Department for Transport Interview Questions
& Process

Started with an application form and CV, required a supporting statement of 250 words on a chosen topic. This was followed by a Behaviour Interview conducted on Teams. The interview panel consisted of three people: the person who has the vacancy, someone from a similar team, and another person from a completely different division.

So the process started with some civil service tests, like numerical and verbal reasoning stuff. Then there was a written exercise that you had to do before the actual interview. The interview itself involved a presentation, and the questions were all based on civil service behaviours. They gave us the presentation brief beforehand. They ended up using the scores from the written exercise and the presentation to help with the behaviour scores.

There was a long wait from when I applied until they got back to me, I had to chase them up. The interview got postponed by a few hours on short notice, which was inconvenient, but I guess you have to deal with it if you want the job. The interview was in Westminster, it was quite short and had about 3 or 4 long competency-based questions. I was expecting a mix of question types based on the pre-interview docs, but it was all competency. There were 3 interviewers. The questions felt tough for someone from outside the department, with some being very general and others really specific to how the department works, making them hard to answer without knowing the inner workings. I didn't get an offer. The results I got didn't seem to match the feedback I received during the interview.

For each behavior question, there will be one question asked. After that, you will be asked 2 questions about your strengths and 2 questions about your experience. For these 4 questions, you don't need to give a full behavior-type answer, so feel free to respond however you're most comfortable.