SW please chat to me about interviews

[sungirltan]

I have an interview for my first post qual post 2 weeks today. 1 week today I am moving house with dd alone (dh away to work long story).

I am having a role play, a verbal analysis test then a formal interview in the afternoon.

Everyone I qualified with works in this borough whose interviews are completely different so I have no point of reference (though I will be trying to find one!).

I will be cramming latest law and policy for the formal but its the other two i'm a bit mystified by.

Any ideas/advice?

TIA

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

hello
i am about to take the dc out so can't comment much now, but marking thread for later.

is the job with adults? children? speciality?
the scenarios are likely to be based around duty referrals, i reckon. RISK is you keyword. Back later!

[sungirltan]

Children and Young People's Services. Do I need local service knowledge then? This job is out of area of area for me.

[slipperandpjsmum]

I am a social worker. At my first interview post qualifying I was asked to name the 5 outcomes (opening question) and was then given a variety of case studies and asked how I would deal with them.

Make sure you keep the child/yp at the centre of the answers you give. A friend of mine recently did not get a job as she was told she was not child centred enough. She was also asked about Munroes latest report and how she felt that would affect the future of sw.

Does the job you are applying for cover CP? If so you will need to know the difference between s17 and s47 and the processes for each. Also LAC processes if the job covers those. It would also be good to have an idea of the common threads of the serious case reviews and what we have learnt from them.

You may be asked something around supervision as some of my friends have been at their interviews in the past.

Try not to worry they won't expect you to know everything as its a NQSW job so the interview will be pitched at that level.

Remember you are interviewing them to. What can they offer you. What size and composition will your caseload be? What specific support is there for you? Is the NQSW established and working as it should be (our collapsed after about 4 months)! How soon will you be expected to do court work?

Which authority are you applying to?

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

right-ho
i've always worked in adult services, but can give some general advice

as a newly qualified worker you will be expected to be bang up to date with all your law, policy, procedure etc. do swot up.

case scenarios most often test you risk assessment skills - prioritising work according to risk, allowing positive risk taking, criteria for statutory intervention. although your answers should be user-centred, don't forget to draw on the law/policy which informs your actions in each case.

in terms of the borough, different boroughs do have different challenges - different minority ethic groups, some of which may be hard to reach, different levels of homelessness, substance use, transient populations, asylum seekers, rural and isolated service users, traveller communities, how well resourcesd the borough is in terms of partner agencies, even the geographical spread of the borough and transport will affect how you work.

i've often had questions on time management, strengths/weaknesses, how i manage stress.

I am fairly senior but i don't know what a verbal analysis test is. some interviews involve a brief written exercise to check that you have the basic skills required for note taking and report writing.

SW interviews are generally quite nice though - none of the questions should be a big surprise, the interviewers will prompt you to continue if you've missed things, you can leave questions and go back to them, or ask for some time to think your answers through.

[sungirltan]

hey thanks this has been really usefull. i have had 18 months at home with dd between qualifying and applying for nqsw - i feel so out of touch and awkward. i'm sure she said 'verbal analysis' - def 'analysis' it might have been 'word analysis' because i kept thinking of work association games! theres paperwork coming so maybe it will expand and i will post it back here.

[sungirltan]

ok so the verbal analysis thing is a test where you read a passage then answer multipe choice questions. for example the first passage is about eating habits and you have the answer whether statements are true based on the passage or unable to say, then there are words in the passage higlighted and you have to replace them, then you have to choose statements which sum up the passage's message correctly.

[urbanmisy30]

Hi everyone,
I am a NSQWsocial worker and I have a couple of interview within children services for a generic post in the a couple of days.The interview structure is a written assessment and a formal interview.I know this message was posted back in 2011 but I was wondering if anyone could help me who works in Children services for any interview tips of questions asked/topic areas covered.Please help if you can
Thank you