Defra Consultant Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was efficient and well-organized, although it took a while from submitting the application to getting the interview invite. The panelists were helpful and considerate. The interview was conducted online, and all the necessary information was shared in advance.

Applied for the Civil Service Fast Stream in September 2020. Was rejected at the final stage but placed on a reserve list for HEO positions. Contacted by Defra about 6 months after initially applying.

The whole recruitment policies desperately need to change. I had a horrible interview. It was nearly 2 months before I got an interview slot. This is just how efficient Defra and the wider civil service is! The interview process consisted of a 5-minute verbal presentation and 55 minutes of questions around the behaviours and competencies. There was a panel of 3: 1 director, 1 person from HR, and some other guy. Personally, I thought the interview went well in terms of my answers to the questions. I demonstrated suitability for the competencies and behaviours when asked questions by giving clear examples from my current job, though I suspect the examples weren't high stakes enough for them. The only negative from the interview was that I did run out of time slightly during the 5-minute verbal presentation, but I was asked questions after that which allowed me to go back and expand/finish the presentation. Unfortunately, the feedback I got from the interview panel was that I was keen, passionate, and innovative, but my presentation was not structured. The words of advice were that I could have done more preparation to provide more detailed and relevant evidence for the SEO role. Also, my overall rating was 'minimal demonstration'. Given that the civil service has a very poor reputation for service delivery and nothing ever working, I am gob-smacked at the cheek of them telling me that my evidence was not relevant or detailed and was only a minimal demonstration. Now, I fully acknowledge that the presentation ran over slightly and could have been better (I will work on that in future!), but I tackled the presentation in the same format/structure of the presentation question. I am really confused how this could not be structured when I also specifically used the STAR approach. I also made sure that all my examples were centered around my current job experience! Who are they to say that my experience is not relevant to the SEO role when I gave the same (as used in my online application) clear example of working with a variety of stakeholders who had conflicting priorities to successfully deliver a project. If they thought my examples were not relevant, why invite me to interview then?! These competency and behaviour questions are not exceedingly hard at all as they are designed around job experience. What I don't appreciate is telling me my experience isn't good enough for their department when they were the same experiences they made the selection at the invite to interview stage. Frankly, the whole process was insincere and a waste of everyone's time because of the lack of transparency. If they are looking for a specific type of experience, then be clear and open about that. It would be great not to waste people's time inviting them for interviews only to have disregard for their experiences or tell them the experience is not relevant because it isn't good enough for the high and mighty work they think Defra is doing. Throughout the interview, I got the impression from all 3 members of the panel that the level of stakeholders I am used to dealing with in my current job was not fancy/high stakes enough for them.