Ok, I have an interview coming up. Absolutely amazed I got through the initial sift, but I put a lot of effort into the application and they have evidently seen something they like.

So to the interview. I’ve put a lot of work into the understanding of the Department, how my role fits in, what I can bring and can craft my technical and experience answers and presentation to issues the Department has to overcome. The 5 minute presentation (I’ve read power point slides should not be used) will be ok – should I try and get as many points in as possible or go into a few number in more detail? It’s the (competency) behaviour and strength questions I’m struggling with. As I understand it, strength question answers should be short and to the point and behavioural answers a few minutes long using STAR. Am I right in stating they are quite generic and don’t specifically have to relate to the technical skills (to attract applicants from other areas)? Also, am I getting marked on demonstrating as many strengths as possible which are associated with each Behaviour?

Well done on getting the interview!

I have worked in the CS for a decade or so and been on numerous interview panels, including in the last six months.

My advice: STAR is indeed everything for the ‘competency’ questions (and note they are actually now called behaviours). You should expect to speak for about 5 minutes per behaviour question, based on one specific example and using STAR. It doesn’t matter at all if this is the example you used in your application – in fact its probably better if it is, as you’ve likely already identified that as your best one.

The above said, watch out for how the question is worded and do answer it directly rather than just describing the behaviour you think they are asking about – you’ll have to think on your feet. Especially true if you’re interviewing for SEO or above. Check the expectations for grade for each behaviour (described at the link above), and try and make very clear in your answer how you meet these.

Strength questions are separate, short, and snappy. A basic example of a strength question for a HEO role might be ” Would others describe you as adaptable? If so, why?”. Aim to speak for about a minute, and you could structure it by first saying how your personality meets the strength, and then follow with a mini-STAR example, or equally draw on more than one example. Demonstrating enthusiasm in your body language and tone is important here, as well as the answer you give.

Good luck 🙂

I can’t speak to the presentation element as I’ve never bothered asking for those in interviews I’ve conducted 😀

Good luck – the interview will certainly be harder than the actual job 😀

when I did the civil service interviewing course (15yrs ago), points win prizes. if you tick more boxes than the other applicants, you’ll get the job.

and from memory, they can only assess you on whats in the published job specification.

things might have changed (left the CS 12yrs ago), but i doubt it…

Remember to wear a bowtie

Also, am I getting marked on demonstrating as many strengths as possible which are associated with each Behaviour?

You can cross score, so you can positively demonstrate different behaviours in questions I.e demonstrate team building in a question geared towards flexibility or the like. It is not a case of getting as many in as possible but answering the actual question and scoring wellthough. I find it tends to come in more when a candidate has messed up a question but actually provided the required evidence elsewhere in the interview. What grade and competencies is it (I’m in quite a niche CS field so may not have anything useful)?

jam-bo I believe it’s still much the same. As a friend who works in Whitehall puts it “we are looking for people who will stick to the process, follow the structure and get on with the task of the moment, not maveriks who might bring innovation or disruption to ways of doing things – so the winners are those who read all the pre-interview briefing and adapt their response to the CS way. Its crazy for getting the best people to make the CS better in the future, but is a safe way to hire people that will fit in with CS culture!”

(this may not be true for all rolls)

It’s HEO and they are looking at working at pace, leadership and effective decisions.

I was going to write something defensive (and really, the CS does have and recruit a lot of incredibly impressive people, despite what DCum would have people believe). Instead I will leave this quote:

“Civil Servants make good husbands, because when they get home from work they are not over-tired and have already read the newspaper”.

My wife’s never been to the office – started at the same time covid kicked off. She seems to work hard. Level 6, not sure what that means. Project managing IT stuff. Data Analytics and whatnot. She moved over from one of the big consultants so finds it quite straight forward. I think the interview was made easier in that she knew some of the people and was taking the job for lifestyle reasons so was comfortable with the requirementss.

I’d take a job in the if I found one related to Chemistry. The stuff my wife works on is of national significance. Culture seems ok if a little slow.

You’ve got some good answers up there. My understanding is that it’s formulaic. To make it fair it’s scored and the questions are set. STAR will be a good bet. Answer the question! In so many corporate interviews I’ve done people score badly because they give great answers to a question that wasn’t asked.

