Working in the Civil Service AIBU

[WellAlwaysHaveParis]

I’ll be starting a new job in the Civil Service soon, and I’d love to find out a bit about what it’s like before I start.

I got the job offer last month and won’t start until a couple of weeks’ time, so I’m now feeling really keen to finally start and get stuck in.

When I went for an interview at the department where I’ll be working, I really liked the culture and feel of the place.

Would love to hear from people on here who work in the Civil Service though, just so I know a bit about what to expect when I start :)

Also, if anyone has any tips about how I can be as effective as possible in the role from the start, that would also be hugely appreciated :) (I’d prefer not to mention the exact department or role on here, but it’s an entry-level
role).

Thanks :)

Did a stint in CS after school then left to be self -employed. After divorce needed a job and the CS took me back. The flexi time and holidays helped me work full time as a single parent. The work is tedious in parts and the IT is dodgy but the social side is great where I am. Just been allowed to take partial retirement with a decent lump sum. No real complaints here .

I would say that Fast Streamers can be hugely entitled and incredibly irritating with absolutely no self-awareness

I've coached/mentored many graduates - OK they make early slip ups regarding their general attitude, timekeeping and business awareness than experienced employees, however that's all part of the process of learning. It doesn't say much for the University they've come from, to be so lacking in awareness about the reality of working life.

If they've been late to my mentoring meetings or fail to prepare, I give them a "how many beans make five" chat about who is benefiting from the sessions and they have largely risen to the occasion and adjusted their way of thinking if they want to get on.

It’s not timekeeping or business awareness - I have graduate interns regularly and don’t have these sorts of problems (although I generally also sit on interview panels so weed out the all talk and no game candidates who can’t elaborate on their examples in interview and just parrot back what they wrote on their application form). It’s the fact that some of them think being Faststreamers make them special and their opinions worthy of special consideration. And the disdain that some of them have for junior but older officials is extremely distasteful. I was a Faststreamer and I hope that I didn’t act that way (although I suspect that I was at least mildly obnoxious).

I may be one of the people the OP ends up calling for contributions. The job is likely to involve getting a sense of when standard lines can be used, vs when a bespoke answer is needed. The more the PQ/briefing team can put together themselves, the more the policy teams will love them. Equally, if a policy is changing quickly, be prepared to take some text flung at you at the last minute and put it into good English that fits what is needed.

I've worked with lots of new fast streamers over the last 3 years and they've actually been a very pleasant, level-headed bunch in work (some thought they knew everything out of work but caught on pretty quickly).

But yes, the acronyms... Secret to every new job. And try to avoid anything to do with Finance - getting a £150 training session paid for will take up about 3 weeks of people's time, just to make sure no taxoayers' money is being wasted...

OP I think you may find there's an Acronym Buster on your internal intranet specific to your CS business domain. I'd ask whoever you're buddying with (who's there to support you getting into your role), so you get used to the 'shorthand'. Btw It isn't just the CS that's overwhelmed with acronyms!