EL1 interviews assess capability beyond delivery into coordination, influence, and leadership within complexity.
They are not assessing whether you can do more work than an APS6. They assess whether you can create outcomes through leadership, influence, and judgement in complex environments.
What EL1 Interviews Focus On
EL1 interviews typically assess the candidate’s ability to demonstrate:
- Leadership through influence rather than formal authority
- Accountability for outcomes delivered by teams and stakeholders
- Coordination across competing priorities and work areas
- Decision making in uncertain or complex environments
- Communication of complex information to diverse audiences
- Balancing strategic intent with operational delivery
Explore interview expectations across APS levels
Each level assesses different capabilities. Explore the expectations at each stage to understand how responsibility, judgement and leadership develop across an APS career.
APS4 APS5 APS6 ✓ EL1 EL2What Panels Are Really Looking For
At EL1 level, panels are often trying to understand:
- How you think
- How you make decisions
- How you influence others
- How you prioritise competing demands
- How you balance risk, relationships, and delivery
Strong candidates make their thinking and judgement visible through how they describe decisions, priorities, and trade-offs.
Understanding how EL1 selection decisions are really made
The APS recruitment process is often less about the examples themselves and more about how panels interpret judgement, influence, and leadership signals within your responses.
These patterns are explored in depth in The APS Recruitment Game, including worked examples and practical strategies to improve interview performance.
Explore the bookCommon EL1 Interview Questions
Typical EL1 questions include:
- Tell us about a time you led a piece of work
- Describe a situation where you influenced stakeholders
- Give an example of managing competing priorities
- Tell us about a difficult decision you had to make
Assess your capability against the APS EL1 expectations
The Australian Public Service Commission’s Integrated Leadership System (ILS) provides a useful framework for understanding the behaviours and capabilities expected of Executive Level 1 employees.
Review the EL1 capability descriptors and identify examples from your own experience that demonstrate these behaviours.
Explore the APS EL1 Integrated Leadership SystemHow to Structure EL1 Answers
Strong EL1 answers:
- Start with clear context
- Focus heavily on your actions and decisions
- Explain how you influenced others
- Clearly articulate outcomes and impact
The strongest responses show leadership behaviour, not just task completion.
Weak:
“I coordinated a project involving multiple stakeholders and ensured it was delivered on time.”
Strong:
“I identified competing stakeholder priorities early in the project and facilitated agreement on a revised delivery sequence. This allowed the team to maintain key milestones while preserving stakeholder relationships and avoiding additional costs.”
The difference is not the complexity of the work. The difference is the visibility of leadership, judgement, and influence.
Support to turn these questions into prepared examples
Most candidates do not struggle with questions. They struggle with identifying which of their experiences best demonstrates capability under interview conditions.
Work through your examples with BrendonStrong EL1 Response Characteristics
Effective EL1 answers are:
- Specific rather than general
- Focused on your contribution
- Clear about decision making
- Linked to outcomes and impact
Practical Exercise
Think about a significant piece of work you have led or coordinated in the past two years.
Write down:
Then explain the example aloud in under two minutes.
Reflection Question
When you describe your achievements, do you naturally talk about the work itself, or do you talk about how you influenced people, made decisions, and created outcomes?
Common EL1 Mistakes
Typical issues include:
- Staying at task level rather than leadership level
- Not demonstrating influence clearly
- Weak or vague outcomes
- Overly long context setting
Moving from APS6 to EL1?
One of the biggest challenges in EL1 interviews is understanding how expectations change from APS6 level work.
Compare the capability, leadership, and interview expectations between APS6 and EL1 roles and identify where your examples may need to be reframed.
View the APS6 to EL1 Comparison GuideHow to Prepare for EL1 Interviews
Preparation should focus on:
- Building 6 to 8 strong leadership examples
- Practising verbal articulation
- Refining clarity under pressure
- Aligning examples to EL1 capability expectations
Practical Exercise
Take one example you have previously used for an APS6 interview. Rewrite it for an EL1 interview by increasing your focus on:
Then explain the example aloud in under two minutes.
Reflection Question
Which aspects of your current role already demonstrate EL1 capability that you may not be explicitly describing in interviews?
Next steps in your EL1 interview preparation
EL1 interviews are less about describing what you delivered and more about demonstrating leadership, influence, and judgement in complex environments. The next step is identifying how you want to strengthen that level of clarity in your responses.
Understand EL1 expectations
Explore how EL1 interviews assess leadership, influence, and decision making in practice.
Explore the bookStrengthen your examples
Work through leadership examples to show influence, judgement, and accountability more clearly.
Explore coachingClarify your approach
A short conversation to explore how ready you are and what will improve your EL1 interview performance fastest.
Book 15 minute callExplore related APS interview preparation guides
Continue building your interview preparation skills with these practical resources.