The below may be of interest;

Making Effective Decisions –

Please describe a time that you delayed on a decision in order to gather critical information
• What additional information did you need to gather?
• Did you encounter resistance when delaying your decision, and if so, how did you handle this?
• What was the long term implication of your choice to delay your decision?
• Would you follow a similar process if confronted with the same situation in the future? If not, why, and what would you do differently?

Please tell us about a time you had to enforce a decision you knew would be unpopular
• How did you plan your delivery of the message, and what tactics did you use?
• Was the resistance to your decision greater or less than expected, and how did you adapt accordingly?
• What would you do differently if confronted with the same situation in the future?

Delivering at Pace –

Please tell us about a time when you have had to manage conflicting demands
• How did you prioritise your time?
• What measures did you put in place to ensure that all objectives and goals were met?
• What was the outcome?
• Is there anything you would do differently?

Please tell us about a time when you have monitored your own or a team’s performance against targets to ensure a task is on track
• How did you measure the completion or success of the objective/tasks of the other members of your team?
• Did you face any challenges?
• If the task wasn’t on track to meet the deadline what did you do?
• What was the outcome?

Please tell us about a time when you have had to overcome an obstacle when working on a task?

• What was the obstacle?
• How did you identity what or who was required to overcome the obstacle?
• How did you measure the success of the corrective action?
• What was the outcome?

Slightly different questions on leadership

Please describe a time when you have had to deal with conflict between or within teams that could result in the failure of a task?
• What actions did you take?
• Did you seek input from elsewhere?
• What would have been the impact if the team were not working together?
• What challenges did you face when trying to resolve the conflict?
• What was the outcome?

Please describe a time you were able to solve a complex internal problem using resources you had developed from outside the organisation?
• How did you manage risk when engaging outside help?
• What benefits did the partnership bring that you wouldn’t have been able to achieve working internally?
• What was the result of your collaborative efforts?

Please describe a time when you have had to deal with conflict between or within teams that could result in the failure of a task? (This was a HEO equivalent question)

• What actions did you take?
• Did you seek input from elsewhere?
• What would have been the impact if the team were not working together?
• What challenges did you face when trying to resolve the conflict?
• What was the outcome?

Tell us about a time when you had to implement a change that was initially unpopular with your staff? (This was a HEO equivalent question)

• Why was the change necessary?

• Why was it unpopular?

• How did you help your staff see the positive in the situation?

• What was the outcome?

The civil service is huge and covers everything from low grade workers in Newcastle to Permanent Secretaries in Whitehall. It also takes on 1000’s from the private sector every year. Most i know are working 60+ hours a week on Covid / Economy and the huge pressure on public services. So if you assume the lazy stereotype as some have done here then you’ll miss the mark by quite a margin.

Follow the STAR format and Kilo’s questions above and you should be in with a good shout.

Worth using Star R if you’ve got good examples. Review and learning from the results and activity. Continuous improvement. Also, depending on the area or type of business the roles is for, things like leadership, mentoring, staff development are significant components too if its managing role.

Good luck.

@blackflag talks a lot of sense, certainly about the policy side of the modern CS (if you are running a job centre or managing HMRC inspections it may be different). The old stereotypes are long gone. No-one gets drunk at lunchtime anymore, and you will be up against some really ambitious and talented people.

My advice: STAR is indeed everything for the ‘competency’ questions (and note they are actually now called behaviours).

This. IME most people forget to properly articulate the Result – that’s what separates an average candidate from a good one.

And the formulaic interview approach (where you could be a total robot) is gone for most Departments. They want to see a bit of personality and maybe some opinions! Try to be authentic.

Having done about 20 interviews this year for H and S grades i can say that there is no trick questions, the old days of being able to ask any question and score are long gone, it is a formulaic interview, you have passed the sift and scored high enough for interview, which means your CV and supporting evidence is good enough, you now need to prove that via the interview.

Read the Job Advert again, the job description and competences should be cross referenced, then work out how to put some examples into these, your introduction will be against the information provided, so understand what you have put down for the interview.

