Recruitment information podcast and transcript
Updated 6 July 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defence-commercial-graduate-programme-brochure/recruitment-information-podcast-transcript
Podcast
How the recruitment process works for the Defence Commercial graduate programme
Transcript
Narrated by a 2019 cohort graduate
Candidates who successfully complete all the tests, meet the required standard for the grade and the programme, will then be invited to complete and return a candidate statement, providing evidence of how you have demonstrated the following Civil Service Behaviours:
- working together
- making effective decisions
Use the STAR format to structure your evidence relating to each behaviour: situation, task, action, result.
Situation: what was the situation?
Task: what were you asked to do?
As a rough guide, no more than 20% of your word count should cover the situation and the task.
Action: what actions did you take?
Result: what was the outcome?
Approximately 80% of your paragraph should cover action and result.
This method will help you to present your evidence in a logical and structured way.
It will also help you to make sure that you have provided all the available information for every competence. The assessor reading the statement will be able to easily assess your evidence against each of the criteria. Candidate Statements will then be assessed and sifted by an independent Assessment Services company against the effective indicators for these behaviours. Candidates deemed suitable at sift will then be invited to a one-day Assessment Centre run by this company who will have access to relevant application details together with reasonable adjustment information associated with the Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) applicants. This will be held in the Bristol area in the dates specified in the advert. A reserve list will be used, and candidates may be contacted at very short notice (up to a day beforehand).
Please note: offers of employment are subject to achieving satisfactory pre-employment and security checks. These include an Occupational Health Assessment and a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). As part of this you will need to confirm your identity, employment/education history, nationality and criminal record (unspent convictions only).
The level of security needed is SC: Security Check, and you should usually have been continuously resident in the UK for 5 years immediately before clearance is launched. If you have lived overseas or travelled extensively during this period, it may affect the length of time taken to obtain full security clearance and therefore may affect your offer of employment. It is essential that all requests for information are completed fully and timely, as incomplete information may result in significant delays. Offers of employment are also subject to achieving acceptable grades where predicted.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.