Applied via civil service jobs around 4 weeks before the interview. The interview was comprised of 2 calls; a 30 minute test first followed by a documents check and a 2 person panel interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Situational question on how I would handle implementing an improvement in a current workflow.
I applied online. I interviewed at Government Statistical Service (London, England) in Jun 2023
Interview
I initially completed my application on the Civil Service Jobs website. This involves completing basic work history and education, as well as a personal statement. My best advice for this is to make sure that you can detail in one or more solid past examples, how you meet the Person Specification. These examples can be from work or academia. Make sure you cover all the criteria as you are marked based on how many of these you exhibit. Use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) layout for the examples. After submitting by the deadline, I was invited to complete the GSS Online Assessment, which consisted of 25 Maths & Stats questions to be completed in 45 mins. After passing this, I was informed that my application would be sifted and I would find out the result in a few weeks. Upon being selected for interview, I had around 2 weeks to prepare for it. Interviews are conducted virtually and you are allocated to a panel of 2 statisticians who work in different government departments. During the interview, you are assessed on 6 different competencies, as detailed in the job description. There are 3 technical and 3 behavioural ones. To prepare for the interview, I came up with solid examples of times when I have shown those skills/behaviours. Try to come up with one example for each of them as you will be assessed on all of them. You will also be asked situational questions (mainly for the behaviours) which are hypothetical, asking how you would act in a certain situation. You can’t prepare directly for these but look at the technical and behavioural competencies indicators which you can find attached to job description / online as these indicate how you would be expected to act for your specific job grade. The interviews and recruiters were always very helpful and overall, I had a positive experience applying for this role. Good luck!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
- Tell me about a time when you acquired data (to meet customer needs). - Tell me about a time when you conducted data analysis. - Tell me about a time when you worked as part of a team. - What would you do if a member of you team wasn’t working as effectively as there could be? / How would you deal with conflict in a team? - How would you implement changes to work processes? - What would you do if your implemented changes weren’t having the desired effect?
I applied online. I interviewed at Government Statistical Service (London, England) in Jan 2023
Interview
Dissemination test alongside other candidates. Identify trends in data. Followed by questions, as would expect. One very experienced but extremely pedantic individual, one very inexperienced interviewer. Not always clear exactly what was being asked.