The questions will be scored against key indicators for demonstrating competence, a simple example would be Leadership, poor indicators against this competence is not listening to others, no adapting to change, not providing encouragement, promoting comflict/misconduct/etc. Good indicators are considering others (your team), and understanding stakeholders, encouraging others, managing conflict, etc and listening to others. So in your response to a competence like this having an example to mind where you led others, used appropriate forums (working groups, coffee discussions or whatever) to gather feedback from your team/stakeholders and working out ways to improve if it’s required, providing encouragement, i.e. looking at your team and how to get the best (training, shadowing, team bonding, etc) and so on, get that example, work out as many positives and you should be fine.

Again, unless you are pretty squared away and have an example for everything, then prep a bit, also remember, even if you panic a little, feel you undersold yourself on a question, you get a chance at the end to add anything, which you can do specifically via a ‘thinking back to question X, if i could add that……’ and so on, as others say, points make prizes, and don’t worry about the interviewers writing stuff or not writing stuff, they will be doing the work after the interview.

Been said before mostly, so follow the advice above. Quite liked the strength questions, pretty sure they are the reason I’m now a HO. They wanted very short answers..

Don’t let them fool you, independent research says Civil Service jobs are more complex than private sector….

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-working-and-the-uk-civil-service

(Pulls pin, lobs grenade and runs)

Worth using Star R if you’ve got good examples. Review and learning from the results and activity.

+1

Might have already been said but drill in to yourself stating “I” not “we” when giving the examples.

I’ve lost count how many people I’ve interviewed who’ve regaled endless examples of what their wider team did I have not clue as to what their actual role was in the outcome. Keep talking about the decisions you (I) made, how you influenced stakeholders, how you ensured outcomes were delivered and so on.

This comes from 20 years in the CS in one form or another and now a director of Local Authority transport. So definitely been round the block on this a few times.

Oh and good luck!

As another regular interviewer with a great many done so far this year, I can confirm that the positive comments above from several contributors are going to help significantly, please read them carefully, absorb, digest and prepare. We do want some personality to show through though, anyone suggesting that all civil servants are only expected to follow a work-day script really doesn’t understand what working here means. At your level, we do want someone who can present both personality, the ability to follow guidance but also, at times, to explore and justify your own path. If you can, practice your Behaviours discussions from simple bullet points; if we think you’re reading from a script we’ll mark you down so we want a natural presentation and discussion which flows without being prompted with our additional questions too early on. In my Department, we allow 8 minutes per Behaviour and as above, a good, concise and structured 5 minutes talk is ideal, with perhaps a few words on that second R. My department also allows cross behaviour marking, so again, if it can be clearly seen in another response, you may rescue a mark. If you can, try to enjoy the process.

Yeah, always recommend the STAR examples, but when structuring them, make sure to remember it’s a story, it has a beginning, middle and end. I’ve always been told/trained that Situation and Task are quick and easy within the example, Action has a bit more time and effort and Result is where you are focused, the amount of interviews i’ve had where they really sell the Situation and Task, then forget the actual Result. It is all about you as well, so less of the ‘we’ in examples, it’s all about ‘I’, so your actions that you managed and how it impacted the result, and how you were responsible for any achievements.

Again, to give some comfort, getting through the sift is a big thing for Civil Service interviews, you have met the requirements for the position, the CV and any supporting evidence was deemed good enough, a bit of prep and then the interview, remembering that even if you miss something, don’t panic, you can add it at the end, i would always add that to the actual earlier question.

I am in another area of the CS now, but, i do believe they still allow you to bring in any information you require to support the interview, so having your CV/Supporting Info to hand is good, you can even have some STAR with keywords tagged on to it for prompts, again others might no better for the area you’re going for, but in my area (MoD) we allow them to bring info with them, it’s not an exam!

Some excellent advice and clarity above – thank you!

Agree – your last point is noted!

STARI. I for impact.

As for strength questions… Theory says you can’t fake a good answer as the panel are supposed to look for body language. Hmmm. A top score is for an answer they demonstrates you not only know what you are doing but they you are a natural, not learnt, enjoy it and seek to do it. It’s not hard to take be energetic and enthusiastic about something for 60 seconds. Use positive words not negative, be energetic and smile.

