Written assessment for Civil Service role - shamelessly posting for traffic and advice!

[WellAlwaysHaveParis]

Shamelessly posting for traffic - sorry!

I recently applied for an executive officer role (entry-level role) with the Civil Service.

The role involves some writing and drafting, but I'd prefer not to give too much specific detail about what it is on here, if that's okay.

The application process for the role has three stages: submitting answers to several competency questions, a written assessment and an interview.

I've just found out that I've been invited to the written assessment. I'm not sure what it involves, as I haven't been given any specific information so far.

Any tips on how I can prepare for it please?

Thanks :)

Bumping :)

It might be a sort of inbox exercise type thing? In which case it’s difficult to prepare but my advice would always be with assessment centres that it is better to finish than to go into great detail for one section and leave two undone. So as soon as you get into the assessment work out how much of the time allowed should be allotted to each task and stick to it.

Ring the named person on the recruitment exercise as we can only speculate.

I agree with the advice to check as it could be several things. If it is an inbox exercise it's hard to manage your time as more tasks arrive as you do the first ones, so my advice would be not to sit on anything to deal with later. It could be numerical and verbal reasoning. Or perhaps something else entirely.

Did you have to complete a competency based application form with examples? Your interview will be based on those, eg ‘Tell me about a time when you had to deliver at pace’ and you go over what was in your form. Also useful to have a second example as a back up.
The Written exercise could be anything to be honest. Could be an in tray type thing or it could be literacy and numeracy type thing.

OP, I've sent you a pm.

Long standing civil servant here. If you PM me more about the role I might be able to suggest what the written assessment might be like.

Also second the suggestion to ring them up and ask if they can give any more details! Not cheeky at all. Worst that can happen is they just say no, but they might give you a bit more info.

I'm a higher officer within civil service - what part of the civil service is the role in?

Congratulations on getting through round one. I was wondering how you got on!

You might be given a laptop for the written test, so not like an exam.

From what you've said previously, I'd expect the type of thing to be: You're given a big pile of information, and you have to extract from it and write a report, so testing the ability to extract important information and to convey it accurately in a concise and easily comprehensible form. If it's that, it's right up your street. (Caveat -my experience isn't recent)

Former civil servant here - is it the written English and Maths test by any chance?

When I applied I did the whole application form with examples for each core competence. Then I was invited to do the written English and Maths test (nothing to worry about, it was pretty simple) and if you passed that bit, you went through to the Interview stage where you nervously rambled non stop about your competency examples for about 20 minutes while two people asked questions. A week or so later I got a letter advising I'd got through and telling me I was on a waiting list to be placed in a role. I finally started work about 3 months later - the whole process runs very slowly sometimes!

If you've not done the Maths and Literacy tests yet, I imagine this is that, given they are a standard part of the process for all external applicants.

If you've not done the Maths and Literacy tests yet, I imagine this is that, given they are a standard part of the process for all external applicants. Are they? When did that start? The most recent recruitment I was involved in had job related assessments which would not have been possible without reasonable level of literacy, and numeracy wasn't a key part of the role. Things have changed a lot if it's now an across-the-board standard.

Executive officer isn't entry level .

My department do a written assessment for an EO post (and I have a funny feeling it could be the same post!). Essentially it is reading comprehension - read a few pages, pull out the relevant information, write a summary, can you spot mistakes/inconsistencies.

The EO role in my department involves drafting legal paperwork which can eventually go to court, so having a good standard of English is imperative - without having an assessment we were ending up with staff who could ace a competency based interview, but who didn't know how to write a basic paragraph!

I did it a long time ago but I was given a scenario of planning to build a prison. I had a stack of reports and letters and had to write a report. The documents were things like environmental reports, protest letters from local residents, financial reports and letters from prisoner’s family organisations. I had to summarise everything and make a recommendation. But this was many years ago so is probably different now

I am SEO (previously G7 - took decrease as have autistic children and needed to better my work/life balance) within a legal role in CS happy for a PM. At EO it could potentially be, perusing a letter and drafting a response (complaint etc), or a list of tasks and asked to formulate a plan to demonstrate yout ability to prioritise/multitask.

Also previous poster is correct, EO is not entry level which is AA - EO is 3rd from bottom level.

EO is effectively entry level for graduates now in London. Apart from a couple long-term admin people, the directorates I've been in in the last 5 years haven't had AOs and I don't think I've met a London-based AA in the last decade! Current place has some apprentices but otherwise all the newer staff are graduates in EO/HEO roles.

The written bit may well be along the lines of "your manager has been called into meetings all morning. She has asked you to produce a summary of these papers before she has to meet Important Person Involved in one hour. In no more than two sides of 12 point text, explain the issue, what decisions need to be made, blah"

Thanks so much for your posts everyone :) I emailed them earlier to ask for clarification on the written assessment, just in case they might be able to give any, but haven't heard from them yet. Will let you know if/when I hear back :)

Hi everyone :)

I've just had a reply saying that the written test be a drafting test which will mainly assess written English skills including punctuation and grammar. It'll last half an hour.

*will be

Clearly my proofreading skills leave a lot to be desired.

Earlier, I spoke to the person who's the point of contact for the role. They've suggested that the best way to prepare is to practise grammar and spelling. Does anyone have any other tips please? :)

Right, that’s quite helpful then - you know you just have to make sure you double check whatever you draft. I’d also encourage you to make sure it’s plain English, whatever the task - something about the civil service turns some perfectly ordinary people into bureaucratic, officious sounding weirdos when they write.

If there is a lot of material to get through before your drafting task, try to speed read / skim read.

The big tip for civil service applications though, is to thoroughly read the Civil Service Competency Framework (google it), and pay extra special attention to the expected behaviours / undesirable behaviours for EO. That’s exactly what you will be scored on so you will need to give evidence of how you have those competencies by having demonstrated those behaviours in past roles.

(Btw, I would also agree EO is entry level for central London, Whitehall departments...)

Sorry - I mean the Competency Framework is relevant for the interview and the written application you mention, almost certainly not the drafting task!

It's nothing to worry about, like the person said just make sure you know your grammar etc. They'll probably give you a letter and some information and ask you to draft a response. They call it an "in basket exercise" in my department.

Apart from a couple long-term admin people, the directorates I've been in in the last 5 years haven't had AOs and I don't think I've met a London-based AA in the last decade! On the Civil Service jobs site, they're still advertising AA roles in London, albeit not many of them. A few more at AO, including one in the Cabinet Office.