Fast stream offer vs offer in a private organisation

[Lonerspath]

Hi

I am looking for some guidance regarding choosing job offers. I am in my early 30s and was offered a civil service fast stream role this year. The salary will be close to £29K. I was also offered an policy advisor role in a private organisation, which does the work for a government department. The salary is around £48K. My interest is to do work that can directly benefit society. In both roles, I get the opportunity to work for government directly or indirectly. I like being a civil servant fast streamer, but also wondering whether it is childish to take a huge salary cut ? Please advise. Thanks in advance.

@Lonerspath

Hi

I am looking for some guidance regarding choosing job offers. I am in my early 30s and was offered a civil service fast stream role this year. The salary will be close to £29K. I was also offered an policy advisor role in a private organisation, which does the work for a government department. The salary is around £48K. My interest is to do work that can directly benefit society. In both roles, I get the opportunity to work for government directly or indirectly. I like being a civil servant fast streamer, but also wondering whether it is childish to take a huge salary cut ? Please advise. Thanks in advance.

Which role is more.likely to be stable and secure over the long term ? Id stay with the civil service, yes it's less £ but I'm guessing more secure role over the long term so to speak ?

Civil service is remarkable in that you can transfer anywhere as long as there's a job vacancy. Very difficult to lose your job and the pension is good and underwritten.

At only 29 I'd take the higher paying role, that's a huge difference and more than enough to make up the better pension benefits in the civil service. The extra £20k (after tax obv) gives you a lot of savings etc if you can get by on the lower amount.

As a civil servant I would say go private

As far as I’m aware with fast stream, you stay as a heo for the most part? It’s only until you finish it that you secure grade 7 (or whichever grade) positions

Whereas if you build up your experience in private sector, in 3 years you will likely still be able to apply directly for grade 7 civil service positions with your experience! You get the higher salary for the years in between too

Also wanted to say congratulations, I know many people who applied for fast stream but didn’t make it

Thanks for the quick response. You people are great.

The private company I am talking about here is also owned by the government. It's a subsidiary. But, their pension and other benefits are entirely different, although they assured job security. After this information will your advice change @Bearyhumcrack @Hawkins001

I would take fast stream for the ability to transfer, job security and the pension.

Higher paying jobs are not always more attractive when you work out what you’d have to pay in to get an equivalent pension or benefits.

Also look at the sick pay and maternity (if relevant to you). Public sector benefits are usually much more valuable.

What's your advice to ds applying to the fast stream @Lonerspath?

Having worked in civil service fast stream and also in private different roles I would say go private.

(An amazing amount of the top policy work is outsourced to private companies. The government pays a fortune to the top management consultancies. If I was 21 again I’d become a management consultant and specialise in public sector work. Partners in UK management consultancies can earn around £200k.)

The main reason to work for civil service is the good hours and job security. If you actually want to get stuff done at a fast pace and earn a living wage (and have reliable non-lazy colleagues) I would always say private.

The fast stream is very structured and you get limited say on what department and roles you are posted to. This lack of autonomy could be even harder when in your early 30s as you might have some fairly clear ideas on what you do/don't want to don

Personally I would go for the higher paying role, get a flavour of working for government via this subsidiary and focus on getting the knowledge and experience to make you a viable candidate for civil service roles at grade 7. This is the grade that you'd be aiming for at end of fast stream and would pay about the same as your other job offer. I would think in 3 years of doing the other job (ie the length of time you'd spend on fast stream) you could get yourself to that level. Maybe even sooner. Move into civil service at a higher level and reap the benefits in the short term of a higher salary whilst aiming for longer term public sector job stability and pension. Joining CS in mid 30s is plenty of time to build up a very nice pension.

The private company I got an offer from is owned by the government and it is a subsidiary of one of the govt departments. So, it almost inherits the govt pay scale and working style. @Thewindwhispers

@hannahmontana00 Thank you very much. Your views are very useful for me.

@sazzt

The fast stream is very structured and you get limited say on what department and roles you are posted to. This lack of autonomy could be even harder when in your early 30s as you might have some fairly clear ideas on what you do/don't want to don

Personally I would go for the higher paying role, get a flavour of working for government via this subsidiary and focus on getting the knowledge and experience to make you a viable candidate for civil service roles at grade 7. This is the grade that you'd be aiming for at end of fast stream and would pay about the same as your other job offer. I would think in 3 years of doing the other job (ie the length of time you'd spend on fast stream) you could get yourself to that level. Maybe even sooner. Move into civil service at a higher level and reap the benefits in the short term of a higher salary whilst aiming for longer term public sector job stability and pension. Joining CS in mid 30s is plenty of time to build up a very nice pension.

