Government of Canada Interview Questions & Reviews in Ottawa, ON Area

Interviewed Aug 2007 in Ottawa, ON (Canada) (took 4 weeks)

My application went in early in April. This was the standard online application used for Government positions, wherein it's so important to use all the keywords you can to be screened in.

About two months later, I received a phone call inviting me to an interview. The interview was to be 2 weeks later, though it got rescheduled at the last second to be another week after that. I still don't know if this was a flexibility test or not!

The actual interview was attended by the manager of this position -- a director -- and his manager, a Director General. Upon arriving I was given a sheet of the questions they would ask, and was put into an empty office to review those and make any notes. After 20 minutes I was taken to the interview room, which was another office.

The interview was actually fairly casual, in tone, though it was a formal scored interview. In government interviews the questions are pre-determined, and the answers are scored based on whether candidates touch on the necessary points or not. Interviewers spend a lot of time writing and scoring. I was given constant feedback throughout the interview, however, indicating when I had answered in enough detail, or prompting for more.

I gave a sheet with my references (as had been requested) and left. Three months later, having heard nothing more at all, I got a call indicating that they would be checking my references within the week. Three weeks later, they did check the references. Three weeks after that, I got the call that the job was mine if I was still interested. This was a slow and arduous process -- worse than the typical post-interview process in government.