I was hoping someone would be able to provide me with some advice and tips on preparing for my interview with the Civil Service, especially the competencies.
I have applied for an AO position, doing admin, data entry and casework processing. This will be my first full time job since my 1 year contract ended at the beginning of last year, and my son was born 18 months ago (currently working part time at weekends in a shop). My previous experience is Management Information doing Data Analysis and Reporting in both Finance and Education.
The competencies I will be tested on is Making Effective Decisions, Delivering at Pace and Managing a Quality Service.
When applying for the job, I thought I produced really good competency examples, making sure to use the STAR method, however I’ve only been rated as 4 (acceptable demonstration). On the sift feedback, I’ve only been given a rating of 4 for two competencies (a time I’ve worked quickly and accurately, maintaining attention to detail; and completed a large volume of work within a tight timescale). I have not been given a rating for communicating with a range of people, ensuring it’s tailored a clear. I’m wondering if that is because I won’t be assessed on communication, as it sounds more like Leading and Communicating than Making Effective Decisions.
I was hoping to use these examples again for my interview (obviously can’t use the communicating one again) as well as preparing some other examples as back ups, but I’m now worried they were not strong enough. In one of my previous jobs I applied a few times for a higher role, only to fail on the competencies (not strong enough examples, and nerves made me lose focus).
I really don’t want to fail, so would love any advice. I’ll give a brief summary of my examples below so as not to clog up this post.