How you start your career with the Ministry of Environment will vary depending on whether you’re experienced or beginning your career. Below you will find helpful information on how you can start your career, the recruitment process, and competency based hiring.
Options for Starting Your Career with MoE
Short-term Options
Below you will find short-term options for working with the Ministry of Environment. These options help students, recent graduates, and experienced professionals gain work experience and/or give them a feel for what it is like to work for the Ministry of Environment.
Co-op Work Terms:
University and college students enrolled in co-op programs work in a number of areas throughout the Ministry of Environment.
Co-op students work on a short term basis (4 to 8 months) on project work. Co-operative education programs allow students to alternate academic terms on campus with relevant, paid, full-time work experience.
The Ministry usually hires about 20 to 30 co-op students every four months. This is a great way to get a start with the Ministry of Environment. In the past year, 17.6% of our co-op students were hired in a permanent position with the Ministry upon or close to graduation.
For more information contact your institution's co-op education office, or visit the Association for Co-operative Education in British Columbia/Yukon website at: http://www.co-op.bc.ca/.
Temporary Positions:
The Ministry hires temporary or short-term employees at different times throughout the year. These short-term opportunities are referred to as "auxiliary" positions to distinguish them from the regular, permanent jobs. Getting experience in the ministry on a temporary basis can help you gain
experience and can lead to career development opportunities within the ministry.
For more information on how to apply for temporary or seasonal positions, visit the B.C. Public Service Agency website at: http://www.bcpublicservice.ca/postings/.
Long-term Options
Internships:
The Public Service Internship Program is designed to provide recent graduates from post-secondary institutions with direct work experience that introduces them to a career in the public service.
Internship work assignments are targeted at developing the skills and expertise needed in the Public Service in order to meet future demand. They will help you develop a base of experience in order to compete for future positions in government, and provide you with the opportunity to apply
your education within a work environment.
Regular Positions:
If you are experienced and interested in working for the Ministry of Environment in a permanent capacity you are encouraged to apply to ministry positions through the BC Public Service Agency Job Opportunities website.
The Recruitment Process:
Recruitment at MoE is a four-stage process focused on identifying, assessing, interviewing and hiring the best person for each opportunity.
Stage 1 – APPLICATION
Apply to each position of interest to you that aligns with your educational background, competencies and experience by reviewing the BC Public Service Agency Job Opportunities website. If you apply by e-mail, you will
receive an e-mail acknowledgement confirming receipt of your application.
Stage 2 – EVALUATION
Once your application is submitted, it is reviewed against the requirements of the position. Due to the large volume of candidate resumes received, only the most closely aligned candidates will be contacted directly.
Stage 3 – ASSESSMENT & INTERVIEW
Depending on the number of applicants and the requirements of the job, a pre-interview assignment may be used to evaluate applicants. The interview process may include a phone interview with a Recruiter and/or Hiring Manager and a face-to-face interview. The primary purpose of the interview
process is to assess the fit of the candidate with the needs of the Ministry of Environment and serves as a way for the candidate to gain a better understanding of the opportunity and our organization.
Stage 4 – SELECTION
When a candidate has been selected, they will receive an offer letter. Once the offer has been accepted, candidates who were not selected will be notified.
We hope that you have found this overview helpful and we appreciate your interest in our Ministry.
Competency-based Hiring
At the Ministry of Environment our hiring process is competency-based. To evaluate competencies during the interview process we often use behavioural interviews. A behavioural interview asks applicants for specific examples of past behaviours that relate to the requirements of the job. The
principle is that the best predictor of future performance is past performance under similar circumstances. Behavioural interviews may also be referred to as behavioural event (BEI) or descriptive (BDI) interviews.
A lead or opening question followed by a series of probing questions elicit responses containing detailed information on roles, situations, actions and outcomes from past job-related experiences, events, or accomplishments. They go beyond hypothetical “what would you do if...”
situations by asking for real life examples. The more recent and longstanding the past behaviour, the greater the predictive power. Questions are based on the competencies identified for the position.
What is a competency?
A competency is defined as any motive, attitude, behaviour or other personal characteristic that is essential to the job, and differentiates average from superior performance. In other words, competencies are simply a holistic way to identify what it means to be a successful performer
within one’s organization.
