Does anyone work for the council? What is it like? How do you get in?

[mumznet]

please share your experiences of a council Job. Thanks

hmmm
interesting....I understand what you mean by a good fit for the team. so are there other roles other than bin men, library positions and finance?

I suppose my council jobs have always been dull and repetitive but I suppose it depends what you do and the people always had admin roles

I work in the democratic part of the council - very enjoyable if you're interested in local politics

Have you considered universities? Very similar to councils.

Are there other roles?
Of course there are. Councils provide a huge range of services, some visible to the public such as social work, street cleaning, amenities, environmental health, school staff, planning officers, registrars, and some that aren't like the support staff in finance, admin, IT, HR etc. Look at the council website to see what services they run.

okay will do
thank you

There are a huge diversity of roles within councils and a huge diversity of councils. Pretty impossible to generalise

I like mine though. It's very entrepreneurial, good flexible working, interesting colleagues...

We only recruit externally if there
Are no suitable internal candidates

I recently applied for a job working for the local authority as a childrens residential worker. Pays ok (as good as this area pays anyway) contract is permenant and it comes with gaining a new qualification.
Interview was intense but then i struggle with interviews anyway and was told that after they had added up the scores to my answers they would let me now if i was successful or not.
Got the job, very happy and can't wait to start i feel it may be quite secure assuming they are not planning on closing any of the childrens residential homes down

Why do you want to work for a council by the way? It seems strange to me to be picking a job that way rather than looking at your skill set and finding a role that fits.

well done daniellewilson1987 :-)

I'm really interested to work in various organisations Explodedcloud

Agree with explodedcloud

I suppose it might be an experience!

Part of my remit is to manage the Business Support function which covers building control, planning, environmental health, parking, trading standards among other things. That is a huge variety of different roles and skill sets. There is something for everyone. I also work closely with Property and Legal / Democratic. Both fascinating though not what I trained in.

there are always the 'curious' type of people I guess :-)

with a lot of jobs ''fixed term'' these days we need to become 'curious' !!

keep the messages coming :-)
very helpful and interesting to read
thank you

I suppose I have a skill set that is something people want which has taken me into different areas though rather than just curiosity.

how did you develop those skills?

I work in IT for a local authority. It's challenging times but actually, I love my job.

Agree with PPs who say it won't be advertised externally and then offered to an internal candidate. It's only advertised externally if there are no suitable internal candidates.

On your application make sure you reference/illustrate all the key points on the job spec and you have a good chance of getting an interview.

Good luck, public sector work doesn't come with the perks it once did but it can still be really rewarding.

It honestly depends what role, BIL is a license officer, so as you can imagine it's unlikely he'll be made redundant given the fact they've got back logs of licenses to hand out.

If someone does not speak very good english would they be considered for a job in the council? if yes what type of jobs?

I'm asking on behalf of a friend, he doesn't speak very good english although he can speak and understand it fine but the accent is nothing like people speak over here....