I called my local Census Bureau office here in Pennsylvania in early March to inquire about taking the skills test. The person I spoke with asked me for my zip code and he gave me a location where a test would be held that weekend. I thought that it was appointment-based, but it turned out that it was open to the public. All of us had to take the test together at the same time, so the people who showed up early had to wait as people walked into the room late and then forgot their IDs and had to run out to their cars to get them. You should show up 15 minutes early so you can fill out the official employment application and an I-9 form.
The test was super easy. It was EXACTLY like the practice test on the census website. So, print it out and take it. Time yourself and make sure that you can answer the 28 questions within 30 minutes. It was a very easy test. The proctor graded our tests and gave us our test scores. She called us up one-by-one to show us our grades. One of my friends who took the test in Delaware said that they called out the test scores for the whole room to hear. So do well or you might feel embarrassed if your score is read aloud!
Depending on how well you score and the availability of work in your area, you may receive a call from your local Census office for a phone interview. I received a call out of the blue about two weeks after I took the test. After playing phone tag for a while, I was finally able to speak to the Census representative. I'll admit that I prepared myself a bit by searching the internet for "Census Bureau phone interview" where I found this site. The phone interview first began with a description of the crew leader position, which was several sentences that he read. The next part consisted of a series of Yes or No questions -- a "checklist" as the interviewer stated. He asked questions like, "Are you still interested in working for the Census Bureau?" "Do you know the geography of your neighborhood well?" "Are you comfortable knocking on people's doors to obtain census information from them?" "Are you comfortable teaching a training session for enumerators?" If I remember correctly, you will answer "Yes" to all of the questions since they were all "are you comfortable with..." and "are you willing to..." types of questions. You won't really need to elaborate on your answer -- at least, I didn't. Most of my answers were like, "Yes, absolutely" or "Yes, that sounds fine." I did elaborate on one question where he asked if I would be comfortable training enumerators in a classroom from a standard manual. I answered yes and that I have experience teaching, so this would not be a problem for me. I could tell that he was writing it down by the way he reflected me answer, so it made me wonder if he sort of expected longer responses from me on the other questions. I really doubt it, though.
Then he summed up the interview with the "now that you know what is expected of a crew leader, are you still interested in the position?" Yes, of course. Then he gave me information for the training session (which begins in one week). He also asked me if I had any questions about the position, which I thought of a few (at least to make myself seem more interested in knowing about the position).
The whole thing from the exam to the phone interview was fairly easy. I was a little nervous knowing that there was a phone interview. Don't be. It's really easy and hopefully you'll get a nice person who is easy to speak with. Good Luck! Hope this helps!
