Economist & Policy Analyst Graduate Role

Mogs121

exitstageleft wrote: »

Why do you think it's people between 250 and 326 being called?
Might it not be between the qualifying score of 225 and 326?

I guess it could also be the case that the cut-off of 326 split the qualifying applicants evenly. In which case, any of us taking February interviews could really do with aceing them!

I meant 225, thought the qualifying score was 250 for some reason.

Do we think the presentation score and interview score are equally weighted when it comes to working out the final score?

exitstageleft

Mogs121 wrote: »

Do we think the presentation score and interview score are equally weighted when it comes to working out the final score?

I hope not but I think it would make sense. The opaque nature of the PAS process certainly doesn't make it clear.

I guess we could just ask though!

exitstageleft

Am I right in thinking that the interview will ask us about the 5 competencies listed in the handbook?

For reference, these are:
Specialist Knowledge and Expertise, and Self Development;
Policy Analysis;
Interpersonal and Communication Skills;
Decision Making and Delivery of Results;
and, Drive and Commitment to Public Service Values.

If so, do you think they will ask us directly about them or will we have to realise ourselves which question is about which competency?

Also, I second the earlier calls and politely ask if anyone has gone through the experience to shed a little more light on it for those of us in the February window!

Mogs121

exitstageleft wrote: »

Am I right in thinking that the interview will ask us about the 5 competencies listed in the handbook?

For reference, these are:
Specialist Knowledge and Expertise, and Self Development;
Policy Analysis;
Interpersonal and Communication Skills;
Decision Making and Delivery of Results;
and, Drive and Commitment to Public Service Values.

If so, do you think they will ask us directly about them or will we have to realise ourselves which question is about which competency?

Also, I second the earlier calls and politely ask if anyone has gone through the experience to shed a little more light on it for those of us in the February window!

I’d assume it’d be direct enough so that we know which competency they are looking for.

High_castle

My advice: know yourself, know what you bring to the table, know what sets you apart. Focus on the competencies and you'll be fine!

I know it's not much, but it's all you need (in my opinion)

emmaneiser

Anyone know how long the interview is?

exitstageleft

Has anyone heard either how many candidates are called to this interview stage or how many positions are likely to arise over the year?

I presume it is a one year panel.

emmaneiser

haven't heard anything about numbers being interviewed but there appears to be a good few days of interviews ahead yet!

The panel is one year from date of formation.

Anyone up tomorrow?

greensausage

emmaneiser wrote: »

haven't heard anything about numbers being interviewed but there appears to be a good few days of interviews ahead yet!

The panel is one year from date of formation.

Anyone up tomorrow?

Yep I have mine at 10 o clock tomorrow.

emmaneiser

greensausage wrote: »

Yep I have mine at 10 o clock tomorrow.

Very best of look lets us know how you got on

greensausage

emmaneiser wrote: »

Very best of look lets us know how you got on

Thank you! Yea I definitely will let you how it went afterwards.

Mogs121

I’ve heard they normally hire around 30 a year but I’m not sure how many they have on a panel or how many are interviewed.

.25lifecrisis

Any advice or updates from those who interviewed today would be really helpful

greensausage

Just finished the interview, it takes roughly 45 mins. don't think it went that well tbh
They start by going over education/job experience then they go through the 5 competencies, I found the second the toughest where she asked about a time or a project where you used policy analysis.
The rest was tell us a about a time where you...............
Tough enough questions and quite specific.

exitstageleft

greensausage wrote: »

Just finished the interview, it takes roughly 45 mins. don't think it went that well tbh.

Thanks very much for that.
For what it's worth, it could have gone better than you think.
My after-interview impressions have rarely matched up with the end result - whether good or bad.

greensausage

exitstageleft wrote: »

Thanks very much for that.
For what it's worth, it could have gone better than you think.
My after-interview impressions have rarely matched up with the end result - whether good or bad.

No problem, yea maybe you're right but I'm not pinning my hopes on it. I guess it depends on how many positions there are.
Anyway best of luck to the rest of yee doing it.

emmaneiser

greensausage wrote: »

Just finished the interview, it takes roughly 45 mins. don't think it went that well tbh
They start by going over education/job experience then they go through the 5 competencies, I found the second the toughest where she asked about a time or a project where you used policy analysis.
The rest was tell us a about a time where you...............
Tough enough questions and quite specific.

Fingers crossed for you. I worried about that question as it's better for those with policy analysis degree than economics degrees.

greensausage

emmaneiser wrote: »

Fingers crossed for you. I worried about that question as it's better for those with policy analysis degree than economics degrees.

Yea she really drilled down into the response I gave for the question, asking about variables, results etc. Think she knew I was bluffing

Mogs121

greensausage wrote: »

Yea she really drilled down into the response I gave for the question, asking about variables, results etc. Think she knew I was bluffing

Or it could be a good sign that they were asking for more detail! Was it obvious from each question which competency they were assessing?

.25lifecrisis

Thanks for sharing! It probably went better than you think, we always only remember the worst parts. Sometimes I think they drill down just to see how you react under pressure

greensausage

Mogs121 wrote: »

Or it could be a good sign that they were asking for more detail! Was it obvious from each question which competency they were assessing?

Yes a different person on the panel will ask about each competency in order, so its fairly clear in that regard. Some give a short scenario and ask what you would do.

greensausage

Well they definitely got to see me under pressure:). Ah in retrospect I think 4/5 of the competency questions went ok , it was just no 2 I made a balls of so it might be ok.

.25lifecrisis

Does anyone know when results are likely to be out? Have they been released for the first batch?

emmaneiser

.25lifecrisis wrote: »

Does anyone know when results are likely to be out? Have they been released for the first batch?

Should be the 2nd or 3rd week of March. I would say the end of the 2nd week. O don’t think it’s done in batches so all the results should be out today but I could be wrong.

Can anyone from the January interviews shed some light? Also I’d be interested to know how many days of interviews there was in January?

High_castle

There were 9. I have already received my results and OOM.

ShatterResistant

High_castle wrote: »

There were 9. I have already received my results and OOM.

So is it fair to say that there will be two separate panels from this competition?

exitstageleft

It's a bit odd that they'd be making a second panel so quickly.
If there were 9 days of interviews first time round and there were, very conservatively, 6 people a day interviewed, then that leaves 54 people ahead of the second panel.
Although a few might fail the interview, it still seems unlikely that they'll need a second panel for just 30 positions.

emmaneiser

exitstageleft wrote: »

It's a bit odd that they'd be making a second panel so quickly.
If there were 9 days of interviews first time round and there were, very conservatively, 6 people a day interviewed, then that leaves 54 people ahead of the second panel.
Although a few might fail the interview, it still seems unlikely that they'll need a second panel for just 30 positions.

Ya, it doesn’t make sense. I didn’t hear of them doing it like this any other year

ShatterResistant

PAS just confirmed by email that there are two panels for this competition.

exitstageleft

I guess that means the second panel is very much "just in case". Takes the pressure off a bit!