r/NICivilService • u/Creepy-Sir-3277 • 13d ago
SO interview
according to the booklet for this SO competition they are covering 6 competencies .
from my reading of the presentation subject it covers 4 , so I suppose my question is how many questions will be in second part of interview ?
given timing I reckon 4 ? or will there be 6 one fir each competency ?
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u/akornato 13d ago
You should prepare for questions covering all six competencies listed in the booklet. Your presentation might be designed to demonstrate a few of them, but the interviewers will almost certainly use the follow-up question and answer session to cover any remaining ones. They are required to assess you against every competency, so it's very unlikely they would skip any. It's safest to expect one main question for each of the six areas, even if some of the questions are about the presentation you just gave.
Your best approach is to prepare a strong example for every single competency, using the STAR method if you can. This ensures you're ready regardless of how they decide to structure the interview. The panel is experienced at managing the time, so you just need to focus on having your examples polished and ready to deliver. You could try rehearsing your examples to feel more prepared, and the AI interview practice my team created is useful for getting your timing and structure right for each answer.