US Department of Homeland Security Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Jan 2008 in Washington, DC (took a day)

The Federal government - particularly the HR element - is a slow moving beast. I had a referral into this position, so it definitely helped to get past the first round of outsourced HR (machine read) vetting of resumes and KSAs (knowledge, skills, abilities) write-ups. The KSAs were pretty involved and involved relating prior experience to various position elements, including budgeting, program management, IT knowledge. Upon initial selection, the interview process was conducting via phone with an interview panel of GS-14/15s from the organization. These are the higher level, though none executive (SES) govies. The position I was interviewing for was a GS-14, which is comparable to a mid-level private sector manager or Director level (not to the VP, EVP, etc level). The panel interview was very straight forward and followed the elements listed in the position description. Later, once I had the position and was a manager in the org myself, I did my own hiring and also served on interview panels to assist others with their hiring and I learned that by govt rules, the process is very rigid. Each interviewee is asked the EXACT same questions to prevent any preferential treatment, though follow-up questions can elaborate as necessary. Once the interview was complete, the waiting began. Looking at this from the org side, this is due to the HR hoops necessary, lack of HR personnel, etc within each govt org. It was several weeks before I got the call and the offer. After that the security clearance took another 2-3 months. Whew! As to culture, DHS is a young org in govt terms and as it was created by combining several different org, there are still some growing pains - mostly political in terms of upper level control and positioning for budget $$$.