Civil service interview, strength-based question - is this normal???!

[curmudgeonly]

Had an interview for a civil service post, which I didn't get. I felt the feedback on the competency-based questions was absolutely spot on. However, at the end of the interview, I had one strength-based question, which was "Tell us about the thing you've done in the last year that you're proudest of."

I immediately answered completing my MA, as this has taken me years part-time, alongside juggling multiple work and family commitments, and I was really proud of finishing my dissertation and doing well. For this response, I scored a "3".

Which makes me wonder what would score a 5 or 6? Had I answered instead, which is also true, that I was proud of spending time with my DF as he was dying, would this have been rated as higher or lower than completing an MA? What about if I'd picked a work example??

I simply don't see how anyone can possibly 'rank' other people's feelings of pride in something objectively, let alone give it a numerical score, let alone think that that provided any remotely useful basis for making decisions in an employment area that has nothing to do with any of this?

My dh, who also works in the civil service and has both conducted and taken part in many, many interviews, says he has never heard of the strength-based question being used like this, and suggested I should query this. But I'm reluctant to do this, as I might want to apply for other posts there, and wouldn't have qualified for the role anyway, on the basis of my other scores.

But going forward, I'd like to be able to do better in this question. Does anyone know what kind of response would get a high score?? Do I have to say I climbed Mount Everest or pushed through a bit of work against all the odds? What if it's something outside work that I'm actually proudest of? How is this or can this be scored?

FWIW, I do also wonder if a bit of unconscious ageism and/or sexism may also have been at play - my interviewers were both early 30s at most and I wonder if seeing me as an 'older mum' (it's obvious from my CV that I've fitted work around children) might have made them see me as less suitable for a management role, or feel less comfortable having me working under them? Also, not really 'getting', as it's so outside their experience, how completing an MA in your 40s against a backdrop of multiple competing work and family demands is actually a huge achievement, and much harder than doing it straight out of university as a full-time student?

All thoughts helpful, thanks.

Purely a 'face value' comment, they were probably expecting the candidate to use the opportunity to talk about a work-related success, to show-case a major project delivery they'd made against the odds, or that they had saved their organisation £2M due to a process improvement etc.

You need to remember an interview is like any exam, you'll be confronted with questions and you have to give the interview panel what they need to tick their box, not necessarily information that you think is a "logical" right answer.

I simply don't see how anyone can possibly 'rank' other people's feelings of pride in something objectively, let alone give it a numerical score, let alone think that that provided any remotely useful basis for making decisions in an employment area that has nothing to do with any of this?

Your example of completing your MA may have been a proud moment for you, but it probably didn't tick their box. You have to get inside their heads and see what's of value to them. As you've alluded to, Civil Service interviews are very prescriptive because they are trying to create the level playing field, even where there is variability. They'll get numerous answers from candidates and they'll rate them according to strongest, weakest and everything in between.

Also bear in mind that in competency based interviewing it’s not so much the example you use but what you say about it.

To take it slightly to extremes, completing an MA is far more impressive than getting a 10m swimming badge but if it was explained as “I’m most proud of getting an MA because it means I will get paid more in my next job” compared to “I was terrified of water from an early age, this year I’ve learned to overcome my fear and a 10m swimming badge, while trivial in itself, has shown me that persistence, hard work and self belief can let me accomplish anything and I now want to take this into the workplace and apply the same skills to help my employer”.

Hello - my experience is that they are rating not only what you say, but how you say it (Similar to HipHop's comment) and will give a high score to a structured answer that explains not only what you are proud of, but why and what it achieved. A common way to structure competency answers is using the STAR technique (situation, task, action, result). So, you could say:
SITUATION: I'm most proud of getting an MA part-time over three years TASK: This was a challenge because I had to juggle it with full-time work, a family et...
ACTION: I did this through effective timekeeping, tight organisation of my work etc...
RESULT: This led to my MA, which has opened up new doors due to x, y, z, and is something that I can look on with satisfaction and pride.

Agree with pp, it's about the more detailed content of your answer as much the overall thing. Tell me about a time your most proud of, although a strength based question is still looking at the self awareness competency. So you should still try and structure the content of your answer to the star approach. And don't forget the second r which is to reflect in what you learnt from your example

I think it’s a fairly standard question ( I have had 2 interviews in the last month - different industry, regulated financial services - and both have asked this). I actually used a similar answer, I used completing an equity release qualification and a diploma, while working and juggling childcare - but answered in more of the STAR technique above.

Strengths are out of 4 so your score is a good one

This is part of the new success profiles framework, so it’s not competency based. The behaviours part is similar to competencies, but strengths is about your natural reactions to the questions. Ask your DH to log you into his Civil Service Learning account and then have a look at the guidance for recruiters, there are some videos on there which will help you understand what is being tested in the strengths bit.

Strengths are scored out of 4 as civserv said. 3 is potential strength and 4 is strength. 1 is weakness and 2 is learned behaviour. They’re assessing your body language and engagement, they would have asked you a warm up baseline strength question at the beginning and then compared your reaction to that.

As someone who has both been interviewed and interviewed people using the strengths questions, it’s very effective. You think you can fake it but you can’t! My best tip would be to always make sure you’re talking about “I”, as soon as you start talking in theory (e.g. well you have to be organised, don’t you...” it goes wrong.

Actually I think the question you were asked was a badly chosen strengths question to score, it would have been fine as a warmup but it wouldn’t have tested any of the strengths in the Strengths Dictionary they’re supposed to use.

The other points you mentioned don’t come into it. Everyone involved in interviewing is supposed to complete the CS unconscious bias training to avoid it. I’ve been on interview panels where we knew the candidate was wrong for the job but we scored impartially and they were offered the job as they interviewed well and scored the points.