One for for the interviewers. Do you tend to ask two questions for each behaviour (a situational and real example)? That alone I’m guessing will take up at least half the interview hour for three behaviours.

My 5 minute presentation seems to be assessing technical and ability in the main. I’m also if to try and get as many points across as possible or deep dive into two or three to illustrate greater understanding.

No we ask one, looking for a real,life answer, but can add follow up or supplementary questions to get more out of you or to make sense of a jumbled mess 😉 (orif you’re actually interesting- interviews, especially big panels can beboring and tedious so a good candidate can be quite a relief).

The only hypothetical one we tend to regularly use is: what would you do differently if you could

Very occasionally we need some situational ones for niche technical / judgement skills. Last panel I did was what would you do on approaching a violent murder scene as a forensic manager but the candidates all used past experiences in their answers rather than pure hypothesis. (Apparently the answer to that is not stomp all over it while looking enigmatic and shining a torch everywhere then solve the crime whilst driving a sports car and having complicated sex, a la Silent Witness / CSI)

Half the point of your presentation is check your ability to make a valid argument, and do it economically, without putting everybody to sleep…. You have five minutes and strictly they should stop marking you after that time is up. Stick to the high level stuff.

Just to update: I passed the interview but didn’t get the job as someone else scored higher. I’ve been put on a list for 12 months for possible further positions.

It was an almost enjoyable experience and I now have a much better understanding of the process. I possibly lost marks for 2 reasons. Firstly, it took a while to get my head around the interview requirements so ran out of time to refine my answers a little more. Secondly, I could only really get a pass for some of the technical questions as I had not used any of the auditing systems `they’ use, but was at least able to demonstrate my experience of similar systems – I had planned ahead for that question.

Anyway, have an interview coming up with a county council. So far, no detail on the interview structure although I presume they will focus on the main area of the job spec. Out of interest, they are “happy to talk flexible working.” When should this be raised for council jobs? At interview or if and when offered the post? Its the usual kids school pick up/drop off and the position is a 45 min drive away.

if and when offered the post

NOT before

I’ve got one this afternoon. First for 7 years 🤦 but at least it’s virtual which reduces the stress somewhat.

Good luck. My Teams felt odd – I only had a photo of each of the interview panel.

Just to update: I passed the interview but didn’t get the job as someone else scored higher. I’ve been put on a list for 12 months for possible further positions.

This happened to my daughter on a Tuesday, there was a job offer the following week. Start date is still awaited though after about a month.

On the other hand Mrs Sandwich had a job offer quite early for her promotion, getting the managers to agree a transfer date has been the sticking point (she is very good at what she does currently, will be required to give support to her previous team for the next few months as a result).

Just to update: I passed the interview but didn’t get the job as someone else scored higher. I’ve been put on a list for 12 months for possible further positions.

Happened to me and my training cohort in a CS operational role.

Those who got through first time ended up in a call centre target driven area. Us thickos waited a few months and got pulled into more indepth desk based casework.

Was worth the wait!

My son passed the interview for an mod apprenticeship recently but didn’t get the job but was told he is on a reserve list until November.

Some departments are good at using the reserve list as it provides managers with a way to quickly full vacancies. Other departments never use them.

Yes, heard mine (MOD) aren’t great at using them.

I’m MOD, years ago reserve lists were managed pretty poorly, but now with all the agencies and internal ‘external’ support it’s managed a lot better now, as there are so many campaigns going on and passing a candidate is a lot easier, i.e. if they’ve passed an interview for one job, they can automatically be offered another, this wasn’t the case a few years ago!

Well I’ve sat on MOD reserve lists in the past with no joy and currently been on one for… Must be about 10-11 months. Thankfully I got a much more enjoyable job on promotion in DfT, because I don’t think MOD are any good at using reserve lists!

OP – I would ask about flexible working in the interview at the end, no need to go into specifics which can be discussed if the job gets offered. A council may not be able to provide the same salary as others but can provide other benefits (such as flexible working) to encourage good candidates to apply. I would say it isn’t frowned upon at all with plenty of employees taking advantage.