Department for Work And Pensions Executive Assistant Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process involved civil service behaviours and strength-based questions. For the behaviour examples, we used the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) strategy, focusing on areas like communication, influencing, making effective decisions, and delivering quality service. The strength-based questions were simpler, asking about self-description and personal strengths.

Applying online was super fast and easy. You just need to write about a time you "gave an excellent service", keeping it detailed but concise (max 250 words). I thought I'd have to do numerical and literacy tests too, but a verbal reasoning test was the only one I ended up doing. They called me for an interview at the office about a week after I applied, which was a quick turnaround. The whole process felt really fair, as you’d expect from a government job. Just make sure your answers line up with their behaviour and competency framework – they score you from 1-8 based on how well you match their criteria, and I think 4 is the pass mark. At the interview, two nice ladies greeted me and handled my ID, making me feel welcome. The actual interview was with two other staff members, but they weren’t trying to trick me; they actually wanted me to do well. They offered water, which I’d suggest taking – it gives you a natural pause to think, but don't hesitate to ask for a minute if you need more time, it’s totally fine. They asked 4 competency-based questions, asking for examples of how I've handled situations before. One interviewer asked two questions while the other took notes, and then they switched. The interview lasted about 30 minutes, but you can make it longer or shorter. I've had an email saying I passed the interview, so now I'm just waiting to hear back, I guess they're waiting for all interviews to finish before deciding.

It took five months from applying to get any feedback. On the interview day, we had to do a lot of extra paperwork in a small room with other candidates. There was a lot of paper flying around, even passports. Some forms had the same questions repeated. The person in charge seemed unsure about vetting and pension requirements, so she called a colleague. They then started guessing what was needed right in front of us. It felt like a place with low motivation, incompetence, and confusion.