Senior Civil Service Interview

[Catssitonmats]

Long time poster here who has name changed as paranoid about people at work having recognised my previous username. I have an interview coming up for a senior civil service Deputy, Director post. The other stages of the process seem to have gone well so I don't want to mess up the interview. I have no experience of the civil service success profiles and was wondering if anyone who has been through a similar interview has any advice? I presume I prepare STAR type answers for the behaviour s they are going to test but what other types of questions can they ask? Broadly how many questions are likely? How long should answers be? Very grateful for any advice. I do think insiders with knowledge of the process are at a bit of an advantage as I have no clue and anything I can find online seems to relate to HEO / SEO level jobs.

Sorry, just an optimistic boost incase anyone has any advice.

No one has an inside advantage OP. If you can’t even Google this yourself (based on the info in the candidates pack if it wasn’t in there) then you really aren’t ready for a Grade 7 job. It involves taking on a significant amount of responsibility and you “haven’t a clue” about how to find this. Not a great sign is it. Consider it the first test.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles

Yes to star format. They'll ask you for evidence against every behaviour listed on the advert as being assessed at interview. All interview questions have to be the same for every candidate so anything you will be interviewed on, will be on the advert - for example, if there are any mandatory previous experiences etc.

Good luck x

@SweetBabyCheeses99 everyone can't be as on it as you, maybe pre interview nerves are at play. Being nice is free... being patronising may also be free, but also makes you an arse.

Thank you Holly Dolly that is really helpful. Sweetbabycheese I have done days of googling and memorised the behaviours from the success profile, but that wasn't what I was asking. I would have thought it is human nature when going into the unknown to try and ask others who have gone through it before for their experience.

[quote HollyDollyDooDaa]@SweetBabyCheeses99 everyone can't be as on it as you, maybe pre interview nerves are at play. Being nice is free... being patronising may also be free, but also makes you an arse.[/quote]
Agree, that was a horrible response. Hope she feels better for it though.

You need to prepare answers in STAR format. 'Ticking off' the behaviours and being able to demonstrate them is everything - sometimes even over the ability to actually do the job in practice, based on my experience there.

You'll get about 5 questions - these should be relatively predictable based on what role in which department you're going for; do some prepared answers and then go back and make sure you are ticking off as many behaviours as possible in the candidate's pack which they sent out to you.

Have you done the assessment centre already?

Best of luck.

Sorry OP no advice as I'm not at SCS level (yet ) but would be really interested to hear how it all went. SCS recruitment is a mystery to me after feeling like I've got the lower bit nailed! I will volunteer to participate in the next focus group, but would love to hear how it went for you.

Good luck with it all!!

How did you find it @Catssitonmats?
Any tips?