local authority job- type of interview questions

mrs_baggins

well i have got through the first 2 parts so I must be doing something right. I now have an actual interview. Its been many many years since I was interviewed and think i am out of touch with how things work.

I have googled and from what i can see it seems to be the usual type- why do you want to work for us? what r ur strengths/weaknesses, type of questions. But local authorities may be different and I just dont know. If anyone has any recent interviews at local authority I wd be grateful of how the interview was carried out?

LondonDiva

Look for competency based interview questions on the net. Have real life examples to illustrate any points you make when you are responding. Take your time

[Deleted User]

There is usually a question on equality and diversity, so take a look at their policy - should be available on their web pages.

browneyedbazzi

What department is the role in and what level is the role at?


Almost all my local government interviews included questions about team work - including things like how you work in a team, the importance of team work and examples of positive and negative experiences of teamwork. I've also done quite specialist roles where I was the only person doing the job in the authority so in that circumstance was asked more about how I worked on my own (answer about being self-motivated and motivated by a belief in the importance of the job being done and wanting to achieve, ability to prioritise etc).

They've also asked questions about my approach to change (ie do you embrace change as an opportunity/progress or are you change resistant). For me that's quite an important topic as the change resistant culture in local government is a real problem and many employers are working very hard to change that culture - if you have an example of how you drove and/or embraced change in a work environment and can sound enthusiastic about innovation and change then you'll score points. It's especially important now because financial pressures mean local authorities are constantly changing and adapting to try to deliver services with limited resources.

Questions about how you deal with difficult/aggressive members of the public/customers and generally about your ability to deal with all kinds of people are also common.

You can almost guarantee you'll be asked why you applied for the role - if possible (and it's true of course) demonstrate your understanding of how the role contributes to corporate priorities/goals and that you identify with those priorities and want to make a contribution to achieving the goals. The authority's corporate plan and priorities will be on their website somewhere so it's best to have a look and think about how the role fits.

They also often ask how you feel your knowledge and skills make you the best candidate for the job.

Aside from those more general questions, I'm usually asked role specific competency questions.