2 rounds: pre-screen for longlist and panel interview if you get shortlisted. 4 people in the panel interview. Very ackward interview format with only one short question and 4 STAR questions, they didn't spend time trying to understand the candidate or have deeper conversation about the role because they follow a strict format. HR promised to update result one week later and never did, provided a cold and vague response on follow up. Don't promise when you can't keep it. This is for a senior role but the way they treat shortlisted candidates is really disappointing and that signal a lot about their workplace culture.
The City promotes diversity and inclusion but in practice the whole panel are white people and the interview structure is all STAR interview. Have you ever wondered what these mean to promote DEI? Diversity in civic workforce is a stated value in virtually every city's HR policy. But the people making the actual hiring decisions are often not representative of that stated commitment. Using purely STAR questions as evaluation criteria struturally reward people good at story telling over real competencies required for the job. Many East and Southeast Asian professional cultures value modesty, collective attribution and letting work speak for itself and often score poorly in STAR interview due to modesty gap. STAR format is structurally built around individual achievement narrated with confidence and personal ownership even when they re make up stories.
Hiring processes should combine structured behavioral questions with practical tasks, reference checks probing specific behaviors, and panels diverse enough to reduce individual interviewer bias.