County Council Interview

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lexus

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Hi all,

I hope you will be able to help me. I am going for an interview with a County Council next week for a Professional (technical) Position.

I have the technical and education competencies and am confident I have the experience they are looking for.

The thing is I know this position is going to be very popular and there will be a lot of competition for the post. I am looking for information as to what will set me apart from the other applicants.

I have rung the COCO for a copy of their most recent Annual Report, which is being sent out (the most recent on the website is 2002). I have am trying to make contact with others in the same position within other county councils (through family, friends etc.) for a little bit of information as to what exactly is involved in the role etc.

If anyone could give me any other tips to help me to get this position I would really really appreciate it.

Kind regards, lexus
 
Good for you Lexus - one pointer would be to be prepared about 'yourself' before the interview and structure your answers (e.g competency based).

For example, when asked a question (e.g can you give us an example of your teamworking skills / initiative / interpersonal skills / people managemenet skills etc etc) use the following "STAR"

S - Situation (what the situation was - problem identified, change needed)
T - Task (the means to resolve or create (e.g: our IT systems were running slow or inefficently and we needed to identify why and how we could improve them).
A - Action (what you did "I designed / proposed / organised / set up / changed...)
R - Result (the effect your contribution had).

Examples can be in your professional life or personal (hobbies, experience etc).

Remember, while it is excellent to have grounded and thorough knowledge about the dept., they will be interested in you and what you will bring to the position and team. When asked to give examples, keep your answers specific to yourself and follow the above formula. Best of luck!
 
Plek Trum,

thanks a million for that advise, i had never heard of that 'STAR' system before, im literally writing down my client experiences etc at the moment and going to apply the STAR system to them...

Im just worried that i may come across as boastful when talking about myself, also i work as a consultant at present (im in the same role since leaving college 4 years ago) is it okay that i mention client names (all large irish/multinational companies)?

Could you let me know do you work for a county council? do they always look to promote someone internally and shy away from persons without previous CoCo work experience?

any info at all you could give me would be great, my contacts by way of friends and family are very slow coming back to me it seems!

thanks again for your advise..
 
I spent many years in the civil service and HR Lexus - in my experience the vast majority of interviews are competency based (e.g, what you can offer / have done etc).
I've sat on many interview panels when a very good candidate has spoken hypothetically about their skills (e.g: Well, in that situation I would do...." but have failed to show any real examples of their actual achievement(s).

When asked to give an example of your experience and skills / situations keep it relevant to an example and emphasis the effect your contribution had - gives solid fact to your skills.

As for mentioning client names, I'm not sure. We never particually minded candidates mentioning client names (worked in HR of large mutlinational), it gave us an idea of a candidates networking skills and pressure ability. I guess that one s up to you.

Using the STAR has been most helpful for many candidates in order to prepare a constructive interview and helps the interviewer gain a clear picture of the candidate - I know the civil service uses the same structure, so perhaps the council may be the same? I have friends in the council system, 2 were promoted in internally and one externally. Its all about what you can bring to the job really. Hope you do well!
 
Make sure you have a good understanding of the role of the council, where they get their funding from, who are the Directors, etc.
 
Rainy Day

thanks for that, i never thought of this information, I have read the annual report, and the pieces of which apply to (hopefully!) my role within the COCO. could you let me know where would i find this info?

thanks a million
lexus
 
Hi Lexus,

I attended an interview for a professional (technical) position last month and got the job.
Typical questions were about Freedom of Information Act, Safety in the workplace and on site, safety reports/audits, improving work practices, current ongoing council projects (all depts), services the council offer, then just the usual questions about previous experience.

There were very few questions on my technical skills and experience.

Good Luck Hope this helps!
 
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