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Suitability for Tax Prof. / Op.Casework (Non-grad/non-fast stream)

Hi everyone at TSR

Let's discuss and help each other out for the upcoming roles as Tax Professionals or Operational Caseworkers for the Non-grad/non-fast stream applications!
I hope we can all support each other (...even if we are competitors!)


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(edited 8 years ago)

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Reply 1
Hi. I got this email yesterday as well, congratulations.

The competency questions will not be about tax or any finance issue. It will basically be a question about an experience you had at work or university or a voluntary position etc. For example for the competency making effective decisions you have to talk about a situation in which you had to make well thought out decisions and the consequences for doing so. Say you were the captain of a sports team as an example and then talk about how you decided on the best team formation/had to leave our certain players which made them unhappy but was better for the team. Or you could use an office based example about a project you worked on. If you are a recent graduate and have retail experience for example use that. It's entirely up to you. So yes the interview will be just be a chance for them to ascertain your suitability for the role and whether they feel they can train you. Rather than asking questions about how much you know about VAT and how the HMRC works.

As for researching tax law again that's entirely up to you but they haven't specifically asked for people with financial backgrounds to apply. Therefore there will obviously be intensive training given in regards to tax law. I would focus on coming up with good competency examples as I have had competency interviews before and they tend to ask follow up questions about your examples so make sure you know them in detail. I even got a job with the Home Office last year which they later withdrew due to budget cuts :frown: Your degree in Economics should hold you in good stead, just focus on the competencies now and you should be fine.
Reply 2
Hi everyone, I received the email about the interview stage too! Do you guys think it's a good idea to apply for the graduate programme too or should I just focus on this application?
Hey guys, anybody been able to schedule an interview date yet?

Hopefully they will be in touch 'shortly', haha.
You must have encouraged them to get in touch :P

I got an email saying they're just finalising the interview schedule due to the high volume. I wonder how many they brought through to interview stage?!
You won't be asked any tax questions.

My one hint about competencies would be to really stress what you personally did in the examples you're going to give.

Seriously they don't want to hear what 'we' did or 'what the group decided' to do. If something involves a deadline you had to work to that would also be quite good.
Reply 6
Finally got the interview dates, booked for 1st week of November. And good advice by Mega, competency examples are all about what you as a individual did and how it matches to the competency criteria.
Reply 7
Original post by jav3185
Finally got the interview dates, booked for 1st week of November. And good advice by Mega, competency examples are all about what you as a individual did and how it matches to the competency criteria.


Jav, I re-read the job advert and i didnt see any other competencies :s Also, the first poster of this thread (Wayfarer) copied and pasted part of the job advert and making effective decisions was the only one stated! How odd!
Reply 8
Original post by Montsz
Jav, I re-read the job advert and i didnt see any other competencies :s Also, the first poster of this thread (Wayfarer) copied and pasted part of the job advert and making effective decisions was the only one stated! How odd!


Hey Montsz, this is what I found at the end of the advert:
Sift/interview dates and locationInterviews will be held from early November and will incorporate the following competencies;

Making Effective Decisions
Collaborating and Partnering
Leading and Communicating

Further information on the interview process will be provided.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months from which appointments wil be made over a phased period. Further informationHMRC staff who are already on a tax professional development programme, will not be able to apply on a level transfer. HMRC needs to maintain resourcing levels in order to work towards key objectives. Allowing level moves out of the tax professional programmes would conflict with these objectives.

Possible start date January 2016'So that's what I'm going on and will prepare for these three competencies. Did you get a different advert?
Reply 9
Original post by jav3185
Hey Montsz, this is what I found at the end of the advert:
Sift/interview dates and locationInterviews will be held from early November and will incorporate the following competencies;

Making Effective Decisions
Collaborating and Partnering
Leading and Communicating

Further information on the interview process will be provided.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months from which appointments wil be made over a phased period. Further informationHMRC staff who are already on a tax professional development programme, will not be able to apply on a level transfer. HMRC needs to maintain resourcing levels in order to work towards key objectives. Allowing level moves out of the tax professional programmes would conflict with these objectives.

Possible start date January 2016'So that's what I'm going on and will prepare for these three competencies. Did you get a different advert?


:/
I think we have two complete different sets of information! This actually happened when I submitted my application to proceed to the online test. The email I recieved inviting me to take the test said something completely different to what came up on my screen after I submitted my initial application.. I only can't imagine they will have time to explore whether you truly have all 3 competencies in 30 minutes and if so then this interview is going to be brutal lool

What date is your interview?
Reply 10
Original post by Montsz
:/
I think we have two complete different sets of information! This actually happened when I submitted my application to proceed to the online test. The email I recieved inviting me to take the test said something completely different to what came up on my screen after I submitted my initial application.. I only can't imagine they will have time to explore whether you truly have all 3 competencies in 30 minutes and if so then this interview is going to be brutal lool

What date is your interview?


