Application Process & Interviews at Services Australia

Graduate hiring was confusing for those in specific streams. I did not complete a specific hiring process for Services Australia but more of a general one for the HR stream.

internally - bulk recruitment that is aimed at service delivery staff, which makes it difficult for staff outside of service delivery to move up

It was very long and protracted, from March through to November, with rigorous assessment and interviews. I didn't mind this, except that there was a lack of communication, and applicants were left wondering what was going on.

The process is lengthy and because you never speak to a human you can't be sure if you are really being understood.

The interview process for the graduate program was too long and lacked transparency. I should have been told that there was no 'stability of location' as a front of house social worker during recruitment to the graduate program rather than after commencing work. I was unable to make an informed decision as to if the requirements suited my needs.

I applied for the graduate program in March of 2022 and did not receive any formal offers of employment until Early September 2022. The interviews were conducted in a number of different ways and formats but that wasn't my issue with the process. The amount of time it took to complete was too long and I believe you risk losing your best potential candidates but not expediating the process.

It was very long and taxing, there were many hoops to jump through and it took nearly a whole year.

It is very lengthy should be more efficient and timely, also more transparent

I don't have any comment here.

Lengthy hiring process

A written submission, an interview where you record yourself, then a person-to-person interview. Second assessment involved a technical problem and a behavioural problem.

Interview process was long

The whole process is on our website, and considering part of the job involves being resourceful and searching using a computer...

Interview process and assessments were fair. I would have liked a bit more transparency around the timing of progression between recruitment stages and how many people made it to each stage. I would have also appreciated more detail regarding the contracts I was offered. I applied as a generalist graduate and was offered (and accepted) a digital role without any information regarding the difference between the streams which has, at times impacted my experience in the graduate program/at work. At the time I asked for more detail regarding the roles I was offered and received no extra information.

Extremely slow and drawn out. It took almost a year for me to find out whether I was successful - I actually thought I was unsuccessful due to the lack of communication. The outsourcing of the process leaves much to desire. The "interview" process is now simply recording videos of yourself answering questions - it is not intuitive and does not truly reflect how one would behave or interview in person, barely any in-person interactions are had during the process.

No more laborious than expected, recruiters engaged with me on a personal level when assessing my capabilities.

Slow, alienating, bizarre.

Very long and cumbersome process

Fine. No problems.

Online assessment, written interview (instead of the normal video interview), 2 written assessments, 1 group interview with a given task, 1 individual interview

The questions were generic catch all questions which didn't reflect what the role I was applying for.

I do not remember

I don't really remember but I do remember leaning into my progressive political orientations and why going a Federal government agency would rectify some of the issues I was having in the private sector. Overall, they wanted to gauge my customer experience skills - which I feel I had a lot of considering the level of my position.

I can't remember, but it was a range of both agency wide and social work specific questions. There was an individual and a group interview.

Just standard behavioural and technical questions - what stands out in the data to you, how did you handle this type of situation, etc.

I honestly cannot remember, I spent most of it as nervous as could be. I remember not having had much sleep, and that the woman interviewing was lovely and gave me extra time because my interview went long because we had a lot to talk about.

To solve basic problems relating to patterns - ('match the shapes', 'missing number in sequence' etc). Working experience - what type of roles have previously been worked. Times when you have encountered difficult situations - how were they overcome. Simulation of mailbox/inbox management.

Why do you want to work here? How is your past experience relevant?

I dont recall. Pre grad program I was asked if i can use a computer.

cannot recall

Sorry, I forget. That was a long time ago.

I was hired without an interview.

I was asked why I wanted to work in government and was given data related questions as that was my degree and graduate stream. The data questions involved being given a graph and asked what important details I would include in a report to a government minister prior to a press conference.

What experience do you have? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

I don't remember

I was posed a simulation where I had to source information from many different emails to make choices for an event, and identify what the most cost effective vs most widely supported options where. I had some general logic puzzles to do, I think classic 'whats next in the sequence' type things. I had to respond to a few prompts about times I worked in a team times I salvaged what went wrong, and how I hope to apply my degree to the graduate program. The group part of the interview was about adapting to change, which was a common theme of interviews for Services Australia. We were posed a scenario as a group where we were all being pulled from our current project to meet emergency demand, and had to prepare to hand over our work to our manager, so had to prioritise how to communicate these things.

I was asked questions along the lines of customers impacts, things revolving around empathy and emotional intelligence. There were some scenarios regarding a surge in demands. Such as a natural disaster or pandemic, which was phrased in a way to get us (grads) thinking about how we would tackle a problem.

Standard interview questions. I had no issues with the questions asked other than that they are generic. It is important to have a mix of Agency staff and hiring company staff on the panel to effectively assess the interview question responses (as was the case with me)

Scenario questions

Bit late to ask this one - that's a long time ago.

The Assessment Centre is a standardised process that is researchable with a Google search. The questions change, of course, but you can settle some of that anxiety around the unknown by familiarising yourself with what the process is going to involve.

Be patient the process takes a long time and even when you are rated suitable to actually get the role it may take you a while.

Don't join the graduate program. Do a cadetship and keep your options open.

Read about the agency's Master Plan and link your answers to this. Keep the customer at the centre, and demonstrate your ability to work as a team and problem solve.

Just be yourself.

Get 9+ hours of sleep! Don't do what I did. Also, researching what exactly we do is a good idea generally: you'll never be expected to be on top of all of it, but knowing the three branches exist and roughly what they cover is a good idea. Also, if you're on Youth Allowance or have an underlying medical condition, you can talk about how you've already used our services, because most Australians have at some point.

Being prepared for traditional interview questions will only get you so far. Be prepared to undergo activities that will in no way reflect your ability to conduct yourself professionally and/or complete given tasks.

Research and be able to answer why you want to work here

Read the instructions carefully.

Be yourself and back your judgement in any written assessments. Just explain your work

Nothing specific. I don't recall the process having any major differences to other corporates.

Focus on the STAR methodology, highlight any experience you have where to tried to improve customer experience

Apply somewhere else.

Relax. The most important part of being in government is being able to talk confidently. This applies to most job interviews I think.

Do research and learn about what your company does. Figure out why you want the job.

Do not apply for the graduate program as you are financially disadvantaged compared to new starter colleagues doing the same work. The training and opportunities provided in this 10-month program are not enough to compensate.

The best way to approach the group interview, in my opinion, is to focus on creating a team dynamic in the discussion, rather than finding the best solution. The people that really tried to find the best solution by shutting down other peoples ideas did not advance. I also remember the individual interview being very closely based on the position description and type of person they were looking for that was available in the graduate program web page. I generated a few situations based on the type of person they were looking for, and ended up being able to use them almost ver batim. They want you to respond using STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result

I'd tell them to remember this company at its core, deals with people. So make sure your responses and ideas come from the angle of what is best for the customer. The rest just falls into training the specifics of a role, but at its heart, we help people in need and deal with a lot of sensitive information, so be professional, friendly, and think about 'why' you're doing what you're doing.

Understand the Agency's Master Plan and focus responses on customer service delivery.

Be the honest self and tell their experience.