Civil Service Pre-recorded Video Interview next week

[Sleepingsun]

Hi,

I have a pre-recorded video interview next week for EO grade.
Has anyone done this? What should I expect..? I have done video and telephone interviews recently but not anything like this.
This is also my first civil service interview.

I have been trying to prepare for it by looking at the behaviours closely as I assume it will be competency based questions relating to those.

One thing I am struggling to get my head around is what are the strength based questions I have seen mentioned? (In previous threads about civil service interviews)

I know there are different strengths linked to different behaviours so I am correct in thinking that if they for example ask a question about Delivering At Pace, I then have to try and demonstrate as many strengths from that behaviour in my answer as possible?

Apologies if my post is a bit confusing but hopefully you'll understand what I am trying to ask

Thank you in advance.

What areas have they said you will be tested on? Have they specifically listed strengths? Not every CS interview will go down the strengths route. They will usually say in the application pack what they will test on e.g experience, behaviours, strengths. I've been to 3 CS interviews this last month, only one had strengths.

Thanks for you reply @changeruset2748, that's great you have had three interviews for the CS recently. Were they all very different?
Re my interview, it says on the pack that they will assess on experience, behaviours and strengths. They do mention which behaviours but not which strengths.

Ok great, so you can use your behaviours from your application (check the score in feedback to see how well you did). Theyll probably do strengths first, then behaviours. If they do an experience question it should be quite easy like tell us about your experience in X. But to do all 3 in one interview would be quite a lot, I'd expect it to be strengths and behaviours with experience covered in your application.

Strengths are pretty hard to prepare for, they will measure how enthusiastic you come across to see how believable your answer is. I looked at the strengths dictionary, wrote down the words related to the behaviours tested on, and had an example written next to each one ONLY to prompt me a bit if I froze. You don't need to do a STAR response to a strength based question, you should be answering in about 2 mins. The questions can vary wildly, but the key is to not be too enthusiastic in the base line first question that's not scored, and be much more enthusiastic and believable in the following strength questions. If it asks if an A or B question, e.g do you like strict instructions or an open objective, commit to answer, don't say "a bit of both" consider the grade of the role as to which is the better response.

The idea is you can't really fake strengths. You can't really prepare, it needs to be genuine and natural. They're not scored as much as behaviours, but try your best as lots of candidates trip up here so it's a good opportunity to grab some points.

Thank you so much @changeruset2748. All the info you have given to me is great and so helpful! I have also looked at the CS Success Profiles documents again more closely and with all this info now have much better idea. It is good to know that I can't prepare much for the strengths but will definitely look at the ones linked to behaviours which will be assessed.

No worries, a very kind civil servant talked me through the whole process and it made so much sense and I felt so much more confident for it, so will pay it forward when I can! Good luck!

Wow, that's amazing! Thanks, I definitely feel more confident now and have an idea what to prepare for too.

@Sleepingsun
I have a pre-recorded civil service interview coming up very soon and was wondering if you only get 1 shot at recording your answers for an interview or can you record your answer multiple times? I would love to know.

They won’t tell you what strength the question relates to in the interview. It will only be one strength. The scoring prioritises engagement (which is more or less the same as enthusiasm) and use/capability, so being able to show you feel positive about doing whatever it is they’re asking about is important.

They’re looking for you to explain your thinking in the response too, rather than just saying you do something. If they’re asking you about resilience they might ask something like ‘how do you feel when things don’t go the way you wanted them to?’. You’d want to answer the question and explain how you feel and how that translates into your actions.

For both strengths and behaviours the really important thing is being clear about what you did and explaining your rationale. It can be quite easy to get caught up in outlining the process - I did this, this, and this. But it’s better to explain why you did this (and perhaps why you discounted that) and to reflect upon how that choice led to the outcome. If it were communicating and influencing, for example, telling them that you made a PowerPoint, presented it and it was well received is less useful and interesting that explaining why a PowerPoint was the right tool to use, how (with some detail) you tailored it to your audience and why it was well received.

Strengths are scored 1-4 (often with a pass mark of 2 or higher). Behaviours are scored 1-7 (with a pass mark of 4 or higher).

The format could be behaviours then strengths, strengths then behaviours, or a mix of the two (e.g. behaviour. Strength. Behaviour. strength).

I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to game the initial/baseline question. Just be yourself.

Paying attention to the questions and making sure you answer them, give details and explain your reasoning are much better things to focus on.

Good luck.

[quote Beehen]@Sleepingsun
I have a pre-recorded civil service interview coming up very soon and was wondering if you only get 1 shot at recording your answers for an interview or can you record your answer multiple times? I would love to know.[/quote]
You only get one chance per question but you can pause between questions if you need to

@Sleepingsun
Ahh I see! Thank you!

Hello,
i was wondering if you could help me with pre-recorded interview questions for civil service as i have to do pre-recorded interview in the next 2 days.
please let me know what sort of questions can come up.

thank you.

Hi everyone - this thread is really useful thank-you, I have my pre recorded interview coming up and I am just wondering how many questions are asked in total? Thanks