NCA Trainee Investigator/Intelligence 2019

Same as me, my dream job! I applied for the Stevenage and Heathrow locations, what about yourself?

Wow! Those are the same locations I have applied for too! In the application form it stated that the results from sifting will start being released from 13th December, but everyday I find myself a little stressed by it! Haha
Did you get to watch the event regarding the role?

Haha, me too, find myself checking everyday just in case. I didn’t actually as I was working, what about you?

Yeah I did watch the event, just explained the job role and they introduced 4 different people- a person from HR, the training team, someone who was in the role spoke about their experience and the person in charge of the NCA also spoke. I spent 4 hours on my application, there were no tests for this one although when I read through this post previously, people spoke about tests. There were some key pointers about the event I took note of, such as it is a lengthy process- something like 6-9 months. So if you’re looking for a new role asap, then this isn’t the one. They are looking for fresh talent, so they are considering people of all sorts of life and background- there was a heavy focus on what kind of experiences you could bring to the team. There is also covert training that everyone has to take part in learning- sounds cool! Honestly, it sounded great! Pay packet is good, you’re mentored along the way and if you fail to pass the exams, you can get help for it again and again. If you have IT skills, like Cybersecurity, that will make your application stand out. Although 5 roles are advertised, over 400 people were watching that live event! (According to the main speaker) He did also mention that more roles would be coming out in the future, in different locations and also for Intelligence roles.

The role sounds brilliant, fear though that with possibly 400+ applicants, it’s going to be extremely unlikely I’ll get it! Wish you all the best

Thought I'd come back to update this.

I applied as an 'experienced hire' not the trainee role, so probably a different process than most of you will go through but this may be helpful for someone out there.

One thing that was already apparent from reading online is how painfully slow the process is - at a minimum if I got the job it would be something like 8 months to starting (to be fair the NCA did state it would be 6 months minimum in the advert but there are other reasons for delay such as their delay in giving interview results and the candidates own notice period which would add more time).

If I remember correctly they were advertising for 20 posts for the role I wanted but I know they were also recruiting lots of other jobs at the same time.

I did the application and got an interview - in central London - which was a bit annoying as it was never made clear that is where it was going to be when I applied (I applied for a role a fair distance away from London so was expecting the interviews to be local). But I went of course.

They were running lots of interviews in their head office (ongoing for a couple of weeks I believe).

Although I had researched civil service interviews, the process took me by surprise somewhat. Basically no small talk and straight in with 6 very specific questions. No questions at all about me personally (why I wanted the job etc).

The interviewers didn't know anything about me other than my name - not even my current job.

They asked if I had any notes - I didn't as was never told we could take them in. In hindsight this cost me a little as I had written down all of the answers to one of their technical questions the week before and I if I had had that sheet with me I could have made a better fist of my answer.

(They did say we could take notes during the interview but we could not take them out of the room).

None of them worked at the office I wanted to work at and were unable to answer some basic questions about working hours/work from home etc so even if I got the job, I wasn't necessarily in a position to accept it unless I had further contact with the local office with more details.

This was a bit annoying TBH. It was very much like dealing with a faceless organisation where it was hard to get basic answers to basic queries. I'd also asked some questions beforehand via email and again the answers I got were not great. For example, they wouldn't tell me where the office was as it is a secret location (fair enough) but no one could answer whether it had free parking.... which is a critical bit of info I need if I may have to pay £10-£15 a day to park.

Anyway, I thought I answered all of the questions OK but I don't think I spoke for long enough - that was apparent from their expressions. After leaving I thought I probably hadn't got it.

A few points re the interview
- it was very much about scoring people to compare to others (and score their minimum criteria I guess)
- very cold and detached
- frustrating on my part as if it was a more traditional interview I felt I could have said a lot more about myself
- I could literally had made up any BS and I am not sure it would have been questioned....
- the taking of notes was a bit of a pain in hindsight as I had all of the answers to one question.

Got the results today and didn't get the job.
Scores on feedback were 5 3 4 4 4 3.

Not surprised TBH as I probably didn't speak enough during the interview. The problem was it was quite easy to answer their questions succinctly. So I wasn't sure whether to waffle on with lots of potentially irrelevant background information.

Overall I felt the process was quite slow and at times a bit frustrating. Interview results took about 6 weeks I think. not sure if I would apply for the NCA or civil service again - but if I did, it would definitely be something that is a backburner to something else as the timeline is so long.

On the plus side, I have some experience on a civil service interview I suppose.

Is anyone else left on this reserve list for the 2019 campaign?
8 months now since I was successful and still nothing except the standard posting panel updates.
It’s just way past

I must have been accepted into the pool around the same time as you (from the 2019 campaign), and yeah still waiting! I know that covid hasn’t played the best role in all of this but still feeling a little let down by the process.

Hoping it comes around sooner rather than later as this is still my dream role.

There are absolutely people in role from the summer 19 campaign

Yes still hanging in the pool, I hope that I get the extension of 6 months extra too because I’m nearing the 12 month point! Has anyone heard anything this month?