CIVIL SERVICE PRACTICE INTERVIEW

Plus questions asked at interviews for the NHS, police, and local government

FAST STREAM CIVIL SERVANTS must be able to ANALYSE vast amounts of information to prepare briefs for ministers - and have excellent communication skills to WRITE drafts of government White Papers They work in teams and therefore need to CO-OPERATE with many other people They have to make difficult DECISIONS such as which route a new road should take, they may have to PERSUADE others to their point of view and PLAN meetings for government ministers.

Below is the sort of the evidence you could give at interview to demonstrate that you had these skills:

CO-OPERATING Playing competitive team sports such as football.
PERSUADING club members to turn up for events.
ANALYSING Data from a project.
PLANNING and organising a series of concerts in homes for the elderly.
WRITING Producing a report for a course placement.
MAKING DECISIONS on a student committee.

Before you arrive ...

There follows some of the questions that might be specifically asked of students and graduates at interviews for the Civil Service Fast Stream. General interview questions are not asked here, so you might also like to try the general or multiple choice interviews for standard interview questions that might be put to any candidate.

Now go to the first question

See our Public Sector Careers Links for more information.

Questions asked at other Public Sector Interviews

National Health Service Management Training Scheme

There are about 6000 applications nationally across all 3 streams. About 4500 sit the online numerical test, 3500 are shortlisted, 1100 invited to the various regional days for the group work and first interviews. Of these:- Management stream 500; Financial 400; HR 200 About 500 go forward to the National assessment centre stage in March.
9 competencies are looked at: 3 during the group work exercises and 5 in the interview. Assessors are reminded that they must only assess on the basis of evidence and make no inferences or assumptions.
Candidates are judged against a set standard and not against each other.

Interview Process

Lasts 40 minutes including a 2 minute introduction with 5 minutes questioning on each of the 5 competencies. All 5 areas must be addressed. (Management Training Scheme - NHS)

Judged against:
- leading and taking responsibility
- communication and influencing
- driving for and achieving results
- managing
- planning and organising
- why the NHS?
The opening question against each competency must be identical for all candidates but after that, follow up questions can be different allowing for clarification or probing. (Management Training Scheme - NHS)
Interview rating scale is as follows:- (Management Training Scheme - NHS)

Questions asked:

Many questions and elaborations on the information and examples given on your application form.
Commercial awareness questions
- What are the positive and negative points of working for the NHS?
- Why do you want to work for the NHS?
- How do you feel about the NHS being in the news/the public eye/bad press?
Competency-based questions Asked questions based on the key competencies given on their website:
- Descibe a situation when you used an action plan.
- Describe a time when you had an important decision to make
- Describe a time when you have lead a team
- Describe a time when you worked as part of a team
- Describe a time when you have had to influence others to your opinion.
- When did you demonstrate leadership qualities? What did you learn from the experience?
- Describe where you have demonstrated communicating and influencing skills.
- How did you react when others didn’t do their job properly?

Tests given:

Written management exercise lasting 1 ¼ hours. There was a lot of reading to do, then we had to take a decision and justify it using evidence/figures.
1 ¼ hour management exercise. Look through a lot of information and write a proposal and an action plan for the implementation of your decision.
Verbal and numerical reasoning tests are done online beforehand.

Group exercises:

Selection centre takes place over 1½ days. Groups are made up of 5 to 6 candidates and three competencies are assessed:
- leading & taking responsibility
- working with others
- analytical thinking.
Exercise has two parts: part 1 is a preparation time of 15 minutes where candidates read their individual briefs and common brief. They then have time to prepare their ideas and questions etc.. Part 2 is the actual exercise which takes 35 minutes.
A group meeting. We all went into a room and had 10 minutes to read the scenario. We each had different points we each had to try and persuade the others to take on board. After we had read the scenario we had 30 minutes to have a meeting about what we had read.
Second interview takes the form of an assessment centre.
- It is a 24hr event, from 1pm to 1pm. There is quite a lot of waiting around; you are actually tested for around 3 hours. At the induction you are introduced with a fictional scenario.
- The first afternoon's activity is an in-tray exercise based on this scenario. In timed conditions you are given lots of different information and asked to provide a report by the end of the day. This exercise is quite intensive as you don't have a lot of time; I had already practised in-tray exercises before at www.kent.ac.uk/careers/interviews/intray.htm so found the exercise a lot easier than some of the other candidates.
- In the evening you have some free time, a talk, and then a dinner with the other candidates and some current trainees. You are provided with overnight accommodation.
- The next morning consists of role-play exercises, of which you are given time to prepare for each: this consists of looking at lots of reports, data and emails, and making notes.
- You then have a meeting with another candidate, followed by a group meeting with five other candidates. Current trainees take on fictional roles within these scenarios.
- The final exercise is a one-on-one interview within this fictional role-play, but for a different scenario.
- You are also required to fill in a report of how you think you have developed your skills over the 24hr period.

