Civil service recruitment process/length

[Keke94LND]

Hi all, so I have been invited for an interview for a Business Support Officer role at EO level for the National Crime Agency (yay). The deadline for applications was 1st November, I then did 2 tests which I passed and I got an email on the second week of December inviting me for an interview. They have just released the dates and I have booked my interview for the end of Feb, so I have lots of time to prepare which is good.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience or how long the process can take from start to finish? I have been looking on student room and other places online and some people are saying it took them 12 months from application to start date! Which seems sooo long, but these may have been jobs that were recruiting for a 100 slots possibly. The role I have applied for says it has 5 slots, it says a few locations so I don't know how that works but I'm based in London so hopefully if I am successful I will get the London slot..

Any advice, tips etc would be greatly appreciated!

It's not that simple because it varies so much between departments even within the same agencies.

My last two roles were about 6mths and 8mths from application to appointment. The second was longer because I had to have a fresh security clearance.

Our department are recruiting again now and it'll have been about 6mths by the time the new staff start work.

I only had the formal offers of employment in writing about 5wks before my start date each time so it was a shock to both my previous employers as I couldn't discuss it with them before then obv.

@SilverHairedCat

It's not that simple because it varies so much between departments even within the same agencies.

My last two roles were about 6mths and 8mths from application to appointment. The second was longer because I had to have a fresh security clearance.

Our department are recruiting again now and it'll have been about 6mths by the time the new staff start work.

I only had the formal offers of employment in writing about 5wks before my start date each time so it was a shock to both my previous employers as I couldn't discuss it with them before then obv.

Thank you for your response, 6 months isn't so bad, and if I were to get the job, I'd be okay with starting around the summer, I was just shocked to see people saying it had been 12 months or more and some even saying they hadn't been given a start date yet after a whole year!

I applied for a civil service role a couple of years ago. The application process took a long time, I received acknowledgment of my application and a note saying I would be contacted ‘soon’. I heard nothing for 9 months, I was then invited to interview. Funnily enough I had applied for and received another (much better) job offer in that 9 months, so I declined the interview..

I would never consider applying for civil service work again.

@Leafsontheline

I applied for a civil service role a couple of years ago. The application process took a long time, I received acknowledgment of my application and a note saying I would be contacted ‘soon’. I heard nothing for 9 months, I was then invited to interview. Funnily enough I had applied for and received another (much better) job offer in that 9 months, so I declined the interview..

I would never consider applying for civil service work again.

Interesting, thank you, if you don't mind me asking, what department was that for? 9 months is a long time not to hear anything! Thankfully I heard quite quickly compared with that time frame. It sounds like there's no way of knowing how long it could take because it varies so much. I'm itching for a change in my life so I feel quite impatient haha I am also in the process of buying a flat which is also taking ridiculously long so I feel like I'm just a bit stuck in life atm so just wanted to see how much more patient I should be 🤣

Over eight months here (massive recruitment campaign though). If something better had come up in the interim I'd have taken it. Colleagues said that wasn't the worst they'd heard - one person took 14 months to start! Now I'm here, a common complaint from hiring managers is the glacial pace of CS recruitment and how they lose good candidates to orgs that can hire quicker. We probably miss out on good graduates because they need to start earning money and can't afford to wait. I'm in Defra and it was the interview and offer process that took the longest; the rest of it was comparatively quick.