The civil service is a great place to work

[DogDaysNeverEnd]

I'm looking for a job and the world's my oyster in theory but in practice it's obviously not (read that as I have no clue what I want to do with my remaining 30 year til retirement).

I had a civil service interview last week for an SEO role but it was so short I didn't get to ask much (at DEFRA). I didn't get the job, and I know there's a hiring freeze of sorts so wondering if I want to keep pursuing any opportunities I see.

I'm hoping to get some insight here. If you work for the civil service, and especially DEFRA what do you wish you'd known when/before you started? Is the pension still good? If departments are shrinking does that mean everyone is stressing? Is the work interesting?

Aibu - the civil service is a great place to work

I think it depends on what your background is and what job you are applying for.

Lots of long term CS staff I've worked with don't speak highly of it as pay has been in effect reduced over the decades and pensions etc aren't what they used to be however coming from private sector I love working for them. My work life balance is better, my work load is high but my department recognise that and are very supportive and I feel more jib security and less stress. Private sector was all money driven my experience of CS is that it isn't (although I'm sure in the higher ranks or other departments that changes) they seem to offer a lot of support for wellbeing as well and the managers in my department are very present and approachable. The last department I worked for was a bit more target driven and pressured but again compared to a management in the private sector it was much nicer!

Thanks for all your replies, it's interesting to get a range of view points and I do appreciate every team/dept can be different. I'm currently in academia so there are parallels with interesting work with flexible hours and pay that isn't as high as industry! The comments about excessive bureaucracy sound painfully familiar too. What I'm not currently enjoying is being pulled in several directions at once, it would be nice to do something very focused and applied.

It might be a case of the grass not always being greener, but as change is a a good as a rest I will keep looking for something suitable. At 40 am painfully aware of how long I have left to work and I'd like to think I could enjoy at least some of that time.

I think it really depends where you end up.

I always suggest it when someone is disabled as they'll be able to get all the equipment and other adjustments they'll need and it's reliable.

I both love and hate my current department, love the flexibility they offer but hate the work itself. I'm planning to move to a different workstream soon.

It's still a bit of a gravy train compared to the private sector so it's a good option. Pay/conditions/pension/job security are much better than in the private sector.

Defra is going through some major upheaval as 90% of its work hung off EU rules, so it's all changing now. If you are interested in the subject area it could be interesting but frustrating. Also Defra does loads of emergency work from animal diseases to floods to nuclear incidents which is exciting but means v v long days.
I enjoyed my time there, but won't go back.

I worked in IT in the CS for 15 years, pay was crap, pension ok (took mine early for only 19% loss)

The job itself was bloody awful. Trying to run real cutting edge tech alongside 2500 legacy systems that can't possibly be changed because it cost too much to change anything and the users can't possibly learn anything new yadayadayada... brought me to tears many times.

But the flexi was good.