There are two types of competencies, technical and behavioural:
- Technical Competencies: These are the technical knowledge and skills we need to perform a job or role; they describe what we need to know or be able to do to perform the job or role, and are essential to effective performance.
- Behavioural Competencies: A behavioural competency is any motive, attitude, skill/ability, knowledge, behaviour or other personal characteristic (demonstrated through behaviours), that is essential to perform the job well, and that differentiates high performers from average performers.
These are the personal characteristics (i.e. skills, traits, motives or attitudes and values which relate to self image) that describe how we perform the job or role, and are what differentiates superior from average performance. They describe what superior performers think or do more
often, in more situations and with better results than average performers.
How can competencies be demonstrated?
Behavioural competencies may be demonstrated as a result of:
- Knowledge: Information that a person uses in a particular area. For example, this might differentiate an outstanding client service representative who speaks many languages in an office with an international clientele.
- Skill/Ability: A person’s ability to do something well. For example, effectively interviewing and hiring the best job applicants.
- Social Role: A person’s pattern of behaviour that is displayed outwardly to others and is reinforced by his/her social group or organization. For example, serving as a leader versus a follower; or being a change agent or resisting change.
- Self-image: A person’s view of him/herself; identity, personality and worth. For example, seeing oneself as a developer of people; being on the “fast track”.
- Trait: A typical aspect of a person’s behaviour in a particular area (achievement, affiliation, power, interests, principles, values, beliefs, attitudes, spirituality). For example, an outstanding service representative probably has a sincere interest in connecting with people.
- Aptitude: The potential or capacity to acquire skills or abilities; i.e., what a person can learn to do given training or exposure to the appropriate environment.
- Physical Capacity: Capacity related to movement, the senses and psycho-physical attributes.
What competencies are important for Ministry of Environment jobs?
The Ministry of Environment looks for applicants who possess the three core Government competencies: Service Orientation, Teamwork and Cooperation, and Results Orientation.
- Service Orientation: is understanding the service needs or a client/customer (internal or external) and actively focusing on anticipating, meeting and exceeding the needs in a timely and appropriate manner.
- Teamwork and Cooperation: is the ability to work co-operatively within diverse teams, work groups and across the organization to achieve group and organizational goals. It includes the desire and ability to understand and respond effectively to other people from diverse backgrounds with
diverse views.
- Results Orientation: is a concern for surpassing a standard of excellence. The standard may be one’s own past performance (striving for improvement); an objective measure (achievement orientation); challenging goals that one has set; or even improving or surpassing what has
already been done (continuous improvement). Thus, a unique accomplishment also indicates a Results Orientation.
- In addition to the three core Government competencies each posted position will outline job specific competencies.
How do I reflect the required competencies in my application?
When applying for a position that has advertised competency qualifications, using ‘accomplishment statements’ will help you to describe your practical experience in a way that highlights the specific competencies and behaviours that the panel is looking for and will help to get
you invited further in the process.
Accomplishment Statements:
When describing practical experience relating to how you demonstrated specific competencies and behaviours, an accomplishment statement is an effective way to describe the outcomes.
An accomplishment is something that you did that improved a situation, solved a problem or made a contribution, either in value or in substance.
Accomplishments demonstrate that you used your knowledge and skills to contribute to the organization as a whole.
Accomplishments illustrate what you did with your assigned responsibilities and should consider the following questions:
- What was the problem or issue?
- What did you do in response to the problem or issue?
- What skills did you use?
- What was the benefit to the organization?
Accomplishment statements should begin with a past tense action verb, state what was accomplished for the business, followed by applied skills.
For example:
- Transformed a demoralized branch into a highly productive, vibrant, innovative and service oriented organization by acting as a ‘change agent’ through the involvement and empowering of my staff.
- Involved staff in setting and achieving Ministry goals by leading Ministry strategic planning sessions.
- Facilitated the realization of ministry goals by developing key pieces of legislation.
- Improved morale by leading a participative process for Business Plan preparation and by resolving several Human Resources issues for the staff.
- Achieved a paradigm shift in the Branch by changing the culture from being inward looking, highly technical, and narrowly focused to becoming an innovative, outgoing, integrated and provincial policy focused organization.
- Reduced a two-year backlog in licensing to less than 3 months by streamlining the business processes and taking calculated risks.
For more information on competencies, please see the competencies website.
