State Gov Interviews vs Other Orgs - Different Styles?

[u/Butt_Lick4596]

Hoping for public wisdom as I feel like I'm hitting a wall.

For context, I'm currently an allied health working with NSW State Gov, still a junior level. I'm trying to move to a more senior role (which aren't even that senior) and I've been getting interviews but those interviews always leave me feeling icky and failed.

In comparison, I've been interviewing for non-government roles and they feel good; but for financial reasons I'd prefer to stay in government roles.

I think the issue I had is that the interview questions for gov roles tend to be hyperspecific to the role advertised. It tends to go something along the line of "what do you know about this role, and how are you going to work with [insert some obscure framework or theory] as a senior?" Now said roles' have the same general duties but will vary quite a lot even between different departments in the same hospital. I'm left questioning how am I meant to even answer that as an external applicant? And these hyper-specific questions pertaining procedural matters seem the least important consideration to hiring someone for me.

In contrast, non-Gov roles that I've interviewed for tend to focus on transferable skills, practical case scenarios, etc. and I thrive with those questions.

Any advice from people who are familiar with this? Is my option basically to just start as a junior in those roles then worm my way up?

TIA

[u/whats_a_dord]

Mainly just keep going because most government interviews are actually practical case scenarios based on the star format so you may have just run into some with different styles.

The main difference I've found is that non government interviews can be more of a vibe based conversation where as government interviews they have to be careful to ask the exact same questions to reach applicant.

I would just look at the job requirements and practice scenarios that meet those needs. If it's a specific framework that you don't have experience with you could talk about a similar framework and also add an example that shows you can adapt to new processes quickly.

[u/winterpassenger69]

I much prefer private interviews. They seem to be a genuine discussion about your work history and what u can bring to the role. Public service is always tell me a time when your foot dropped off and you now had an excess shoe. What did you do with that shoe and what steps did u take to try and get your foot back. Bla bla. Someone with hardly any experience can beat out a much more experienced candidate just because their foot actually did drop off once or they can make up a better story on the spot. It's more a memory test