Thanks for your advice. How hard it will be to get the G7 level of competency examples by working outside the government. I am worried that I may not get the required level of leadership opportunities in the current role for competing with G7 applicants.

What policy area?

I work in financial policy, and tonnes of people get jobs in my world after a stint in HMT. Treasury experience will stand you in good stead for the rest of your career, and let you climb the ladder in a City organisation faster.

That will be less relevant if it’s, say, the Wales Office.

I agree. Policy area and home dept are very relevant, as are the kind of skills you will be developing on the job in the private company /ALB in question.

I would not worry over much about not being able to develop familiarity with G7-style competencies. There is a lot of guidance around for that and they will prob have changed it all again by then in any case.

For that salary difference, private. There's no guarantee the government won't privatise more of the civil service and/or outsource the work, they do this periodically so they can say they've cut numbers of civil servants. (At the moment they have a decent amount of vacancies but that isn't always the case. And while in theory you can easily transfer anywhere in the country, local employment factors play a part- in practice most jobs, especially at higher grades, are still in London or a tiny number of other large cities.)

There's also nothing to stop the government making the pension terms worse either, as they've done for new joiners/ returners in the NHS as just one example (still a good pension but nothing compared to the 1995 scheme which was also less generous than previous schemes). If it's pension contributions that are one of the areas of concern you could always look at taking out an additional private pension.

Congratulations on getting into the Fast Stream, though, that's an achievement in itself.

If you the private option you are talking about is CDC or PIDG, then there used to be loads of transfers between them and DFID (not sure since DFID moved into FCDO) so there will be plenty of opportunities to switch in the future if you prefer.

The faststream is excellent if you don't know which area you want to specialise in as you get to see so many. Obviously, it isnt great being stuck on HEO pay for 3 years. But if you know you want to specialise in a certain area, then getting private sector experience in that area will be more valuable that the faststream, because as others have said, you can move over to full CS as a direct entry.

Thank you everyone for spending your valuable time to share your views and thoughts. I am very grateful for each and every one.

I get that it is possible to apply to a G7 direct entry position if at all after some time and taking a pay cut is not logical at this point in time. I am already specialising in an area for the past few years and might like to continue that.

Not sure if you seen my question earlier @Lonerspath, but do you have any tips for ds applying to the fast stream?

@ssd

Not sure if you seen my question earlier *@Lonerspath*, but do you have any tips for ds applying to the fast stream?

@ssd I have seen your message but thought of answering it after allowing some time for people to comment on my question. Sorry for the delay.

This is the first time I have applied to Fast stream and does not have any experience working in civil service. So, most of my preparation is to first understand the success profiles -civil service behaviours linked to fast stream.

I found the online tests very challenging compared to FSAC and FSB. Before attempting online tests, I have tried to attempt online sample tests available on civil service websites to practise SJT. I have also looked at some frameworks for my choice of schemes. For example, there is a project delivery capability framework, GSE career framework etc and details about which are available online. After going through these documents, i have understood the expectations and type of evidence for each skill. I have a STEM background and hence was comfortable with anything involving data. But, i did refresh some of my abilities to skim the data and information to make a decision. I attempted online tests while keeping all the above prep in mind. Although i did not do great in these tests, i still scored enough for moving to video interview round.

The video interview had questions related to fast stream CS behaviours at the HEO level. I had prepared flash cards for every behaviour listed on fast stream FAQ section. I used STAR-R approach for my answers. I showed high levels of excitement and motivation while answering the video interview questions. The same is reflected in the actual feedback.

FSAC is all about being yourself and keeping in mind all the learnings from various guidances related to CS behaviours. For the written exercise, I followed the instructions and answered according to the demands of the exercise. I did not miss answering any area. It is enough if we quickly skim the given data and find information for answering the questions. For the group exercise, again it is all about working as a team and providing logical suggestions to the team. Helping the group to move in the right direction, making conclusions by considering value for money analysis, stakeholder impact, and timely delivery is useful. Leadership exercise is all about seeing the big picture, suggesting innovative ways of doing things, identifying issues and improvements and addressing team problems. It's good if the applicant can clearly explain how the innovative suggestions can be really implemented and what would be the impact on diverse stakeholders with his/her suggestions. IT is important to read the FSAC guide and practise the sample questions given in there. The FSAC guide is 100% sufficient to score very great in FSAC. Feel free to message me for any more information. Hope it helps.

Thanks so much for that, I'll pass it all on and may be in touch in future.

And good luck with your decision