The entire application and interview process whilst well intentioned was a bizarre mix of amateur hour, anachronism, and obsessive protectionism that came across as very disrespectful to me as an external candidate.
What may be normal to someone who has been institutionalized to such and organization and possibly never even had a job anywhere else felt very antiquated and chaotic to a professional such as myself.
By the time I'd got in front of a panel I had spent the better part of a whole working week in the form of multiple weekends spread out over several weeks responding to drip fed instructions after making it through various sift stages.
By the time I was physically in a building to undergo the two day in-person selection process, I had already completed: an archaic application form that was a word document (a-la the 1990s) that only asked for the last three roles (as a contractor that was about 18 months worth of work from a twenty year career) - this raised multiple red flags and almost had me giving up there and then, multiple essay answers to questions, and prepared a presentation to an ambiguous brief that meant the style and content of the submission was very much a blind gamble and also felt like rather unethical like I was being mined for consultative insight for free prior to being employed.
The on-site in-person two day process was again well intentioned, but felt rather amateur-ish at times.
Hosting a panel discussion -easy enough to do, but the question set (we believe we are a great place to work at, how can we attract a more ethnically diverse workforce) to discuss pre-supposed a number of things and after a good bit of poking around in the discussion it became clear not many people were very happy or supported in their work (little training, poor wages, no structure,..) there so the first bit of the statement somewhat fell apart!!
Next stage: mock TV interview. Simple enough to do, and something I've done in real life for other jobs on several occasions, Except I was interviewed about NFRS (somewhere I don't work at) and as such had to make answers up and then later got feedback that I 'umed and arred' a lot (hardly a surprise, I was literally pulling it out of thin air and making it up!!), If the interview and questions had been on a topic of my choosing or around a job and place I did have knowledge and experience of then there wouldn't have been that issue.
The interview itself: Ironically, the easiest bit. It was your standard public sector panel, with basic 'can you tell me about, type questions on the key skills of the role- ethics, change, people leadership etc.
And after all that, they gave the job to the person who was already doing it, which frankly had I know they existed I would not have bothered applying as I feel I had my time utterly wasted and I was just used as stooge for an act of assurance rather than a genuine competitive process where an insider and an outsider were on an even footing.
