Feeling like I bombed my interview, but my references were contacted a week later?
I’m asking this because I know government recruitment works differently to private recruitment.
I am pretty high in my respective field (I work with children and child protection) and have been looking at making the jump from private sector to public sector, at an equivalent or higher job role. I was successful in gaining an interview, which occurred last Monday via Teams.
I usually feel really confident during interviews - my skills and knowledge back me up and I know how to communicate that well. However, this interview was unlike any other I’ve experienced - 15 minutes prior to the interview, the panel sent me a list of scenarios to peruse and the entire interview was them gauging how I would respond or react to these scenarios, as well as some others that they threw at me that I didn’t get the opportunity to peruse in advance. I’ve never been interviewed in this format, and left the interview feeling like I’d absolutely bombed it. I have spent the last week just putting it out of my mind and assuming I’d be unsuccessful. I was quite devastated, as this is what I consider to be the next step in my career, and public sector jobs in this field are few and far between.
A week later, the following Monday, my references reach out and let me know that they’ve both been contacted and asked to complete a reference check for me. They screenshot the reference form, and it’s very comprehensive - about 3 standard word doc sized pages of questions, asking my references to match my ability to things like the Queensland Leadership Framework, Child Safe Standards, ect.
I know for private organisations, references usually aren’t contacted, and especially not for such comprehensive checks, if the potential employee isn’t in high contention for being selected for the role. But before I get my hopes up, I thought I would see if this is the same for the public sector/Queensland Government, and I would gauge what you all think this may mean for me and my potential employment.
Thank you!