Interview Advice - Civil Service

lantanna

Hi,

I have a competency based interview next week with the civil service which includes a presentation - topic to be given on the day.

I have the competencies and am working out examples for them.

I have no experience of being interviewed by the civil service or the public sector at all so I am apprehensive about the interview.

Can anyone advise as to what to expect - how they will behave - how formal it will be etc? Any advice / tips - things they will be looking for would be appreciated.

lincroft1710

My experience of CS interviews (many) is from years ago, so is probably completely out of date!

Board interview by 3 people, formal, ask searching questions, don't try to trick you, but do try to find the limit of your knowledge and your ability to think on your feet.

tommytynan123

lantanna wrote: »

Hi,

I have a competency based interview next week with the civil service which includes a presentation - topic to be given on the day.

I have the competencies and am working out examples for them.

I have no experience of being interviewed by the civil service or the public sector at all so I am apprehensive about the interview.

Can anyone advise as to what to expect - how they will behave - how formal it will be etc? Any advice / tips - things they will be looking for would be appreciated.

Seriously ?? On the day ?? How can you prepare a presentation on the day ?? All you could do is speak because you will have no time to prepare visual aids etc.

As has been said - formal with 2 or 3 people and very much '' .. can you give me an example of what/when/how/where you ....''

I was sacrificed by Civil Service 2 yrs back now from a post as Training Manager in a large department and was involved in interviews etc. If you want to PM an email I'll happily help where I can including a novel way of practising competency based Q's.

Yorkie1

It is usual for there to be 3 interviewers - often one who will be managing the successful candidate, one from an HR perspective, and another.

I'd expect you to be given a set period of time to prepare the presentation - perhaps 30 minutes?? As another poster has said, it's more likely to be oral presentation rather than PowerPoint etc.

The first part of the interview will probably be your presentation, followed by a certain number of follow-up questions to explore what you've said in more detail.

Then there will be some questions around the competencies. Probably where you are asked to give examples of where you meet them. Explain what you did, why you did it, how you did it, and what the outcome was / lessons learned.

I'd expect there to be some questions around the wider department - has it published a Vision or Values statement? Think about wider issues the department has encountered recently.

It will be formal but again as another person says, they won't be looking to trip you up. You will be scored on set criteria - whether you've demonstrated no / weak / satisfactory / good etc evidence for each of the competencies to be tested.

lantanna

Thanks for this.

A very good point about the person managing you as I hadn't thought of that :T

Denning.

CS interviews are very formal, they have to try and ensure a transparent and equal process for all. So they won't really ask any remotely personal stuff.

You know the competencies as they are in the job advert so make sure you hit them spot on.

I would take little notes in to ensure you don't get your competencies mixed up, this has always been my issue. They won't mind and shouldn't go against you.

Kynthia

My experience is public sector not civil service, but is competence based. They are usually formal but friendly with a panel of 2-3 people. You'll probably be asked to tell them a little about yourself first. As has been said the questions will be based around you giving examples that demonstrate you meet these competences.

You will be expected to give quite detailed examples and maybe scored out of 5 for each, so don't be brief as you want a high score. Structure your answer as follows: what was the situation or the task, what was the objective, what did you personally do (not the team or 'we'), and what was the result. Many people forget the result after saying what they did but here is your chance to say how what you did bettered things and made a difference.

Also the questions may not just be role based. There may be some on the big issues affecting the organisation currently, so look at their website and the press. There may also be HR type questions too, such as what do you understand diversity to be, why should the organisation reflect the community it serves, how would you manage an under performing staff member, have you had to made 'reasonable adjustments, for a member of staff before, etc?

As usual have some good questions at the end, such as what is the size of the department you'll be working in, what does the day to day role consist of, how many people would you be managing, what is their study support package like, do they promote internally, are there any restructures planned, etc.