Civil Service Strength Interview

[ChiChiUg]

Lost my job when I was pregnant. Was practically sick throughout the 9 months. Decided to take the time off and raise my kids. Now I am back to job hunting and CS seems like a good start because of my work gap as the process doesn't ask for CV. Got to the interview stage after much preparation and was unsuccessful. Feedback- would have scored higher in strengths with less generalized answers. My question is, do you answer strength based question in the same format, STAR as the behavioural ones. For example "are you emotionally resilient" do you say yes and then proceed to give a scenario when you have been emotionally resilient using the STAR technique?

@ChiChiUg, no probs!, I think I applied and interviewed for about 6 jobs before I cracked it so I agree with applying for jobs you might not necessarily want just to get the practice in, I also found that my same answers were marked differently on different applications!
Strength based questions will be used more in the future as they are planning on doing large recruitment drives to cover numerous roles.
Good luck 🤞

@Ilikewinter thanks for the encouragement. Back on my feet right now lol. I was literally in tears on friday when I saw the rejection mail. Will take all advice on board.

I can't offer any constructive advice at all, but does it not strike anyone else as a ridiculous recruitment system? Mystery scoring against criteria the candidate isn't told? And having to be fake upbeat and smiley?

Might as well hold a tiddlywinks competition for all it will tell you about someone's ability to actually do the job!

I've done some CS sifting and interviewing over the last couple of years and the guidance was 2 to 3 strength based questions at interview and zero guidance on how to score them!
Are you applying to multiple Departments? Other Depts may have a different approach - I've never heard of 10 strength based questions being asked to one interviewee before. 5 is a strong behaviours score to me too, 4s and 5s would have been good enough to secure the jobs I've been involved in recruiting for. Are you applying for lower grade roles? They may be more competitive due to higher applicant numbers?

@Motorina yup, it is a very strange process - they are trying so hard to make it completely open, transparent and objective that it is now just a formulaic tick box exercise.

Er, the criteria is very much told - in black and white in every job description. And it has to be due to being the Civil Service.

Not the vacancy holders fault if people do not read it/understand it or don't speak with vacancy holders first to ask what is expected.

@emsyj37 this was for the Immigration Officers EO London and Croydon that was just concluded. One behavioural question and then more than 10 strength questions. If one is new in the application system you wouldn't know your answers are timed which I feel is quite unfair. The procedures should be clearly stated to help applicants with preparation. Was using STAR for strength questions but in this case less is more.

@HelplessSoul yes to a very great extent the criteria is stated. Experiencing the actual interview can give you a better understanding of what is required. In all, its been a great experience for me.

I think the issue with CS is that it is not just the criteria that are specific, but the way in which you are required to demonstrate that you meet them. As an interviewer you can't make any assumptions or reach any conclusions unless it's explicitly set out. So whereas in the private sector you may be able to say "I did x role for 5 years and got maximum bonus and promoted twice in that time" and the interviewer would think oh, they have 5 years experience and were considered very good at this role - this sort of claim in a CS interview would be meaningless as it isn't a specific example of a particular behaviour. It is a very different process from private sector.