Choosing between tasks can show AO Making Effective Decisions when you explain the evidence and rules behind your priority. The AA / AO Civil Service interview guide contains grade-specific questions that help you make this judgement visible. Use it before your interview so the structure and evidence are ready when the panel begins probing.
Question
“Tell me about a time when you had to decide which of two important tasks to complete first.”
What Is Being Looked For
The panel wants to hear how you assessed urgency, impact and any relevant procedure. At AO level, the decision may be within a queue of customer work or administrative tasks. Your answer should show that you made a sensible choice and kept the right person informed.
Use B-STAR to explain your belief about prioritising and the consequence attached to each task. In the action section, describe the information you checked and why it pointed to one priority. Explain what happened to the second task so it remained controlled.
A strong answer uses more than whichever deadline appears first. Some tasks carry a customer, legal or safety impact that changes their priority. Refer to the rule or service standard that guided you when one applied.
The result should show that the urgent task received proper attention and that the other work was completed or handed over clearly. This demonstrates decision making and reliable delivery together.
When preparing, write down the factor that made one task more important. If that factor is missing from the spoken answer, the choice can sound arbitrary. A direct reference to impact or procedure makes the judgement easy to follow.
Also explain how you protected the second task after changing priority.
Example Answer
I believe priorities should be based on impact and agreed rules rather than whichever request arrives most recently.
As an administrative assistant, I was updating routine payment records when an urgent safeguarding referral arrived for registration. Both tasks were due that day. The payment updates affected the weekly report, while the referral needed to reach a specialist team within a fixed service time.
I checked the referral procedure and confirmed that the safeguarding case had a two-hour registration target. I reviewed the payment work and found that most records could be completed later that afternoon without affecting customers. I decided to pause the routine updates and process the referral first.
I checked the referral form for the required information and found one contact number was missing. I called the referring officer immediately, obtained the detail and registered the case. I notified the specialist team through the approved route and recorded the time. I then told my supervisor why I had changed priority and confirmed when I would return to the payment records.
The safeguarding referral reached the specialist team within target. I completed the payment updates before the reporting cut-off and recorded no errors. My supervisor confirmed that the decision followed the correct priority rules.
Use your own decision and explain the evidence that made one task more important. The AA / AO Civil Service interview guide includes further Making Effective Decisions questions and sample answers before you finalise your preparation.