Tips:

The questions were all based on the application form. They were looking for further information and evidence of the competencies.
Have many examples to illustrate your competencies etc. Be clear about why you want to work for the NHS. Practise timed exercises.
You really are marked on the key competencies they provide you with, and you are given plenty of opportunities to demonstrate these skills. If you are aware of the competencies and think about the task, is quite clear through the exercises which skills you should be using.
The written exercise was very stressful because there wasn’t really enough time to think. If I had the chance to do it again I would be much stricter with myself on time spent reading/thinking. A time plan would be a good idea! I was told afterwards that the written exercise actually counted for more than the interview – which is worth remembering when preparing.
A lot of walking around, nice interview centre. Interviewers nice but a bit grilling – both of them firing questions at you.
They give you a time to arrive but actual interview times are staggered: this is so you get an opportunity to talk to current trainees, and ask questions, as you don't get to do this in the interview.
You are given plenty of opportunities to ask questions throughout the recruitment process, and the current trainees are all really nice and helpful.
Be yourself

Local Government (Graduate Programme - Kent County Council)

Questions asked

The opening day for a local community project you have been managing is coming up and the site manager tells you an important part of it won't be finished on time. What do you do?
Who is the most inspiring leader you can think of and why?
You want to persuade your boss to your way of thinking about something. How would you go about it?
People in the county want more roads built. What are the main issues involved? Who would you need to speak to?
What do you think the council's policy should be? How would you go about convincing people that this was the best policy?

Tests given

2 psychometric tests: lasted about 40 minutes.
- Business Decision Assessment: matching key features of products to their target audience given previous examples e.g. proportion of cocoa solids to sugar determined whether chocolate bar was directed at home or car owners.

Group exercises:

Group debate on a major employment issue e.g. Status of pregnant women employees.
Group presentation of council policy relating to a new airport development.
In-tray exercise: Summarising a council policy in an hour using government policy papers, documents etc.
First interview involved a presentation on 'what are the main issues facing local government in the 21st century?'

Tips

Go well prepared for the interview. Bone up on major developments in council policy at the moment, especially in Kent. Find out a bit about project management and management techniques and try to fit them in. Think about what you might do in certain situations. Speak for as long as possible: if they are prompting your answers that's a bad sign, so try to anticipate what the next part of the question will be.
They were very friendly throughout interview process. Rang up straight away to invite me to a second interview. First interview was nice and relaxed: ADP manager and two past trainees conducted it in a small room. They said that they would ring as soon as they had decided regardless of whether we had got the job or not. I never received a call, only a very brief vague letter the next week saying experience and competencies of other candidates were stronger. I am still waiting for expenses and more detailed feedback.
Short list for final interview was not so short: 25 of us going for 4 places. Other candidates were a mixture of university students, recent graduates who had been working for companies or in social services, a lady who had just quit another job with KCC, and a postgrad in computer science.

Police (Intelligence Analyst - Metropolitan Police)

Questions asked

Competency-based questions such as: (Intelligence Analyst - Police)

Describe a situation where you stayed calm under pressure
Tell me how you would go about solving a problem.
No chatty or informal questions

Tests given:

A numerical ability test a few weeks before my interview. We were given 20 minutes to answer a number of questions, ranging from percentages to adding and subtraction.

Presentation:

At the interview, I was given 30 minutes to design a presentation on a topic I did not know beforehand, which I then had to present for 10 minutes and answer questions for another 10. The competency-based questions then followed this. The presentation was about a fictional borough in London that was experiencing a rise in street crime. My task was to think of possible reasons for the rise in crime, how the local community may be feeling, what measures I would take to counter this crime-rise and what effect these measures would have.

Tips:

Learn at least 6 or 7 examples to show you have the key skills they ask for.

Civil Service - Home Office

Questions asked

Expanded on what I’d written on my application form – leadership, teamwork, supervision, initiative, skills/experience. (Immigration Officer)
Asked me about my opinions on current affairs, reform of the House of Lords, if people caught in bad weather whilst climbing should pay part of the costs of their rescue and so on. (Immigration Officer)
Hypothetical question about how I’d deal with an irate member of the public at immigration control, and how I would explain my actions to them, their family, their family’s MP etc. (Immigration Officer)
What preparation/planning had I done prior to the interview. (Immigration Officer)
What was the hardest thing about coming to university (budgeting, time management etc.) (Immigration Officer)
A situation you had to deliver a work to a very high standards. (Immigration Officer)
A situation where you had conflict with another person and how you resolved it (Immigration Officer)
What kind of goal have you set up for yourself and what have you done to achieve it. (Immigration Officer)
A situation where you worked as a member of a team and which role you had on it. (Immigration Officer)
A situational passage to discuss on equal oportunities. (Immigration Officer)
Expanded on all aspects given in the original application form (Administrative Officer - Home Office)
How would I deal with conflict with colleagues? (Administrative Officer - Home Office)
How do I know what is a credible source of info. especially with the internet? (Administrative Officer - Home Office)

Tests given:

Six weeks before my interview I took a battery of Civil Service numerical and verbal tests – there are samples of these in the Civil Service career files. (Immigration Officer)
Verbal reasoning, role-play and written exercise. It was a whole day assessment. Each and every test lasted different lengths of time. (Immigration Officer)
A selection test prior to interview testing numeracy, speed and accuracy. Four sections, whole test lasted around 1 1/2 hours. (Administrative Officer - Home Office)

Tips:

Make sure you copy your application form so you can read it before your interview. Doing practice test batteries may improve you speed and your score. (Immigration Officer)
The onus was one me to talk for most of the interview. Take your time and consider your answers carefully – just try and give ‘sensible’ rather than complete answers. Look and sound interested in the job and what it entails. (Immigration Officer)
The questions asked at the interview are based on your application form. You hon't need any prior knowledge on Home Office affairs to answer those questions. (Immigration Officer)
It was quite a nerve wracking experience! (Immigration Officer)
Always prepare questions to ask. You will have a good interview if you prepare yourself well. (Administrative Officer - Home Office)
Read your application form completely and find a second example for each section. (Administrative Officer - Home Office)
Sound enthusiastic and prepared for development. (Administrative Officer - Home Office)

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