Recent public service employee here (just over a year), the thing that puzzled me the most during the 2 interviews I got is that there was not a single moment where the interviewers tried to assess my motivation for the work. It was a total disconnected interview with zero interest in getting information from me such as my personality, my motivations. I know it’s supposed to be like that but I can’t believe the personality or motivation has zero importance for any work, whatever public or private job. Definitely a very difficult interview as there is absolutely no room for improvisation or interpersonal skills. Even if I’ve always learned that interpersonal skills, body language and charisma are extremely important in interview, the government doesn’t care about those skills and they’re not assessed during an interview. Well it’s completely different from the private sector and very unsettling. I can’t agree more on the fact that it obviously discards some extremely good candidates.