Civil Service vs Consultancy/commercial world?

[LadyGardenersQuestionTime]

DD has been offered a job in the civil service (HSO level) and is torn over whether to move or not. She’s concerned about progression opportunities - she’s on a fast track to promotion at her current company - and the general atmosphere/ethos.

Any advice from those who’ve been through it?

Nobody?

Which department ?

in Defra somewhere!

Stick to current role and make lots of ££. Go to the civil service when it's time to think of mat leave and pensions

I took a job in the legal department of HMRC after I’d been made redundant from an investment banking job. I had ideas of retraining as a paralegal and with young DC, the flexitime and fantastic pension was a huge draw. I was there 7 weeks before I went running back into investment banking.

For me, the culture shock was just too much. So much bureaucracy, so little commerciality, huge resistance to change and a culture of micromanagement. My colleagues and line manager were very kind people but from my limited time there, public sector is a different world to private. It wasn’t for me.

After a career in the private sector I took a job in policy at BEIS. I lasted 15 months. There were some good points-training, clever hardworking colleagues but I really really struggled with the hierarchy, bureaucracy, the very inflexible recruitment/career progression and the general civil service culture. I felt like a very small cog in a massive machine. I also ended up having very little respect for ministers. It might be easier to adjust to the culture at the start of your career but I struggled.

The public sector has a lot more accountability hence all the checks and balances/bureaucracy.

It depends what she enjoys. If she likes her current job why did she apply for this one?

I know both a lot of civil servants and a lot of consultants. I can only think of one consultant who became a civil servant and they didn't last long. Plenty went the other way. I went from consultancy to third sector and I find it frustrating enough and yet we move like lightning compared to our civil servant equivalents. Most of them are incredibly frustrated about how long it takes to do anything and the internal politics about everything.

I moved from private sector to civil service and regretted it. They sell this myth that you’ll be working on exciting noble things, but in reality all the top quality work is done by management consultants in the private sector. The reality of the civil service department I was in was crap IT, lazy colleagues, and people saying things like “We don’t need to actually implement this project, we just need to look like we’ve done it for long enough to get the next promotion.” Lots of loooong meetings that achieve nothing.

Also pay is crap compared to private sector. It may seem similar at junior levels but you wanna compare the very senior salaries to each other and then consider the cost of home ownership...

If she’s doing well in private sector I’d urge her to stay where she is, at least until she has children, and perhaps move across then (as private sector often illegally discriminates against mums and gives little flexibility but civil service is way better at that).

Gosh that’s not what I recognise