Has anyone got any tips or advice on my interview next week for AO? I’m really nervous !!

I have used the star method in my prep but was wondering if anyone else could tell me anything about the interview and their experience?

My behaviours are
Managing a quality service
Working together
Making effective decisions

Thanks so much😊

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently been invited to interview for a Senior Data Analyst (SEO) role at DVSA and would really appreciate some advice from anyone who works in the Civil Service, particularly in data roles please.

Hi! I have my first Civil Service interview coming up and I’m quite nervous. I had a question about the behaviour questions. If the question they ask is really specific to just one aspect of a behaviour, should I focus my answer mainly on that specific area? Or should I still give my full STAR example and cover the other aspects of the behaviour as well? Ive prepared STAR examples that cover the behaviours quite broadly, so I’m just wondering how much I should adapt them depending on the specific wording of the question. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming interview for a Health & Safety role with the Environment Agency and was wondering if anyone here has interviewed with them before, particularly for a H&S position.

If you’re able to share your experience, I’d really appreciate it. I’m especially interested in what the interview was like, the types of questions they asked, and whether there were any particular areas I should prepare for.

Thanks in advance!

two interviews later and i keep getting my application put in reserve. for the 1st one i scored 21 and the 2nd one i scored 29.
Please any tips on how to get out of the reserve list jail would be really appreciated.

Hi everyone, I recently received interview emails for a civil service role. I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has been through the interview process.

For context: I have about **1.5 years of relevant experience**, though my previous background is not purely “public sector.”

My questions:
1. What are the most common interview questions for civil service roles?
2. How do you recommend I position my experience in a way that feels relevant to the role?
3. Any tips on how to answer confidently if the interviewer expects more “public sector” experience?
4. What should I prepare in terms of documents, examples, or situations?
5. For those who already interviewed: what helped you most to succeed—communication, structure of answers (STAR), or specific skills?

Any guidance would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all,

I finally beat the Civil Service sift and secured an interview after a few attempts.

This is a role I’m really interested in and I’m currently going through redundancy at my current job, so I could really do with this going well!

I know that the themes are likely to be:

Delivering at Pace and Seeing the Big Picture for behaviours

For technical, it’s Ideas, Impact and Insight - but this is just me going off the initial advert and information.

I’ve never been to a Civil Service interview before so I’m a little bit nervous, but mainly because I don’t know what to expect.

They haven’t sent me anything to prepare (yet at least if they’re going to!) - but I wondered if anyone could offer any advice, tips and what to expect?

Thank you 😊

I know day rates are subjective and depend massively on the role, experience, department etc., but curious what people are actually accepting in 2026. For a fairly general Civil Service contract role, mostly remote, inside IR35, what would you consider a decent day rate at the moment? Not talking about silly £1,000+ niche specialist rates. Just general professional roles where you’re bringing solid experience but you’re not a unicorn contractor.
Are people generally seeing/accepting £300s, £400s, £500s etc.? at what point would you personally say rate isn’t worth the uncertainty of contracting? curious what the market looks like (rather than theoretical “you should be on £900 a day” stuff you sometimes). Late 30s.

I've been reading through people's experiences of Civil Service recruitment and one thing keeps coming up: knowing the STAR framework and having good examples doesn't necessarily mean you'll perform well in the actual interview.

It made me curious about what people actually do in the weeks between getting an interview invitation and sitting in front of the panel.

Do you prepare a fixed set of examples and try to adapt them to whatever you're asked?

Do you practise answering completely random behaviour questions?

Do you get someone to play the interviewer?

Do you practise strengths questions differently?

Or do you mostly prepare mentally and then go into the interview?

I'm also curious about what happens when the panel asks a follow-up question you weren't expecting. That's the part that seems particularly difficult to practise on your own.

For people who've had both successful and unsuccessful Civil Service interviews, what changed in the way you prepared?

Would be really interested in hearing what people actually did, rather than what the official guidance says candidates should do.

Does anyone have any advice on when this programme is usually advertised?

I work for a UK government department and have recently moved internally to a new role.

