For those who've had a Civil Service interview recently, how did you prepare?
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.