Civil Service Interview

I was an interviewer for MoJ a few years ago.

The questions will be based on what is in your application form unless the interviewers feel that you haven't hit the competencies very well with you examples (although it's unlikely that you would have got as far as interview if this was the case).

They will not try to throw you - as with any interview, if you are unsure what they are trying to get you to say then ask them.

The important thing to bear in mind is to make sure that your answers focus on what YOU did and why.

If it's a competency based interview then they will only ask you questions based on the required competencies and nothing more, though they may ask you a few questions about your answers to each competencies to clarify, and usually will throw in an ice- breaker question at the start -e did you find us ok, have you applied to the Civil Service before or something general like that.


Look at the job spec in the advert as that will give you an idea of how they might word the competency question. Also look at the Civil Service competency framework and try to cover each one (six I think for AO) in each of your answers.


Yes, the questions are usually more specific. For "delivering a quality service" for example they may ask a question on the lines of "tell us when you delivered a great service to a deadline" or "when you dealt with a difficult customer". For "delivering at pace" it could simply be "tell us when you had to complete a project to a deadline" or "deal with conflicting priorities to a deadline". .


They'll say "this is a question about delivering at pace" and then ask the question.



1) Look at the job description, try to work out which part fit into which competency and then tailor your competency to suit.



2) Look at the competency framework and try to cover all of these in each competency answer.


3) If you can have more than one competency example for each one all the better. A few examples prepared may help if your main answer doesn't quite cover the way they word the question. If none of your examples fit the question asked don't panic- don't wing it with an answer off the top of your head, just use one of your prepared examples. You'll still get points and probably more points than from a "winged" answer.



4) Rehearse your answers as much as you can. You can take notes in and refer to them so don't be scared to do just that and check off you've covered all the points you wanted to in each answer. As long as you don't read from your answers verbatim they're fine with that.



5) The interviewers don't see the competency answers you used for the online application so you can use the same ones, or new ones - whichever you prefer.



6) Use STAR. Spend most time describing what you did and the results/outcome (ie increased productivity by 10%/reduced complaints by 10% - they like specifics like that)



You might want to have a look on Glass Door, specifically at the Civil Service interviews section. You might find some recently interviewed for AO have posted what specific questions they were asked. No guarantee you'd be asked the same ones but it might give you an indication of how they word questions to some of the competencies which might help you predict how they might word yours so you'll have an idea as to how to tailor your examples.


Lastly, don't worry. They aren't out to trick you. Other than the odd one or two questions about your examples once you've given each one they won't ask anything else. You'll go in, be asked an ice- breaker then straight into being asked the questions, then have a chance to ask them questions at the end (for your benefit only, the only thing that counts is your score for each competency question you're answered)