preparing for an interview

eastmidsaver

lincroft1710 said:

eastmidsaver said:

hi. it's a high end admin job within civil service,  executive officer.

EO grade is not particularly "high end".

It is high end for me when it comes to salary and responsibility as I've never had an interview at that level,  but congratulations if you are in a position where you can look down on an EO. 
I appreciate your input.

eastmidsaver

thank you everyone for your advice, i will bear this in mind and just do my best.  
as some have pointed out, whatever happens, it will be good experience regardless .  

74jax

It's also worth remembering for internal interviews, don't think you don't need to mention what they already know. 
Mention everything! 
They may have a question you do every day, they know you do it every day, but you gloss over it. They will only write down and score on what you said. So make sure you answer as though you ate external and hit the 'buzz' words, say everything. 

lincroft1710

eastmidsaver said:

lincroft1710 said:

eastmidsaver said:

hi. it's a high end admin job within civil service,  executive officer.

EO grade is not particularly "high end".

It is high end for me when it comes to salary and responsibility as I've never had an interview at that level,  but congratulations if you are in a position where you can look down on an EO. 
I appreciate your input.

I was an EO and retired at that grade, so no "looking down". As I said in a previous post you have HEO and SEO above. They tell an EO what to do (I know from experience).There was a post or posts on here some months ago intimating that in some departments EO was almost a basic grade, so obviously try to avoid those departments unless there is easy progress to HEO and SEO..

Clearly as an EO you would have some responsibility but don't be misled into thinking you'll be top of the pile. 

eastmidsaver

lincroft1710 said:

I was an EO and retired at that grade, so no "looking down". As I said in a previous post you have HEO and SEO above. They tell an EO what to do (I know from experience).There was a post or posts on here some months ago intimating that in some departments EO was almost a basic grade, so obviously try to avoid those departments unless there is easy progress to HEO and SEO.. Clearly as an EO you would have some responsibility but don't be misled into thinking you'll be top of the pile. 

 Ok thanks for clarifying it.   I am certainly not with that impression. Currently am an AO  (which was hard enough getting though application / interviews),   so I was comparing against that.   But from a personal point of view, it's the highest level interview I've had an opportunity for,   so I will see what happens.  

lincroft1710

eastmidsaver said:

lincroft1710 said:

I was an EO and retired at that grade, so no "looking down". As I said in a previous post you have HEO and SEO above. They tell an EO what to do (I know from experience).There was a post or posts on here some months ago intimating that in some departments EO was almost a basic grade, so obviously try to avoid those departments unless there is easy progress to HEO and SEO.. Clearly as an EO you would have some responsibility but don't be misled into thinking you'll be top of the pile. 

 Ok thanks for clarifying it.   I am certainly not with that impression. Currently am an AO  (which was hard enough getting though application / interviews),   so I was comparing against that.   But from a personal point of view, it's the highest level interview I've had an opportunity for,   so I will see what happens.  

From personal experience, there is a lot more pressure on an EO than an AO. 

I don't know if it is still the case, but decades ago I got the impression that interviewers knew exactly the type of candidate they wanted and if you didn't fit that type, no matter how good you were at answering the questions, you stood no chance. Something I've noticed recently is that there seems to be a lot of candidates for CS posts.

avawat20

I've worked as an EO in civil service and am now in another public sector organisation, I am in HR. Have interviewed as a hiring manager and on a panel.
In my experience and personal experience, when you are ready it comes to you. Yes, you do still need to prepare but when you have a good few examples lined up, it's easier to apply them to the questions you're asked.
As this is a promotion for you, you're going to need to aim your examples higher. Show those transferable skills. Show that you have the potential to work at that higher grade. If you get asked a question that you don't have a strong example for, back it up by talking about what your thought process would be in dealing with that situation.
As a lot know, the STAR/CAR method is commonly used especially in the civil service. Make sure you are giving a resolution to your example. If you can add some learning taken too then do that, even better if you can then mention a small example where you applied that learning successfully!
Provide context to situations but also don't give too much irrelevant detail, keep them engaged.
Good luck!