As the Andhra Pradesh government rescinded its previous order banning personal interviews, job applicants—especially those aiming for executive cadre positions—will now have to take a personality test.

The state government issued an order in June 2021 banning in-person interviews for hiring staff, describing it as a "historic decision" that aimed to uphold "utmost transparency" and foster "complete trust" in the hiring procedure for positions with the government. It was intended that all government job applications would be evaluated solely through written tests.

The transparent procedure is now being abandoned in favour of the old system, albeit with a new moniker called "personality test." This policy has since been reversed. "The government, after careful consideration of the matter, hereby restores the personality test for higher level posts of Group-1 services for recruiting suitable and meritorious candidates for effective and efficient delivery of public services," the state's chief secretary, Sameer Sharma, stated in an order (on September 30), which was not made public.

The APPSC announced on September 30 the opening of 92 Group-1 cadre positions in the state government, after a hiatus of more than four years, and made only passing reference to the most recent ruling on personality tests.

On average, 60,000 applicants show up for the Group-1 preliminary exam and 10,000 for the main exam. The number will exceed two lakh for Group 2 and other groups.

Deputy collectors, deputy superintendents of police, district registrars, audit officers, and similar positions are among the Group-1 positions.

When pressed for an explanation of the government's policy change, a senior member of the AP Public Service Commission (APPSC) could only say that "wiser sense prevailed." "It appears that some erroneous suggestion was the basis for the decision to abandon personal interviews. The Union Public Service Commission has been consulted, and a committee of experts has been formed with the recommendation that a personality test be administered for at least Group-1 posts, the official told PTI.

The government then issued a new order restoring the personality test.

It would be a "structured personality test" where the candidates' moral character (mental and emotional) would be examined.

It would be a "structured personality test" where the candidates' moral character (mental and emotional) would be examined.

The APPSC has established three distinct Boards, each of which is made up of the Chairman, two IAS and IPS officers, and a member of the APPSC, and an academician with the rank of university vice chancellor.

In response to claims that the personal interview was reinstated to appease some Commission members who were "political appointees," the APPSC official insisted that "We have put in place an efficient and tamper-proof system that leaves no scope for manipulation." APPSC Secretary (in charge) H Arun Kumar said the personal interview only carried about 10% of the total marks.

According to him, each candidate would undergo a 360-degree evaluation of their overall personality.

The CMO stated in an announcement on October 17, 2019, that "Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken a historic decision to do away with personal interviews in recruitment." In a formal government order issued on June 26, 2021, the Chief Minister's historic decision was finally put into practice. It stated that going forward; all recruitments that are announced will only include written exams for all categories of positions, including Group-1 services.

The elimination of the interview process, which the government referred to as a "major reform," was done "to maintain absolute transparency and ensure complete trust of the competing candidates in the entire selection process," according to the government. The interview process was eliminated for all subordinate services in 2011 under the leadership of the then-united AP government, led by N Kiran Kumar Reddy, as part of the changes made to the APPSC hiring process.

A high-level committee led by J Satyanarayana, who was then the Special Chief Secretary, made recommendations, and those recommendations were put into practise.

However, written exams and interviews were still required for executive positions such as deputy collector, deputy superintendent of police, commercial taxes officer, regional transport officer, and similar positions.

That policy was modified by the Jagan Mohan Reddy administration last year, but it has since reversed course.

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