Census Officer Recruitment

[Lochabernomore]

Does anyone have experience of being a Census Officer?

I've applied and got through to the virtual interview part of the process, but I took a call yesterday that has already pissed me off from them. He didn't introduce himself, and launched straight into a conversation without asking if I was free to talk. I thought the usual recruiters ask if you're free to talk? He then proceeded to tell me that the Right to Work documents I'd submitted were wrong. It was my passport in my maiden name, I have since married and have also submitted my marriage certificate. None of the documents were wrong, just he didn't read them correctly.

Has anyone done it previously or have any experience in this?

I have waste so much time on this. I got through to the video/ welcome stage. the person 'welcoming' me spent most of her time fiddling with her laptop - told me the photo I had sent in wasn't clear enough, but after 10 mins of not speaking and messing with her laptop said it was ok.

I was not asked for any input or asked any questions - I just had to hold up documents to the screen. I really wanted to do this too - I am so interested in the census, using past returns for genealogy research. I had spent a lot of time preparing for an interview - reading up on the census, how it used, why we have it etc, but was asked nothing.

I was so disappointed and so frustrated to be told by email weeks later that I had been unsuccessful. No explanation of why - I had met all of the criteria for the id process, I was not interviewed and no references were called. I wish I had not got through to the 'welcome' event as it had really got my hopes up.

Agreed @singsingbluesilver . The deadline to turn around referees etc was pretty tight after the "welcome" event too. This is one of the most convoluted and time consuming recruitment processes ds has been through, in over 150 job applications, with no guarantee of a temp job at the end of it!

I’ve applied and everything was done a month ago. Not heard anything or had answers to emails or calls. They’re still advertising other posts but I can’t change as my application is ‘in process’

I needed 4 referees, DBS (they don’t accept update service), numerous ID, my tax returns to prove I’d been self employed...

After several hours trying to get an update I finally got through to a nice lady on the helpdesk.

I was chasing as I had received my dbs certificate but I hadn't heard from them. She told me they would be in touch. As she seemed switched on I pressed her to find out if I actually had a position.....she told me I'm on a reserve list.

Its ridiculous, how much is all this costing, looking on social media a lot of others are purely reserves as well.

Plus theyre still recruiting

I got through.

I agree that it's the most convoluted and inefficient application process. I need business use putting on my car insurance even just to pick the kit up, so that's over 4 hour's wages already spent.

Ahh the last time we did a census we had a census party. Have about 40 people in the one house and everyone's names written on the form. Great fun!

Still not heard anything

@Fatladyslim I imagine you’ll be making some genealogists very annoyed in 100 years time!

Ds still waiting - DBS arrived but no offer letter/email. Assume it's a no as first cohort start next week.

You might also get some comments from people unhappy that the government is spending so much money gathering this data, only to allow people to self id their sex and undermine the quality of the data.

The guidance notes on the Sex question have been updated in the last two weeks after pressure from lobby groups to say that you can use the sex showing in a birth certificate, GRC or a passport. You can currently update your passport with whichever sex marker you choose (only a doctors note required) and many people have. The passport office don’t record how many people have done this.

Depending on how many people do this (and presumably quite a few will want to, otherwise why change the National Census for them?) - it could skew the data significantly when being used for certain statistical analysis. As a country we need to know how many biological males and females there are as well as the number of people who don’t identify with their birth sex.

This is separate to the new questions in Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation which I think are very sensible questions so we have some data on people in those groups.

There is emergency court action threatened if the ONS don’t amend the guidance by cop tomorrow.

Full details here. If they don’t change the guidance there will be a protest.

fairplayforwomen.com/

I emailed the person who contacted me for my self employed proof. He looked at his end and could see I didn’t have a job but was on a standby list. Apparently if you have a job you’re told fairly early in the process.

Does that mean possibly for later phases if under recruited or only standby for first phase of recruitment if there are drop outs? Annoyingly the ads are still going around locally inviting applications.

No idea. Still recruiting here too.

I received my contract yesterday which was the first time I heard I had actually been offered a job.

Unfortunately I have had to decline to sign it as the areas they have offered me are miles away from where I live (different county) and completely inaccessible by public transport. I did reiterate to them during the "Welcome Event" that I don't drive due to a disability and was told that this was no problem and had been noted on my application.

Ds' application still showing as "in progress" even though contract would have had a March 1st start date.

Do you really want to do it and in some way be condoning the self-ID question, which I and many others will not be answering?