct does it mean that for each of the 5 competencies there could be a question relating to each of the sub headings under that competency and if this is the case then 2 examples from each sub heading which covers most bullet points will have to be memorised

No don't do that you need to tick as many indicators for the whole competency as you can, if you have good examples they should cover the whole competency so it doesn't matter whether they ask for an example where you communicated with impact or an example where you developed your teams skills and knowledge as you can't do one without the other so your example should cover these and working collaboratively.

ehazard2012

Karins wrote: »

No don't do that you need to tick as many indicators for the whole competency as you can, if you have good examples they should cover the whole competency so it doesn't matter whether they ask for an example where you communicated with impact or an example where you developed your teams skills and knowledge as you can't do one without the other so your example should cover these and working collaboratively.

i see, so if i have an one example that covers the 3 sub heading and inccorporating only 1 or 2 bullets from each sub heading then i should be ok?