To ask about Civil Service interviews - using non-work examples in strengths answers?

[Cellardoor7]

Posting for traffic, if that’s okay.

I recently had an SEO interview where I scored well on strengths (3s for each question) but didn’t get the role.

I then had a feedback chat with the vacancy manager who recommended I use as broad a range of examples as possible in my strengths answers. She recommended using non-work examples, which she says she often uses.

As I’ve heard mixed views from others on using non-work examples in strengths answers, I’d would be keen to hear your thoughts. Is it okay to use a mix of work and recent non-work (eg volunteering/playing in an orchestra/learning a new skill) examples in my strengths answers, or best to stick to work examples? Thanks!

i think thats what i need for furture attempts is the main question then sub questions that help detail the answers

Some interviewers will prompt, but some won’t. I’m personally of the view I want to get the best out of everybody so I will prompt people to help them get their full answer, but some interviewers are hesitant to do so because it can be harder to guarantee fairness and consistency in how you interview everyone, your unconscious bias may lead to you helping some candidates more than others, I try to be very mindful of this.

So it’s best to prepare as if you won’t get any prompts.

For behaviours (not strengths as per OP) there are 6 or 7 bullets for each one for each grade which provides examples of what the panel is looking for. All on the website. E.g." Delivering at pace
Examples of delivering at pace at EO grade or equivalent are when you:

• regularly review the success of activities in the team to identify barriers to progress or challenging objectives
• identify who and what is required to ensure success, set clear goals and areas of responsibility and continually assess workloads considering individual needs
• follow relevant policies, procedures and legislation to complete your work
• ensure colleagues have the correct tools and resources available to them to do their jobs
• have a positive and focused attitude to achieving outcomes, despite any setbacks
• regularly check performance against objectives, making suggestions for improvement or taking corrective action where necessary
• ensure that colleagues are supported where tasks are challenging"

Obviously covering all is impossible but important to weave as much into answer as possible along with HOW. Panels can spot lipservice and buzz word dropping a mile off.

Hi, i’m a G7 and yes i’m happy to hear non work examples, volunteer work / church etc

@Lovesplasticstraws very much appricated thank you

daft question whats a g7 ?

Its the grade above SEO which is the grade the applicant applied for and I have interviewed a lot of SEO’s

much appricated

I’m an SEO in the CS and I conduct interviews for people applying for SEO positions. It’s absolutely fine to use non-work examples as long as the skills are transferable.

Not in civil service, but I worked for global well known company for 30 years. Did competency based interviewing for about 23 of those.

we never ever worried about the situation bit in the STARs, Or worried about lot about the T (task) as long as it was specifically their task. We wanted to know actions and results. For example a lot of women who’ve become mums have a she’d load of organisational, management experience which massively outstrips sort of experience they may have had at work.

you’re looking for how the person responds to the tasks, what they did whether well or not so well, their self awareness, their ability to learn form mistakes, their humility yet confidence, whether they can work truely as part of a team doing grunge work and not just when they’re the leading light. Etc etc. many really valuable examples come form outside of work

if you can get by on just work examples, then that’s fine. Though a bit dull in terms of finding out if you’d fit culturally in terms of personality.

This is true. And why it’s so important to really select stars you are emotionally engaged in - your finest moments, your worst moments, your uh oh moments, the could have done it differently, the yep did that one according to book etc etc

and practice, till you’re not just recounting the STAR and putting whatever emphasis is needed for the competency they’re asking..but to talk with passion.

we don’t say that enough about interviews. I want to see a bit of passion somewhere!

I have always used a mixture of work and non work examples in interviews for public sector roles, 100% success rate so far in the last 28 years. DS had an interview for apprenticeship at age 16 in public sector, he had very limited work experience as hadnt even left school at that point but he used sports, DofE and part time work examples.

I do a fair amount of interviewing and the number of people who dont link any of their examples in their answers to the JD is ridiculous, also I have had a few who didnt have any questions prepared to ask us.

thats what i thought would matter when i answered my star examples basically what happened what tasks were needed to be completed what i did to achieve it and what the result was.

not a well the situation was this i could use this method or i could use this method and this could be this or this could have achieve that result etc

But the important thing is what the interviewer/s feel. Of course the candidate can use non-work examples it shows that they are a rounded person and can use their judgement about what is important about their own strengths. Just make sure that you have some work examples to talk about when answering some of the questions.

Umm…we’d put a hell of a lot more on the R piece …maybe that’s because we were a business. The R is the “so what”…what difference did I make as employee , the difference to the bottom line, company ethics, culture, regulatory requirements, quality , or whatever…and perhaps even the difference it made to that individual in terms of learning or success.

so for us it was

S= 5% …I really don’t need to know how another company runs it’s show
T=15% what were my, specifically mine, not a teams, task, what was the context of that
A = 40-50%
R =40-50%

don’t overlook Results, they’re so important even in civil service. They want people who make a difference.

so the star method can be subjective depending on the role and company etc

I don't score anything for S or T, they are just context. All the points are A, and I want to know what you did and why you decided to do it the way you did, R shouldn't be one stat I want contextualised outcomes of how what you did achieved organisational priorities and outcomes. What change did you influence through your actions then I want to hear an extra E for evidence, stats, feedback etc. (G7)

I interview and use the best example you can from wherever

It doesnt take very long to talk through results, as I say we tend to measure individual impact during the action most of all. It wasn’t a perfect formula; it’ll depend on example, person, timing etc, but generally speaking that is the ratio I have been guided towards. The result can even be negative! Sometimes things don’t go to plan outside of our control etc, what we care about is actions, that is the most important thing.

I don’t need to be patronised, I’ve been doing this a long time, I was just trying to help somebody else trying to enter the CS.

Just to add in agreement to the other poster we don’t mark S or T either; but it helps the shape of the example. Context is pretty important to assess the behaviour in its entirety.

Thanks all!

I add a second R for Reflection - what worked well, didn’t work well, even better if…

I interview for a non civil service public body and I am happy to hear a mix of work and non work examples.

Be careful about using too many non work ones though. I once rejected an internal application for a role as pretty much all their examples were for their non work hobby. The role they currently did, while not the same as the one they had applied for, should have given them a lot of examples they could use to evidence competencies. So it left me wondering if they either did not understand the role they had applied for or did not fully understand how to identify and apply transferrable skills.