Civil service: when can I really apply for other internal jobs?

[dubyalass]

I started in the CS back in Feb; probation is six months. I'm getting great feedback but the role isn't what I was told it would be (to be fair, this is partly due to covid restrictions but that wasn't flagged when I was offered the position).

I'm bored shitless. The irony is I'm good at the job but it doesn't use any of the skills I enjoy using. The workload is all or nothing. We're going through a restructure and staff morale is at rock bottom; communication is crap or non existent and my manager, nice as she is, appears to be phoning it in until retirement - she has no interest in us or our development.

Anyway, to the point. I looked at the vacancies page and it says I can't apply for anything until I've been in role for 12 months for business continuity reasons. People seem to move within my department fairly frequently (probably due to high attrition rates and need to backfill positions) but I'm guessing the chances of moving within the wider org are unlikely? Anyone moved before their first year was up? I can't face another eight months of feeling like this.

The key is what does the job advert say. Some departments require you to pass probation, others 12 months etc. Whilst the 12 months was standard over the years this has started to change, but varies by department.

Are you registered with CS Jobs so you see all CS jobs? www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi

A couple of points, jobs not being what was advertised is very common across CS. The other issues you list are not unheard of, the question is can you work within the culture? Department’s do vary but there are a lot of common themes.

Development - that’s your job, you find the opportunities, training courses and ask to do them The worst they can say is no but often they say yes or offer an alternative.

Best advice I had was you have to be proactive and manage your own career and development.

Oh wow. I could have written your exact post, I wonder if we know each other haha

I was told after 6 months we can apply for internal vacancies but prior to that you can still apply as an external candidate

Thanks both for your replies, really useful. When I was offered the job last year I asked if there were opportunities to use X and Y skills and was told not right now but they are skills we need, but when I asked again I was told a flat no.

@wingsnthat haha we may well do although it does sound like it's endemic. That's really interesting about the external candidate thing; gives me a way forward.

@Margaritatime that's what prompted my post: ain't nobody gonna do this for me so I need to make it happen! But I didn't want to make a faux pas and potentially screw up my chances of moving across by getting it wrong. I am going to speak to my manager about it all as one of her qualities is saying JFDI, what's the worst that can happen, and I would need her authorisation to apply anyway.

The culture question is a really interesting one. I might have to speak to other friends in different departments to see how theirs work. My particular team (about 500 people) mostly works on a dispersed basis and I wonder if it's better if you're in an actual physical team within a regional office? It's very isolating and comms channels aren't as effective as they should be. The people are generally great though!

It’s difficult to explain the culture but there is a commonality across departments. There is a noticeable difference between regional offices and central London offices. Departments will allow WFH at least some of the time, where possible. Some of the issues e.g. poor comms is an issue in most departments but on the plus side most CS are nice to work with. Look at other departments staff surveys for an idea of what staff like and dislike about their department/team.

A real positive about the CS is that it can be very pragmatic about people moving on. However, if you regularly move on quickly it starts to be noticed by recruiters but this doesn’t mean you won’t get the job.

Thank you, I will definitely bear that in mind. I applied partly because of the opportunities for progression; my last job was a dead end for development so it's pretty heartening to see so many jobs going!

I'm in a similar position. I started working for the CS in March and my current job isn't for me so I want to look for something else but I wasn't sure whether to wait till my probation is up or start looking now

Hi Sassy S89, sorry you're in the same position! It might be worth applying as an external candidate as mentioned upthread?

I haven't seen anything that particularly grabs me at the moment but I'm keeping an eye out and have signed up to alerts on CS jobs.

Look for anything advertised externally - most departments won’t accept you for jobs advertised “across government” while you’re on probation. If you look at CS jobs while you aren’t logged in you’ll see all those external jobs. If you are looking at cross govt only ones, check the T&Cs on the ad to see what it says re eligibility. Better to check up front before spending the time on the application as they will deny you at pre employment checks.

Personally in your situation I’d grit my teeth and ride out the probation, as you’re in a better position then, you’d prob have to do another probation if you move whereas you don’t have to when you move about when you’ve passed one already. Also CS recruitment is so stupidly slow that it will prob take that long to get something anyway!

@Doorhandleghost

Look for anything advertised externally - most departments won’t accept you for jobs advertised “across government” while you’re on probation. If you look at CS jobs while you aren’t logged in you’ll see all those external jobs. If you are looking at cross govt only ones, check the T&Cs on the ad to see what it says re eligibility. Better to check up front before spending the time on the application as they will deny you at pre employment checks.

Personally in your situation I’d grit my teeth and ride out the probation, as you’re in a better position then, you’d prob have to do another probation if you move whereas you don’t have to when you move about when you’ve passed one already. Also CS recruitment is so stupidly slow that it will prob take that long to get something anyway!

Haha no kidding, it took eight months to start this position! I have another six weeks' probation to do and then I will start looking around. That's really useful info - thank you. In the interim I'll see if anything comes up in my dept that suits my skills a bit more. There seem to be regular EOI rounds for jobs in the wider team so I'll keep looking. I'm pretty sure my manager wouldn't block a move; she keeps telling us to look at the vacancies pages!

I have a colleague who's not been there much longer than me and she had an interview recently; I'll drop her a line tomorrow and check out how she went about it.

Hi @Justamum70S I can't really help you much; I did switch teams but I did it by applying for an externally advertised role because there is a block on internal transfers in my department.

I work In civil service and I think the 12 ml ths thing can be flexible depending on department. As your contract states you have to be in the role for 12 months, if you apply internally before this and are successful your current business team could refuse to release to release you.

It again is a sticky point if applying for an external, as you are already a civil service employee, so again they can still refuse to release you until the 12 months.

The process can be so stupidly long so I would say once you are at the 9 month mark, any successful applications would take you up to 12 months. Good luck!