dshs interview questions

Interview

Due to COVID we did not go into the office, I applied through the Washington online website, recorded my interview with the questions, submitted it with my cover letter and essay and waited. It went great.

Interview

I filled out an exam after applying. Then I had a phone interview (covid) with a full team. List of questions I had to answer. I felt good about it. Apparently, you are supposed to get the questions a couple days before the interview. I got nothing! Then I was given a tour. Drove to McNeil Island, took a ferry to the island, then a bus to the facility. I waited OVER an hour for a tour, never met anyone in my field. Tour guide told me if I got to the island I was a shoe in. Then I had another phone interview with the director. I felt good about it. I waited a few days and was told no. The worst part was waiting for an hour in the lobby sweating like crazy! Had to be 75 or more.

Interview

As I entered the building, I was met by admin and immediately escorted to the conference room. I walked in to a small, overstuffed conference room that probably had never been vacuumed or dusted since it’s last update in the 1960’s, so of course my eyes welled up and my face turned hivey blotchy and I couldn’t breathe. Right then I began to consider at what point I was going to bail, how was I going to explain it, etc. So, when I had to slide against a dirty, dusty back wall to get behind the tightly penned conference chairs who objected to their preservation and use as much as I did, I started the stopwatch app on my cell phone mentally giving myself ten minutes to abort or call for an ambulance. I swore I had walked into cobwebs as I chose a chair, wrestled it away from the table, won the chair without injury, exhaled gloriously (thanks yoga!) and perched on the edge of my winnings. By the time I checked my hair for spiders and settled my briefcase, they peppered me with questions all at once, with one gal outright accusing me of being late. (I wasn’t, her peers corrected her, IN FRONT OF ME. I was about twenty minutes early according to the email I had printed out in my hand, as well as in my inbox, as it had all of the specific instructions for how to get to the office, where to park, etc.). I had no idea this was the interview panel. None. I thought we were all there for the same position! I guess the Admin got me confused with a no-show candidate? I don’t know. No one really explained that or apologized. Oh, except me, of course. Then I was wondering why I was the one apologizing, because I didn’t do anything wrong. It was a whole big thing. I was very confused about how this was/wasn’t handled. Needless to say, at that point I was done and just wanted to leave. There was no way I wanted to throw my hat in the ring with this crowd. They were fighty and rude and obviously didn’t care what their work environment was. Too polite to cause a stir, I went through the interview at breakneck speed, remained polite but totally tanked it, and left as soon as I politely could. Absolute disaster. Hives for days. Lied to HR at the follow up for I don’t know why reasons.

Interview

The interview process was very low stress, it was more like a conversation, and there was a small test on excel which was also just a basic overview of your knowledge. Don’t worry the environments super friendly. Just be sure you know some basics before going in.

Interview

First we started with the in-basket exercise that lasted for 1.5 hrs (typically it’s 1 hour), then a few candidates would be selected to go through the interview, where you’d be asked about your experience working with health data, SAS and/or other skills, team work, priorities at work, etc.