Incredibly Badly Designed Structures

[Si]

cnosni wrote: Si wrote: chameleon wrote: Crazy Jane wrote: Ah ok, i think i might have gone for an interview there once with the IR so probably just figured they had most of the building. And very intimidating were those affairs too Yes, I had an interview with the DWP recently. Not a fun experience... Stil no good news then Si?     'Fraid not. The DWP "Fun Day" last summer consisted of a day filled with tension (everybody looked terrified) at the Metropole, a literary test and maths exam, followed by a "competency-based" interview and an hour of filling in forms. I got a rejection letter the following week.Was interviewed at the JobCentre the other day by the bloke who got the job!

[simonm]

Appologies for my ignorance, but why are you hunting for a job Si?    

[chameleon]

Si wrote: cnosni wrote: Si wrote: chameleon wrote: Crazy Jane wrote: Ah ok, i think i might have gone for an interview there once with the IR so probably just figured they had most of the building. And very intimidating were those affairs too Yes, I had an interview with the DWP recently. Not a fun experience... Stil no good news then Si?     'Fraid not. The DWP "Fun Day" last summer consisted of a day filled with tension (everybody looked terrified) at the Metropole, a literary test and maths exam, followed by a "competency-based" interview and an hour of filling in forms. I got a rejection letter the following week.Was interviewed at the JobCentre the other day by the bloke who got the job! They are constantly recruiting heavily Si, almost as though during their 'modernisation' they forgot to keep enough people to actually deal with the unemployed customers

[Si]

simonm wrote: Appologies for my ignorance, but why are you hunting for a job Si?     The short answer is I'm out of work, Simon. The old drum place on Armley Road went into voluntary liquidation last year (after 64 years of trading!) due to the "Credit Crunch."    

[Si]

chameleon wrote: Si wrote: cnosni wrote: Si wrote: chameleon wrote: Crazy Jane wrote: Ah ok, i think i might have gone for an interview there once with the IR so probably just figured they had most of the building. And very intimidating were those affairs too Yes, I had an interview with the DWP recently. Not a fun experience... Stil no good news then Si?     'Fraid not. The DWP "Fun Day" last summer consisted of a day filled with tension (everybody looked terrified) at the Metropole, a literary test and maths exam, followed by a "competency-based" interview and an hour of filling in forms. I got a rejection letter the following week.Was interviewed at the JobCentre the other day by the bloke who got the job! They are constantly recruiting heavily Si, almost as though during their 'modernisation' they forgot to keep enough people to actually deal with the unemployed customers Thanks Steve. I'll keep an eye on their website. At least I won't have to do the maths and English exams again!Incidentally, I may have failed last time due to not getting my head around the "competency" interview. They e-mailed me a list of competencies (gibberish) before the interview, and asked me if I'd read it. I replied yes, and they then asked a series of formulaic questions ("Give us an example of when you used your initiative at work" - that sort of nonsense.) Seems to me that if the person hired turns out to be rubbish, they can blame the manual, rather than the interviewer...             

[chameleon]

Si wrote: chameleon wrote: Si wrote: cnosni wrote: Si wrote: chameleon wrote: Crazy Jane wrote: Ah ok, i think i might have gone for an interview there once with the IR so probably just figured they had most of the building. And very intimidating were those affairs too Yes, I had an interview with the DWP recently. Not a fun experience... Stil no good news then Si?     'Fraid not. The DWP "Fun Day" last summer consisted of a day filled with tension (everybody looked terrified) at the Metropole, a literary test and maths exam, followed by a "competency-based" interview and an hour of filling in forms. I got a rejection letter the following week.Was interviewed at the JobCentre the other day by the bloke who got the job! They are constantly recruiting heavily Si, almost as though during their 'modernisation' they forgot to keep enough people to actually deal with the unemployed customers Thanks Steve. I'll keep an eye on their website. At least I won't have to do the maths and English exams again!Incidentally, I may have failed last time due to not getting my head around the "competency" interview. They e-mailed me a list of competencies (gibberish) before the interview, and asked me if I'd read it. I replied yes, and they then asked a series of formulaic questions ("Give us an example of when you used your initiative at work" - that sort of nonsense.) Seems to me that if the person hired turns out to be rubbish, they can blame the manual, rather than the interviewer...              It's the same all through the civil service, even internal - the trick i to work on those and have a selection of stock responses, update/replace as time goes on and remember - they are looking for what YOU did, how YOU did it, why \you did it and the outcomes (results and benefits) YOU produced.eh up, I'm not 'spossed to be working Try it though. Competance based recruitment is rife - the problems are usually the vaccancy holder not understanding the value of epertise in addition to you proving the level you can work at and the quality of the interviewer.    

