Civil service

Brilliant to hear - it's a win! Glad to hear you got the perfect job🙌

You cannot overkill security. Especially in CS.

I am sorry to hear that, but there are other opportunities out there outside of the CS. I have been looking at jobs there amongst other organisations like local authority and NHS. It appears you have to jump through so many hoops and then some with the CS!

Did you get the job? Searching for anyone who has worked in Child Maintenance Services but nothing showed up but this thread.

Hope you got the job with ONS, OP.

Each dept is a bit different but in mine it's 1-2 days for managers to sift and get scores in, up to 24 more hours for the internal recruiters to make sure we did it right and then release results. So 3 days in total unless there is a weekend and then that doesn't count.

Even if you worked in a team, you will still have to respond as if you lead that team
i would disagree with this bit though. I don't want you to pretend you were the boss if you weren't. I want you to tell me what your role was within that team and how you delivered in your tasks to help the whole team achieve the bigger goal
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That's a how long is a piece of string question I'm afraid. It depends on how many applicants, the department's process, when diaries allow the panel to meet to discuss, whether the ONS HR department need to approve the results etcetc. Just don't expect anything to do with recruitment in the civil service to move quickly! And certainly if you're successful, don't give notice at your current job until you have a start date.

There are actually five levels of security clearance now - you can see more at www gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels but unless you need Dv (unlikely as others have said) it's not intrusive.

The time will vary depending on the recruiting manager doing it

Ideally they will have planned for the application closure date and will sift & submit the invitations for interviews within days.
But they might not - a bit self defeating if they take their time as it just adds to the time in employing someone

Then you're already ahead. It can be surprising the random things the public write in that box. Best of luck!

Make sure you save the attached role profile, and I'd copy the campaign text into a Word doc. Once the post closes that is gone, and if you clear sift, you might want to reference them.

To clear sift, make sure your personal statement covers off each of the essential min criteria with an example. Figure it could be 200/250 words each thing.

So if it says do a personal statement reflecting:
X
X
X
X

Then structure it

X
Example

X
Example

X
Example

X
Example

Make it easy for the hiring manager to see how you clear it and make it hard to sift you out.

PS clearance is always slow, and the chances are that if they see your current one pending a lump sum then it’s likely that the process will take that long anyway.

Be open and vetters are ‘friendly’

They should not be a problem:
Debt - that’s in hand
Bankruptcy - a formal managed process
Mortgage - standard (and it shows that you haven’t ended up homeless by not paying it)

For the debt that you’re pending a lump sum it will look fine on the assumption that you’re paying what’s due

Declare them all, and you may just get follow up questions

The only likely problem is if you are serially going into uncontrollable debt .

If say you’ve splashed out in the past, or had things happen in life and brought it into control then you’ll be good

The Criminal record check is pretty much the minimum - you would make a declaration on any past criminal history, and checks will be just ensuring that you don’t have one

SC is the general standard, though not every role requires this. You fill in a form about you, family history, marriage etc, any debts (it’s OK to have debt, better if you don’t, and not a problem unless you’re going to need to sell government information to fund your drug & gambling habit, and whether or not you’re a spy, terrorist etc
This is just a questionnaire but you could get follow up queries to check something

The full vetting interview is for DV
It is possible to have a dodgy past with DV - just tell the vetting interviewer all about it
(They are vetting people to see if they are a security risk)

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None of the vetting information will go to the line manager etc. They will only know that you have valid clearance at the level

Only the vetting service have access to this information

Everyone so far has given very useful answers. All I am going to add- you must give specific examples- no general descriptions of situations. And everything has to be " I did this, I did that, I raised this, I suggested", etc. Even if you worked in a team, you will still have to respond as if you lead that team. Also, for strengths, try and tie in an example, like being asked "how easy do you find change" or whatever, it is best to tie in your peraonal response with an event and reflect on that event when you reply.

There is no vetting interview for an SC (security check) clearance, it's based around a questionnaire which is then checked against records. It's not hugely intrusive and no where near the level for DV which is the ones with the interviews. Very few roles need DV and they're usually only in the big departments (eg Defence)

There’s no interview for the vetting process at security check (SC) clearance level