Civil Service Tests

Careers at Civil Service

The Civil Service delivers an extensive range of public services and supports the Government to develop and implement policies. Over 420,000 people are currently employed in the Civil Service across the UK and overseas.

Whether you’re passionate about foreign policy, want to deliver vital services to the public, develop the tech and infrastructure needed to ensure the country stays ahead, or influence future generations through education — there’s a job in the Civil Service to suit almost everyone.

And it’s yet another reason why it’s worth putting the time and effort into the highly competitive Civil service application process.

Within the Civil Service sits the Fast Stream programme, specifically designed to nurture and train future Civil Service leaders.

If you’re accepted onto the Fast Stream, your development will be heavily invested in and you’ll be trained up with leadership in mind. This does mean you won’t initially be able to choose which department you work in, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to learn from some of the country’s brightest minds and discover where your true passion lies.

The Fast Stream application process is made to challenge even the most competent of individuals, since its purpose is to help find the Civil Service’s future leaders.

It’s a lot of work, but if you’re willing to put in the time, effort and preparation, the results could be life-changing.

As well as numerous psychometric tests and questionnaires, you’ll also have to complete e-tray exercises, a video interview, assessment centre and a final selection board.

At each point, you’ll be required to showcase your skills and strengths, while demonstrating the key competencies that are required of every individual who gets accepted onto the Fast Stream.

Online application

The online application form is the first stage of the process.

You’ll be asked to share details of your previous education and experience, to ensure you meet the minimum criteria for the role you’re applying for.

The application form also includes a Civil Service competency questionnaire in which you’ll need to detail examples of where you’ve demonstrated the qualities listed in the Civil Service Competency Framework.

With just 200 words per answer allowed, it’s important to get your point across concisely.

Work-style questionnaires

The work-style questionnaire presents you with a series of statements that you’ll have to respond to with your own character in mind. After reading each one, you’ll need to mark on a scale how much you agree or disagree with what you’ve read.

Next, you’ll be shown the same set of statements and asked to rank in order which one describes you best, through to which is the least representative of your character.

As always with personality-style questionnaires, honesty is the best policy. But it’s always worth keeping the key competencies in mind as you progress through the questions.

Overall the strengths and weaknesses of your character are being assessed; helping an employer to gain a better understanding of how well you’d fit into the Fast Stream programme and wider department.

Civil Service situational judgement questionnaires

Using the core Civil Service competencies as a guide for your answers, you’ll need to answer a series of multiple-choice questions about your relationship-building skills and the way that you think, in two different situational judgement questionnaires.

The first questionnaire requires you to show how comfortable you are making important judgement calls and big decisions. These will always be framed as workplace challenges; ones that you may well have to deal with should you be accepted onto the programme.

The second questionnaire is designed to probe how you think, by giving you a limited amount of information about a workplace situation, and then asking you to use the information to resolve a problem.

Both questionnaires consist of 12 questions followed by four potential actions. Your job is to rate the actions according to their effectiveness in solving the particular challenge you’re dealing with.

Civil Service E-tray exercise

Otherwise known as work-based scenarios, the E-tray exercise is designed to assess how well you can prioritise and work under pressure. This test usually lasts around 80 minutes.

Dynamic in nature, the test will involve a bit of background reading to set the scene. After that, emails that need responses, as well as tasks and requests, start popping up on your screen. Your job is to prioritise everything and action it accordingly.

The test is designed to simulate situations very similar to those you’ll face on the Fast Stream. It thus gives those setting the test a much clearer idea of whether you’re able to cope under pressure, and prioritise the things they’d deem the most important and worthy of your time.