Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>

Foreign Commonwealth Office Internship

Just thought i'd enquire if many other people had applied for the above position and if so had they received the same email as myself last week which stated the recruitment process had changed and we would be told our outcome by Monday 13th August!

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

fantasque

I've applied too and got the exact same email - I'm guessing it means they've had even more applications than they were expecting, which doesn't bode well for my chances, but fingers crossed!

Did you express any preference as to which departments you wanted to work in? Good luck :smile:

Reply 2

gt94sss2

Original post by fantasque

Did you express any preference as to which departments you wanted to work in?

Out of interest what choices were you offered?

Reply 3

fantasque

Original post by gt94sss2

Out of interest what choices were you offered?

It was just a list of departmental areas, which were corporate, political thematic, political geographic, consular and prosperity - there was also a disclaimer saying there's no guarantee of being assigned to your preferred area though!

Reply 4

bowen22

Yes i put Finance and Prosperity as my preferred choices however I just received an email this afternoon saying I have not progressed to the next stage!

Good luck with your application anyhow and hope you have better news

Reply 5

Starsword66

I applied for this and got an email this evening inviting me to an interview between the 20th and 31st of August, the exact date of which I will be informed of next week apparently. Anyone got any good guesses on what the interview process will be like?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 6

delasandro

where is the link for this scheme? can't seem to find it on their site?

Reply 7

Starsword66

http://graduatetalentpool.direct.gov.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/p!ecaaefg

Here. It's a good place to look for public sector internships as quite a few get advertised there. Lots of govt places seem to be running lots of internships in lots of different places these days.

Reply 8

jkb214

I've also received the email about getting through to the next stage between 20th and 31st August :smile:

Waiting anxiously for the exact date and details! I think the interview will be mainly competency based and expecting us to have a good knowledge of the FCO?

Reply 9

playingcards

To those who have been offered interviews - do you mind if I ask your level of academic background / relevant experience?

Reply 10

glitchy21

Original post by playingcards

To those who have been offered interviews - do you mind if I ask your level of academic background / relevant experience?

Sure thing. I've just graduated with a 1st in Law from one of the top London unis. I haven't had any relevant int.relations type experience, but have worked constantly since I was 16.

Reply 11

playingcards

Original post by glitchy21

Sure thing. I've just graduated with a 1st in Law from one of the top London unis. I haven't had any relevant int.relations type experience, but have worked constantly since I was 16.

Thanks. I also managed a First (History at Oxford, focusing on modern subaltern politics) and I've spent the last year working for a government abroad, so I thought myself in a decent position to progress.

I'm a bit gutted, but the competition is obviously fairly high. Oh well, I'll suck it up and try again next year! Congratulations by the way, and good luck in your interview. =)

Reply 12

glitchy21

Original post by playingcards

It seems that the application form was considered mostly on competencies rather than academic achievement/ work experience. So perhaps look at how you answered them? Just a tip, as I was talking to a family member who regularly interviews individuals for public sector positions and this seemed to be the approach, not taking in experience more generally till after interview (quite unfortunate as you seem to be in a great position with that work exp).

Thanks for the good luck!

Reply 13

tf004759

I too have been lucky enough to get an interview. 2:1 in IR from a red brick Uni for me, so certainly not the stellar academic performance that some of you have :smile:

I've done some work for a private company in Uganda, worked one summer in the public sector and the usual clubs stuff at Uni, but by no means have lots of structured work exp.

As has been said before a lot of the civil service stuff is competency based, in the interests of fairness and equality.etc. so it's really up to you to demonstrate how the stuff you've done in the past is relevant to the work in the role you are applying to. I'm sure you've heard of the STAR approach, and there is lots out there if you google how to answer competency based questions, I'm sure your own Uni has stuff but for some reason Kent comes up a lot in google searches and they have some useful pages. Only advice I can give is try to think what they might be looking for and try to cover everything mentioned in the job description.

Has anyone received any further word on the interview dates yet?

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 14

jkb214

Has everyone now received the email to book a time slot? They've also sent a pretty helpful document that outlines what we should be expecting. I like! There's just one thing I'm hoping someone can clear up,

"You should be aware that the interviewer/s will be taking notes during the interview. This is to record evidence of the competencies. The purpose is to a) ensure all the evidence provided in the interview is used in the assessment and b) to assist in planning your skills."

Does this mean there's going to be some kind of assessment to test our competencies?

Reply 15

oldham_fran

Good luck to all you guys that managed an interview!

I also applied for it and unfortunately didn't get through to the interview process. I am slightly disappointed but can't say that I'm altogether suprised, considering the amount of people who probably applied for that position.

Reply 16

tf004759

Original post by jkb214

I understood that to mean that the purpose of the notes is to ensure that the evidence we provide ( verbal interview answers) is recorded and then used when assessing our interview performance later.

Original post by oldham_fran

Good luck to all you guys that managed an interview!

Thanks

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 17

vi_26

Good Luck to everyone going for interviews! I've booked my slot unfortunately I've just secured a traineeship for 6months in Thailand. 2 buses coming at once springs to mind! From the email and previous interviews it looks like there will be alot of 'tell us a time when you solved a problem/dealt with a difficult situation/worked under pressure' type questions.

Reply 18

jkb214

Original post by tf004759

I understood that to mean that the purpose of the notes is to ensure that the evidence we provide ( verbal interview answers) is recorded and then used when assessing our interview performance later.

Thanks :smile: