Civil service jobs

[hmmwhatatodo]

Hello, I’m probably asking a ‘how long is a piece of string question’ but does it tend to be the case that hundreds of people apply for each civil service job (I’m thinking of jobs paying between £20-£30000 and in London mainly if that makes a difference). I’ve been told but a couple of people that you just need to apply for a load of jobs with them and see what happens. Unfortunately I don’t have the experience needed for lots of the jobs advertised with them so I feel that would be pointless. Thanks in advance for any insight into it all.

CS / Public Sector often do big recruitment campaigns because it can be more cost and time efficient in terms of value for money to schedule batches of interviews.

They select the preferred candidate/s depending on how many vacancies they need to fill, but also keep a reserve list for up to a year, so even if you aren't immediately selected, you may find 1, 2, 3 months down the line they contact you and offer you a role. If it sounds rather conveyor belt, it's because it is to some extent!

There is ample opportunity if you have a good match with the required skills and experience, and yes, it is definitely a numbers game!

Thank you very much for replying. It’s so long since I applied for a job I feel out of it and my current job feels so far away from the roles I see on the civil service site I wonder if I’m even up for understanding the competencies and STAR stuff.

CS recruitment is changing over to Success Profiles, which is much more intuitive than competencies. It's being phased in at the moment so some depts are using it and some not. I've just applied for a job using the new system and it's so much better.

You don't need the experience so much as demonstrating transferable skills and good attitude.

I've been involved in recruitment from both sides on both success profiles and competency based - if you need some help for an application, pls feel free to PM me.

I just wanted to share a little bit about my own experience of applying to the CS as an external candidate as many mumsnetters kindly gave me advice earlier this autumn.

I had a G7 interview earlier this week and found it a positive experience. I thought the interview would be daunting being my first in the CS, but actually it was fairly similar in structure to interviews I've previously attended in the public and voluntary sectors.

What I found most tricky was getting my head round the competency framework /success profiles and drafting written examples that were good enough to get through the sift. But once you are happy with these, they can be re-used or adapted for future applications, and you can tell the same stories in the interview.

I presume from the salary bracket you are looking at EO/HEO level. Have you thought about applying to the CS fast stream as well as through CS Jobs?

As far as I remember if you use the star method that puts you in a very very good position. I remember recruitment used to get upwards of 30 applications but using the star method used to get it down to 6 or so.

To @Isleep 's point about Success Profiles, this link takes you to the Government website with some great resources, in particular the summary file explaining it from the candidate's perspective.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles

It's currently being rolled out across MoD to end 2018.

Thank you all for replying. I’ve only been ‘properly’ looking through the job site for a couple of weeks now and it all seems like a bit of a minefield right now.For previous jobs I’ve just filled out a paper application form and gone for an interview!
I sleep I will probably take you up on your offer of a PM once I’ve looked more into what jobs I might actually be capable of.

Daisy, I didn’t realise there was a separate fast stream section - I’ll look into it, thank you.

I’ll also work my way through the link you sent Daisy. It almost seems like a job in itself figuring it all out.

Watching this thread with interest. I found the Competency based approach really not intuitive and will look at the link to the Success profiles.

@daisyintheclouds did you get the job?

Some good advice here

No I didn’t get the job, but did well enough to be put on the reserve list.

I haven’t seen another civil service job I’d like to apply for since, but will keep my eye out in the New Year.

Well done 😊 @daisyintheclouds keep looking though, new year new budget and all that 👍🏻

@daisyintheclouds did you ever hear from the reserve list? I too am on the reserve list and am wondering if I will ever be contacted!!! I am willing to wait for the full 12 months.

Don’t pin your hopes on a reserve list appointment. It can happen - I have been offered a job having been on a reserve list before, and I offered someone a job last week from a reserve list. But don’t stop applying for jobs just because you are on a reserve list.

In my experience it tends to be that you’re offered a job really quickly from reserve list or not at all. And it won’t be the job you applied for.

Thanks for the info @isleep