[Si]

Thanks again. It seems you have more chance of getting the job based on the latest interview technique, rather than what you and your CV have to say. Such is the world...

[Crazy Jane]

"and remember - they are looking for what YOU did, how YOU did it, why \you did it and the outcomes (results and benefits) YOU produced."The last civil service interview i had was with some department i forget now that was in the same building as the coroner's office.I don;t know what was going on but i got these weird interviewers who kept asking "and what happened next" to just about every scenario i told them about. Actually i was wondering if they just didn't think i'd fit in and had realised i have a rubbish memory so decided to catch me out, though that said, there were some things i could remember perfectly and they were still asking me "and what happened next" when there wasn't any next left :~civil service interviews are weird anyway. there were too many i went to where you got the impression they had a strong internal candidate who was favourite and were only interviewing out because they were legally obliged to. i wish they wouldn;t, as it doesn;t seem to achieve much except making the externals spend a lot of time and effort on the application and interview that has much poorer than average odds of going anywhere.    

[Si]

Crazy Jane wrote: "and remember - they are looking for what YOU did, how YOU did it, why \you did it and the outcomes (results and benefits) YOU produced."The last civil service interview i had was with some department i forget now that was in the same building as the coroner's office.I don;t know what was going on but i got these weird interviewers who kept asking "and what happened next" to just about every scenario i told them about. Actually i was wondering if they just didn't think i'd fit in and had realised i have a rubbish memory so decided to catch me out, though that said, there were some things i could remember perfectly and they were still asking me "and what happened next" when there wasn't any next left :~civil service interviews are weird anyway. there were too many i went to where you got the impression they had a strong internal candidate who was favourite and were only interviewing out because they were legally obliged to. i wish they wouldn;t, as it doesn;t seem to achieve much except making the externals spend a lot of time and effort on the application and interview that has much poorer than average odds of going anywhere.     Hi Jane,That sounds just like my interview with the DWP - "So, what happened next?"I also got the feeling they may have favoured an internal applicant. There was a guy there who was obviously pally with the interviewers. At first I thought he was part of the team, but he turned out to be an candidate.When filling in the forms at the end, you have to list your previous employers and give their contact details. However, as my most recent job had lasted 18 years (and the company had recently been wound-up,) of the other three jobs, one (in London) had merged with another company, and the others had gone bust. This meant, through no fault of mine, that they had no-one to contact as a referee.PS Sorry to hijack your thread with stories of nightmare interviews, Jane!!!    

[chameleon]

Si wrote: Crazy Jane wrote: "and remember - they are looking for what YOU did, how YOU did it, why \you did it and the outcomes (results and benefits) YOU produced."The last civil service interview i had was with some department i forget now that was in the same building as the coroner's office.I don;t know what was going on but i got these weird interviewers who kept asking "and what happened next" to just about every scenario i told them about. Actually i was wondering if they just didn't think i'd fit in and had realised i have a rubbish memory so decided to catch me out, though that said, there were some things i could remember perfectly and they were still asking me "and what happened next" when there wasn't any next left :~civil service interviews are weird anyway. there were too many i went to where you got the impression they had a strong internal candidate who was favourite and were only interviewing out because they were legally obliged to. i wish they wouldn;t, as it doesn;t seem to achieve much except making the externals spend a lot of time and effort on the application and interview that has much poorer than average odds of going anywhere.     Hi Jane,That sounds just like my interview with the DWP - "So, what happened next?"I also got the feeling they may have favoured an internal applicant. There was a guy there who was obviously pally with the interviewers. At first I thought he was part of the team, but he turned out to be an candidate.When filling in the forms at the end, you have to list your previous employers and give their contact details. However, as my most recent job had lasted 18 years (and the company had recently been wound-up,) of the other three jobs, one (in London) had merged with another company, and the others had gone bust. This meant, through no fault of mine, that they had no-one to contact as a referee.PS Sorry to hijack your thread with stories of nightmare interviews, Jane!!!     Si, not wishing to be negative, What happens next can be a way of encouraging you to elaborate if they feel you have still nopt adequately demonstrated the competency to the extent they want to see, it's not so much details as defined and auditable actions and results they want.(BTW internal applicants generally get a far rougher ride than most?Keep trying mate.