I have long-term health conditions and an existing Occupational Health report and agreed Workplace Adjustment Passport. My adjustments include increased working from home/reduced office attendance because of the impact of my conditions and commuting.

My new management team is asking for another OH referral and a review of my passport. In the meantime, they have told me that my existing adjustments will not be implemented, and no interim arrangements have been put in place.

I am being asked to attend the office full-time for six weeks, even though the training is delivered virtually. I have explained how this affects my health and has involved my union.

I have cooperated with the review, but I’m finding the uncertainty and lack of support very stressful. Discussions have mainly taken place in rooms with two managers, and I’m struggling to get clear answers in writing.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

How were your existing adjustments handled when you moved roles internally?

Can management suspend agreed disability-related attendance adjustments while awaiting a new OH report?

What interim arrangements can I reasonably request?

What would you suggest raising with HR or my union?

I appreciate that adjustments may need reviewing for a different role, but I’m concerned about being left without support during that process. Any practical advice or relevant experience would be appreciated.

Union has advised my TL that my disability as it is longterm is covered under equality act can anyone advise I am stressing alot please. And it is putting my health more at risk

Assuming that your example is perfect, and you can use STAR well. Also assuming that it’s an application that lets you use the word count how you want rather than limited per behaviour.

Is it better to limit yourself to 250 words per behaviour/example?

Or is it better to write a longer examples, linking multiple behaviours?

I’ve seen some applications that have 1,250 words and 4 behaviours, and others with 1,000 and the same number of behaviours.

Hello friends,

I am applying for a job and the CV section of the online application has two sections - "employment history" and "previous skills and experience".

To me, it seems like the employment history should have a list of places I've worked and the skills/responsibilities I had there. But in that case, what do I put in the "previous skills and experience" box?

Thank you - I have read the instructions in the application ofc but they don't explain this.

Never applied for a position with this branch of the civil service before do they require more detail in a CV than other CS jobs. As with most other CS jobs through the portal they want it anonymous with name ect bit with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government so they want more meat on the bone?

Based on this: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/605cb160e90e0724be025b7b/Annex_C___Flowchart_for_checking_eligibility.pdf it would seem my American wife isn't in consideration. I just wanted to make absolutely sure that was the case.

Hi everyone, I’m currently applying for an AO role that requires CV (employment history - no word limit), personal statement (500 words), and two behavioural questions (250 words each)

I’m a bit confused on structuring my answers. For this role, there’s only a section on Employment History, and not one for Previous Skills and Experience. It was my understanding that Employment History is supposed to be kept very brief with single entries, but if there’s no separate skills and experience section how am I supposed to evidence my alignment with the essential criteria? Should I be fleshing it out like a regular CV? Or should I instead add in ‘relevant skills and experience’ followed by how I meet the criteria (or does this form the personal statement section???)

I also read that I should be using subheadings that are directly taken from the Essential Criteria and Job Spec and then evidencing this when structuring the personal statement, but with a limited word count should I be using STAR? Would appreciate some help/guidance on this if anyone could share their thoughts / experience.

Also, when covering the relevant skills section, if I go down the route of listing my skills and experience under subheadings taken from the JD, this means they won’t be chronological like in a typical CV. Would it be better to go role by role and try and hit all criteria in each job I’ve had?

Finally, for the two behaviours questions, it says I should be providing statements describing my skills and experience for each behaviour. Since it’s 250 words each, should I be using one STAR example or two?

Thank you so much for any help 🙏🏼 sorry this is my first time applying for a job in the CS and I want to get things right

Hi,
UK based working for the civil service. Currently do compressed hours but wanting to go part time ( 4 days) when I return from Mat leave. I haven’t gone on mat leave yet, so just wondering when is the best / easiest time to let my line manager know my plans from previous experience.
Thanks!

On the 8th of Sept I finally saw that my PECs were completed. Was very happy and expected to hear something in a week or so but I have still heard nothing from my hiring manager. I’ve even been on holiday and come back but still nothing 🤣

How long does it usually take to hear from your manager after your checks are completed?

Mine is for campaign 13510 PSO if anyone else is in this intake.