Who Will Interview You?
Federal
interviews are typically conducted by a panel of three people, usually
including the hiring official. Like a military court martial jury, the
interview panel must include people of at least the same grade as the position
being filled.
In a perfect world, the panel will include a subject matter expert. When I interviewed for a public affairs position at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration years ago, the panel including the deputy administrator (whom the position reported to), and the communications director at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. I’ve also experienced interviewers who were clearly “warm bodies,” who were the right grade and available to participate in the interviews, but had no knowledge of government communications.
Some agencies allow the hiring officials to conduct solo interviews. This can be a lot like speed dating, especially if the interviewer is a political appointee or the job being filled bears little resemblance to the vacancy announcement. I was once interviewed for a position as head of communications operations for a regulatory agency. The agency had also announced a vacancy for a media relations specialist at a lower grade. The first question lobbed at me by the communications director was: “tell me about some stories you’ve pitched to reporters?”
Baffled, I asked whether I was being
interviewed for the GS 15 management position or the GS 14 media relations
position. “ Oh, we are combining the two positions,” was the answer.
Since media relations is one of my passions, I gamely went on with the interview. When it came my turn to ask questions, I asked what type of individual the director was looking for. “Someone I can trust,” came the response from the person who was trying to fill two vacancies with one person. Needless to say, I didn’t get the job, nor did I want it.
Federal job
interviews generally use the structured interview process in which each
candidate is asked the same series of questions and then are rated based on
their answers.
The responses are graded on a 1-5 scale using a ratings guide developed by the hiring office and human resources staff. Higher ratings are assigned to answers that provide the most detail.
Questions can be job specific or situational. Expect open-ended questions requiring you to provide detailed answers. For example, "describe the types of documents you have written, reviewed or edited." Your answers should provide examples relevant to the job for which you are intervewing.
Many of the questions are designed to determine your knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the job. To get an idea of the types of questions you may be asked, take a look at the vacancy announcement.
Here are some questions I used to interview candidates for communications manager positions in a previous job:
- Describe your experience in working with Congressional staff;
- Describe your experience in responding to media inquiries;
- This position requires a significant amount of writing materials for use in communicating with the media, Congress, senior government officials and members of the public, including drafting press releases, Powerpoint presentations, brochures, letters and point papers. Can you describe your experience in writing these materials, including the editing process and what type of feedback or results you obtained.
Candidates should
also expect behavioral questions designed to evaluate whether you would be a
good fit for the organization. Here’s
two questions that I have fielded during job interviews:
Interview scores are supposed to be scored using a rating guide using level of complexity and skills used. Here's an example from the Merit Systems Protection Board. "Describe a situation in which you had to deal with people who were upset a problem." The highest rating would go to a candidate who maintained his/her cool when discussing highly sensitive or controversial topics.
In a future post, I will discuss the types of questions to ask during an interview.
- Describe a situation in which your boss disagrees with your recommended response to a media inquiry;
- Give us an example of how you handle someone with a difficult personality??
Interview scores are supposed to be scored using a rating guide using level of complexity and skills used. Here's an example from the Merit Systems Protection Board. "Describe a situation in which you had to deal with people who were upset a problem." The highest rating would go to a candidate who maintained his/her cool when discussing highly sensitive or controversial topics.
In a future post, I will discuss the types of questions to ask during an interview.
6 comments:
I accept there are numerous more pleasurable open doors ahead for people that took a gander at your site.fire and safety in chennai
You have to keep yourself on the side of other and then think about the answers you have made so you can learn this here now that how others will react when you answer such questions.
There are a lot of ways you can http://www.ksaexamples.info/ksa-questions-and-answers-samples/ about the interviews and the questions they ask you again and again to test you and you need to be calm as well while attending such interviews so you could get that position.
That is a very unique relation because you are all living for one an other and helping your kids is just provides you the inner peace that http://www.bestresumeformat.tips/resume-trends-2015 always talks about in the blogs.
Great site, Skin is the highlighted bit of the overall public and everyone worried over to make their face so rich. Nowadays, young fellows are moreover worried over their skin and this
https://www.cheapresumewritingservices.net/our-resume-writing-services-for-cheap/ site use bundles of the things. Your skin tips are so helpful to keep up the sparkle of the skin.
Good blog post, This layout is looking so lovely and it is driving forward of the understudy. I should respect the extraordinary effort of the understudy and I am sure the individual will win the incredible recognition in this field. This http://www.liprofilewriter.com/professionl-linkedin-profile-editing-help/ site should work in a comparative effort.
Post a Comment