Oh no that's terrible Montsz! These interviews will be difficult enough without conflicting information. My interview is at Euston House on 5th November, afternoon. When's yours?
Reply 11
Original post by jav3185
Oh no that's terrible Montsz! These interviews will be difficult enough without conflicting information. My interview is at Euston House on 5th November, afternoon. When's yours?


I know right! Same, the 5th in the morning at Euston! Fingers crossed the 5th will be a god day for us :smile:
Do we revise for HEO level or EO level. I understand it's a joint recruitment- but I'm not sure how it works- will certain locations have different level HO or O positions or does the interviewer ask what you prefer. Or do you just aim high and revise HEO level?
Reply 13
Original post by OneJuanMata
Does anyone know for sure what the interview is based on? I emailed and asked but they wouldn't tell me for some strange reason. Every previous interview I've went for I got quite a lot of information beforehand. Very little information seems to be available for this job


Well I just got 3 emails with the same information from HMRC saying please go to the candidate centre for an attached Q and A document with more information. That new document says the interview will be 20 minutes and will have two competencies. All very confusing tbh.
Level 3 seems pretty intense in just twenty minutes. I'll have to route about in my brain for some top notch examples! Wonder how many vacancies there are? I know in the ad it said 420 but there was like 800 plus interview slots right? Never wanted a job so bad haha :colondollar:
Yeah I did read they intend to fill 350 but I was kind of hoping they'll be generous and refer to their original ad :tongue: I could be in that 70 haha! I know I'm just trying to decide what examples to give. I've got a mainly retail background. Worked in an office for two months though. Plus uni and stuff. Prep prep prep and a pinch of luck ha!
Reply 16
Hello all,


Good luck with the up and coming interviews. I have had an interview recently with another role in HMRC, and I believe the interview will be very similar.

The candidate packs are in fact very helpful and I wish I had received this before my previous one.

For my recent interview there were two people interviewing and one observing, they were really friendly and easy to get on with (I'm not saying all staff will be, but this was very helpful).

I was asked about 3 of the CS competency questions and had a lot more time, approx 45/50 mins to answer, so 20 minutes for the tax interview seems a short space of time and candidates will certainly require the use of the STAR technique.

You may be asked a specific question, and when answering the interview may ask other questions to draw further information from you, this is normal so don't be worried.

Questions asked were directed at past work/voluntary/team experiences, so if you don't have any experiences in this do not worry, any projects you have worked on or any achievement you believe is important/relevant you can draw on these experiences to provide an answer.

The candidates notes says you are allowed to bring in notes which can help in triggering memory, which is also another piece of information I would have loved to have!

I hope I can help some people with this information, good luck to all.
Thanks for your help MSP! I'm sure we all appreciate your information.

Rebecca, I know what you mean, I want this job so much too. It's crazy. :tongue:

A friend of mine had a similar interview with HMRC (for a different role) yesterday. He was lacking previous work experience as he is a new graduate and when he struggled to think of experiences he had they offered him a scenario to see what his response would have been. I think that's quite good of them but I'm going to do my best to think about my past experiences.

So, my candidate pack included information that I/we will be tested at level 3 and they will provide scenarios and ask questions linked to the two competences:

Making Effective Decisions

Screenshot 2015-10-22 at 21.51.36.png

Collaborating and Partnering

Attachment not found


I'm going to have a think about it and then I'll post back to maybe elaborate on how scenarios / experiences can be linked to that framework.

I know we're all technically in competition but I hope we can all help each other. :smile:

edit / p.s. Collaborating and Partnering criteria seems to be in the thumbnail
(edited 8 years ago)
I would say I'm a relatively new grad so going to rack my brain for some examples!

Wonder how it will work do you need to hit all the bullet points within the competency with one example? Or will the question be one of the bullet points and you respond for the given bullet point?

Yeah! Fingers crossed everyone on this forum makes it through :'D
Original post by OneJuanMata
Sure you can always use uni as examples too. Well I've passed a civil service competency interview before and used one example per question. Then just used the star technique to answer each question. Seems like you need to mention Leadership in all the questions based on the candidate pack. Looks like they're testing the other two competencies in seperate questions too again based on the candidate pack :smile:


Do you mean that (for example) for testing the competency leading and communicating they could say "Can you give an example of when you demonstrated the competency leading and communicating?" because that would need a very long answer.

OR...

Do they break down the competency and ask 3/4 questions on it like "Can you describe a time when you had to handle a challenging conversation?", "Can you describe a time when you had to discuss an idea in writing and orally?"

Thanks. :smile:

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