When people ask me about HR interviews for government, my answer is pretty standard. As per the guide, all interview questions are tied to the statement of merit criteria. And, in almost all cases, that means they are focusing on Experiences, Knowledge, Abilities, or Personal Suitability. Seems relatively straightforward, right?

Now, if you add in the fact that your cover letter / initial screening deals with experience, and a written exam normally knocks off most knowledge if there was a knowledge component identified at all, then the interview becomes more about abilities or personal suitability. In those instances, the popular but dangerous approach is to use the STAR method to structure your answer — Situation, Task, Action, Results. I consider it dangerous because if the question was “What would you do in situation X?” i.e., a hypothetical situation, then talking too much about your past experience doesn’t actually help you answer the question. They don’t care what the situation was, or the tasks, and only the actions or results that are applicable to the question they ask. However, while that is true for hypothetical situations, it is EQUALLY true for “tell us of a time when…” that LOOKS like an experience question but isn’t.… Read the rest