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TheOperaGhostofKinja t1_j4972ug wrote

For the interview: (is this in person or virtual?)

Each candidate will be asked the same set of questions. You should be given a sheet of paper with the questions written on it a few minutes before the interview starts. Bring a pen, and jot down any notes for things you want to be sure to highlight.

You’ll be before an interview panel of usually 3 people. Sometimes one person asks all of the questions, sometimes they rotate. You will see your panel members taking notes. The panel really won’t be able to deviate from the set question list(such as asking you to expand on your answers) so you want to be sure to answer as fully and completely as you are able.

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PsychoCelloChica t1_j49wi6b wrote

I’ve sat on over 100 panel interviews for the state and one thing I will tell you is that interview panels have no real way to fact check what you tell us. If one of the questions is “Tell us about a time” and you say you can’t think of one, we can’t rate you on the factors that question was designed to evaluate (and they are all tied to a specific factor like technology skills, problem solving, customer service, interpersonal skills, etc).

If you can’t think of something, make it up. Make up a simple and believable story that shows you at least understand the theory of what we’re asking for. Tell us how you used technology to solve a problem by identifying a duplicated process that could be eliminated by a shared excel spreadsheet. Or how you dealt with a difficult customer and used your interpersonal skills to empathize and under their actual deeper problem and redirected the conversation to what you COULD do to help them and they left satisfied with the interaction.

And similar to what another commenter said, take advantage of the pension plan. Don’t just do the 401k. Also jump onto the supplemental 457b deferred compensation plan. Start small, maybe $20 each pay. And then every time you get a raise, increase the amount by at least 25% of what your raise was. In no time at all, you’ll be saving an additional several thousand a year for retirement. You’ll never miss it if you never see it, and it really adds up. I wish I was more aggressive with adding to mine when I first started.

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