Help - civil service interview

[toonervous]

I have an interview tomorrow, it’s for a role which will be a step up for me as a team manager.

I work in public sector currently and this is a move into civil service, I’ve not worked for civil service before.

I’ve been reading up on the application pack and the strengths and behaviours for level 3 I need to demonstrate and I think I’m kidding myself on this. The interview process sounds tough and I think I’ll be grilled, it’s competency questions and other questions, plus an assessment.

I’ve had some setbacks recently so feeling low. I’m close to cancelling as I’m scared but I’d really like to progress and get the experience.

any tips if you’ve gone for a civil service interview

I was applying for EO roles within the civil service and kept ending up on reserve lists - always a strong candidate and just pipped to the post.

I took a chance and applied for an HEO role. Again didn't get it but hiring manager asked for a chat. I missed the post by 1 Mark and the successful candidate was doing the job in an adjacent department so would have been hard to beat. Anyway, That manager found me a role and I was recruited from the reserve list and start 1st May.

For interview I made sure I covered the associated strengths for the competencies. I prepared 2 possible answers for each competency because I couldn't know what specific question they would ask. I had another screen that I had large print bullet points for each competency of things I needed to make sure I covered. It definitely helped because I hadn't prepared for the actual question in one competency (making effective decisions: they asked about a time I made the wrong decision) but my bullet points kept me on track. That was my highest scoring one where I got a 6 as it turns out.

I think they key point is to prepare as much as you can. Know the associated strengths and include a reflection at the end of the answer. I also included "so in this job, my experience/skill in xxxx will be beneficial because xxxx".

Good luck! I've don't lots of interviews and never felt grilled. All interviewers worked really hard to make it as comfortable as possible.

Civil servant here. Don’t cancel! Try to remember that the interview panel want you to do well! We’re trying to get the best out of you, not trip you up.

My best tip is to listen to the actual question you’re being asked. Sometimes people have done lots of prep and have pre-planned answers all written out or planned in their heads, and are so set on reading those that they don’t actually listen to what they’re being asked. This can also happen with follow-up questions - we’ll ask for more detail about something (as we’re trying to help you score the most points) and won’t get a direct answer, or sometimes people try to give a second example instead of answering what we’ve asked about the first one.

If you’re asked for a specific scenario - ‘tell me about a time when you did X…’ - then don’t waste time with a general overview of your experience in X. Go straight into a specific example.

And sorry, but I disagree with the previous poster’s advice to say “so in this job, my experience/skill in xxxx will be beneficial because xxxx” unless it’s somehow really non-obvious that you’re talking about something relevant and transferable and you think we need it explained (eg that thing is specific to another industry and we might not have heard of it). We are scoring you on your evidence of doing the thing you were asked to give an example of. Focus on doing that. I get that saying this evidently worked for PP, but I’ve sat on lots of hiring panels and it’s not something I’d be looking for. I’d rather you focused on answering the question you’ve actually been asked.

Good luck!