Probation Services Officer.

[Summerlovings]

Hi, first time poster here. I was recently successful in a job interview to be a Probation Services Office. My question is do you need to be able to drive to be a Probation Services Officer? I did ask at the end of the interview if you needed your own Car/transport and the interviewer said no. But I forgot to clarify whether or not you needed to be able to drive to do the job. There is nothing in the job description that mentions about a driving licence being needed. I do have a license but it's been a long time since I've driven. Thanks in advance.

@Jamie4567 hi.. just wondered if you’ve heard anything back. If yes how long did it take for your checks to come back? Someone was saying he heard back within 6 weeks . I am in my seventh week still nothing .

Anushree996
It took nearly 9 weeks for my employment checks to be completed and then afterwards you wait about a week then they contact you and give you a start date. Mine is 31st July and on the 17th July I have a induction with my line manager before I start. So hopefully you should hear either next week the week after and your start date will most likely be the end of August hope that helps

@Jamie4567 thats amazing . Congratulations. Thanks so much for replying. Now it makes sense. I was panicking. Thought they are taking longer than usual.

Hi! I applied for pso and passed the csjt. Wondering how long sifting takes? Interviews were expected to start August 7th (subject to change). I applied pretty close to the closing date as I only spotted the ad towards the end. When did you hear back roughly after your application went through to sifting? I received the news I passed the test on 17/07/23. I'm way too impatient for this process lol. Any details would be appreciated. No idea if I'll even get through to interview but good to know for next time I guess. Thanks in advance!

Hi Tash. I’ll share my timeline with you. I passes csjt on 21st march and i got an email on 17th april for inviting me for interview. Interview was on 21st april. Got results in a week . its a very long process. You’ll hear back in a week a two.

Hi thanks for that. I have been invited to interview but am notoriously bad at them. I can even go blank at times and just have to ask to move on to another question. Is there any advice you can give me? What questions were asked? I know they can ask anything but I'd feel better if I had some input. I'm good in person but unfortunately this is online and for some reason I am awful online.

I can’t remember the exact questions asked but there weren’t many so I’d try my best to not ask to skip any if I was you. The interviewers made me feel really at ease. The most important thing is to think about how the experience you have in your current/ previous jobs relates to working in probation. So for example, people skills, working under pressure, being able to prioritise tasks, dealing with people in a non-judgemental manner, any experience you have of safeguarding, completing paperwork and reports (that’s a very important one).

@Tash80 interview questions are mainly based on your past experiences and situations . They particularly want to see how you would react on certain situations . They also you to describe through your answers how you helped someone to change their behaviour. How you tacked a tough situation, etc. take your time to understand the question and then think of a situation where you can relate it. Stay calm and relaxed as the questions are all from your life experiences and behaviours. You’ll get the results within a week. Pre employment checks take the longest. My came back in 11 weeks as right now there is a lot of backlog. Good luck with your application. I’m pretty sure you will make it through . All the best.

Thank you and @Idratherbepaddleboarding for your responses. They're both helpful and have prompted me to think of a few things that could be useful in the interview. Hoping I'll perform better than previously as I definitely want this role far more than the other one where I tanked. Thanks again!

Guys I interviewee yesterday.. I don't think I did too well. I was confident in the beginning then became gradually more nervous. I didn't always answer with examples and answered more generally for questions that probably required examples. Did you provide examples for every question? I think my interview was too weak to be considered which is such a shame as I feel confident I could be of use in this role. They gave me a very specific date that I'd hear back from them on 21st. Is this a bad sign?

@Tash80 hopefully you’ll be fine tash. None of us are perfect . I remember i messed up with a few questions as well. Later on i thought i could have answered in a better way. May be they know the exact date now . At my time they only said that I’ll get the outcome in a weeks time . And they said good luck to me with whatever the results will be which made me so nervous at that time 😁.

I flopped the biggest question- how have you helped someone develop. This was so key and for some reason the example I wanted to use for this fell out my head so I came up with something entirely different and gave such a lame example. I think this is what would have cost me. Live and learn ey. Will try again in 6 months. I will confirm my success/failure in due course lol!

Sorry guys last question! Can I just ask if you got the job, were you notified via email/portal or by phone? Thank you

@Tash80 By email hun. I remember keep checking my emails as they said they would notify me within a week. All the best and let me know the outcome . I am sure you’ll get through as I messed up with a few questions too 🙈

Hello all! So as suspected I did botch my interview a bit but am thankful to have been placed on a reserve list rather than have a straight rejection. The email is a little confusing as it does imply I'll be offered a position once all interviews are conducted whilst saying this could take up to 12 months (knowing that my time on the list expires at 12 months also).

Do any of you happen to know anyone who got the job from the reserve list? Any info on this would be helpful.

I’m sorry about the interview. I don’t know anyone who was put on the reserve list but I do know we are very short staffed! It may be that a place will come up but you may have to travel further to get to the office.

Well I'm in London and so is the post. I'm happy to go for many of the locations advertised as I have a strong interest in forensic psychology and this is of course an excellent role to support further study in this field. If anyone wants to know my feedback score I'd be happy to share and maybe that would give greater indication as to whether or not I did well enough to be higher on the list.

Or maybe I should just put it to bed for a while as either way, I'm in for a few months wait at the least (longer if you include vetting). I did ask recruitment if reserves get used and he did say, "if they didn't we wouldn't have one" lol so that's positive ey haha. Take care all

@Tash80 Hi tash. I am a member of pso group on fb . Someone posted today that they’ve been put on reserve list to which the other person replied that they received the same email but was offered the role just after a week. There is a high turnover in this job. You might hear something very soon.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3330798677177509/permalink/3528494980741210/
heres the link to the post. If you want to join the group, you can. Its very informative and one can clear all doubts on here.

Thanks a bunch you've been so helpful... I got sent a conditional offer this morning! So I was on reserve for 24 hours haha. So pleased 😀

@Tash80 thats amazing . Congratulations. Make sure to send pre employment checks form as soon as you can as it took them 11 weeks to complete in my case.

@Tash80 congratulations on getting the job!🥳

I’ve recently applied for a PSO role. How long was the recruitment process from start to end, and what type of questions were asked in the interview - was it just an interview only or was there an assessment too? x

Hi there

I applied in July as the post was closing, I interviewed in August and received news late August I had been given the provisional offer. Pre employment checks took almost 5 weeks (late September) and due to have a call on Friday to discuss start date/hours. I hope to start in December. So, by the end it should have taken 5 months lol. Not a short process at all. I'm joining a court not sure how much the role differs but I look forward to it. Interview only, fairly relaxed. As long as you have experience working with multiple agencies and evidence based practice, personable, empathetic etc you should be able to answer with good examples. Your examples will come into play towards the end of the interview moreso I'd say. Don't be afraid to talk about your examples from your application as the interviewer won't have seen that.

@Tash80 okay thank you very much and wish you all the best with the new role!

can anyone help with interview questions as i have mine tomorrow

PLEASE

@Maracamzico Hi, I know it was some time ago now, but can you remember the interview questions for this role? I have an interview next week. Thank You