Advice for improving Civil Service Success Profiles interview scores

[Iwantthejob]

I've been applying to various civil service roles for months, all roles that I have all of the essential experience for, but I've been really disheartened as my Feedback scores have been low - 4 "acceptable", and not got through to interview.

I've finally managed to get an interview, still have only scored 4 acceptable for the application, but I'm dreading the interview as I'll be asked questions based on their Success Profiles, to which I must answer in STAR format, then I'll be scored again.

I'm looking for advice from people who have successfully been through this process on how I can score higher than a 4 in the interview. Also, should I be making notes at the interview before answering each question, in order to answer it well in the STAR format?

I'm just feeling disheartened at it all because I haven't worked full-time since having children, and before that, I had a successful career and was always offered almost every job I ever applied for. So the civil service recruitment way is really throwing me and I'm struggling with it!

Would really appreciate helpful advice on this.

I showed your post to DH who has run civil service recruitments. Nd got him to voice type the TED talk below:
So, answering CS behaviour based questions is a skill in it's own right. It is highly artificial and largely bollocks, that said it is the only way into most civil service jobs so if you want the job you've got to develop the skill. Key points: 1. Answer the question asked don't just trot out the best example you have of the relevant behaviour. 2. Minimise the time you spend on the Situation and Task, what the interviewers care about is the Actions you took and the Result. 3. Don't use we or hide in the group if at all possible. "I did this", "I took responsibility", etc. I think those are the big fundamentals and hope that helps.

As PP said. Answer the question. The interviewers are interested in what you did in a situation, not the team, and the outcome . If the interviewer asks you additional questions they are probably trying to get you to expand on your answer . You are allowed to have notes but don’t read verbatim and definitely don’t use AI in the actual interview ,if it’s on teams, as you will be disqualified . Good Luck

I've done shedloads of CS recruitment using Success Profiles and this is spot on. However, the one thing that most people don't do is say what you learnt from the situation or in solving the problem, if you'd approach it differently now and why. And it's perfectly acceptable to say that you'd do the same thing again if it worked well. That's the sort of thing that scores extra marks. Best of luck!

I would add if you are asked a supplementary question of did xyz happen? If its no say - not in that situation but that did happen in abc situation and this is what I did.

Don't take it personally. I am a leader in my (extremely niche technical) field and I didn't even get an interview at the Civil Service. 😂They don't value expertise or competence - especially technical - they value narrative building skills. I don't mean that people who work there don't have expertise or competence, only that their recruitment system aggressively eradicates any way of filtering for it. It's possible that this makes sense - if the most important thing needed by civil servants is narrative building (and this seems likely) then this is what they absolutely should filter on.

So don't take it personally. They just have their own priorities that may not match your own.

Study very line of the behaviour profile. Create a bank of examples. Make it about what you did and the impact you had. Not we or the team

Thanks everyone and apologies for taking so long to acknowledge the responses, I've only just had a notification come through that people have responded 😊

Honestly, I'm so grateful to all of you for your comments and tips, I'm very nervous and need to shake it off, be well prepared and come across as confident for the interview.

They haven't yet confirmed my interview date but I'm likely to have one week to prepare, so I'll be working hard on noting down examples for the success profiles they are interviewing against.

I am trying to drill "I I I" into myself, instead of "we", I'm not good at taking full credit for things even when I have been solely responsible for things.

I wish I'd posted now for advice before wasting so many days on so many other CS applications!

You’ll get marked on the exact behaviours specified and what you did.

I’m so sick of people saying this when it’s just not true. Yes, some generalist roles focus on transferable skills and behaviours but there are plenty of technical roles that hire based on experience and technical skills - behaviours are only one of the success profiles.

If you didn’t get an interview for a role you were qualified, I’d wager you expected your job titles and responsibilities to just speak for themselves instead of following the very clear guidance to write actual examples of how you have used your technical skills. I personally prefer civil service interviews where at least you are told what kind of questions you will be asked, and the adverts always say what you will need to do for your application. Whenever I look at private sector jobs you have to register and start an application just to find out what you even have to do to apply.

As for the OP, you need to say which success profiles you are being tested on (behaviours? technical skills?), the grade and the type of role or profession or it’s hard for people to advise. Everyone here so far has assumed you are answering behaviour questions but they aren’t always used.

I read the success profiles, and it's a narrative building exercise.

I was pretty careful to say that's ok - it's up to them. I was just trying to say to the OP not to get too down because it is a very specific and unusual style of recruitment.

But CS people get super touchy about this on MN - I've seen it before actually. Can you reflect (for yourself, I'm not going to bunfight) on why you decided to assume all those things and sort of aggressively have a go at me? What did you want from it? Did you get what you wanted? Have a think.

Good luck OP!

What grade is it? If you score a 4 you generally pass the bar for the behaviour. However, it is currently very competitive and to score a 5-6 you need to select the appropriate level example for the grade and stretch it above. I have repeatedly been told that if i changed my task and situation I would score more so people who say recruiters don’t care are wrong - they do. If you are applying for SEO your task and situation should show elements of G7 for example leading a project but also leading through others by delegating and task/line managing that will score you a 5. If you are applying for G7 your task and situation need to show the strategic context. In all cases the result should show impact of your actions. The actions itself should be the line of the behaviour but in detail - think how would you explain to someone how to make a cup of tea. I have scored 5s and 6s when my answers were 5-6 minutes. But interviews for my profession and in my department are very strict and require a lot of technical skill. For some roles and departments is easier. If you want more targeted advice I am happy to chat but it is helpful to know the grade and the department. Interview for an HEO in operational department is different than that in ministerial department regardless of the STAR format. Yes the framework and behaviours are the same but the skills they look at are often very different (as is the level of competition)