Civil Service - Which jobs could I do?

[bridgetjonesmassivepants]

Hello,

The Civil Service is looking increasingly attractive but every time I look at the posts available I feel very confused. I don't even really understand what some of these jobs entail. For example a Communications Manager - what exactly does that mean?

Any ideas please?!

I am currently an English teacher, years of experience, excellent degree, A Levels etc. Could anyone please point me towards the sorts of jobs that I might be capable of doing? Can travel to York or Scarborough and can obviously work from home. I would prefer a permanent post and either part time or flexi working. Currently on £30,000 so something near that would be a bonus.

You might be best to work out which departments have vacancies in locations that are accessible to you, then ask more specifically about roles in those departments? I think you'd need to be a bit more specific about the jobs you are looking at to get useful info, just because the range of roles is so huge. If you do a search on the civil service jobs site by location, it should help you narrow it down a bit.

I was a civil servant for 30 years. Did many jobs that they train you for but don't give you a professional qualification.
I agree, look at vacancies in all departments in your area and then at the person specification.
Be aware that CS recruitment and interviews are very formulaic. You have to demonstrate each competency. DS got through CS fast stream as a new graduate so you don't always have to have specific qualifications.

The civil service is a vast and varied organisation - there is such a huge variety of jobs available across a number of professions and organisations that it's impossible to tell you which ones would suit you. Flexible working varies by department and role too.

I would set a civil service job search for the area and salary you want - look at SEO and HEO roles.

You have a tonne of transferable skills from teaching. I'm always happy when I see applications from teachers because I know that by and large they will be able to work at pace (juggling lots of things, not necessarily fast!) and have good communication skills.

Lots of recruitment at AO level at the moment (700 apprentice jobs gone on today). For 30k comparison look at HEO / SEO. The job titles are just the roles that they are looking for and you should get a brief description on the advert. Don’t be put off by the job title. Have a look at the essential criteria and if you have that then apply. There’s a lot of opportunity to move around after 2yrs in a job, or before then if you’re getting promoted.

The last job i helped with the sift I personally saw 4 teachers and I only did a small percentage. Certainly for the job I was sifting for the teachers definitely had the skills the role was looking for

What civil service is inyork or Scarborough?

@bridgetjonesmassivepants

Defra have a big presence in York. I think you need to apply for a job and see how you get on. If you’re not successful then you can tweak for the next job you see. As an example there is an Internal Engagement Officer at the moment you could apply for

@TheHoptimist

What civil service is inyork or Scarborough?

Cabinet Office is also advertising for York. On Civil Service jobs webpage, you can search by distance to a particular location - that's probably the best place to start.

Comms Manager is working with Communications and conveying an organisations internal and external messages amongst other duties.

Experience in this field or PR helps.

Defra do have a big civil service presence in York.

My ex colleagues in Government Legal Department (one is perm, the other long term temp, both are PAs) are both looking at HEO/EO jobs for around the £30K mark and the perm one wants to get into Cabinet or HMRC.

With your experience definitely look at HEO/SEO roles but as others have said there are lots of government departments and they're all very different.

If you don't mind being a contractor (but moreorless on a permanent, rolling contract) you could look for jobs where you teach programmes to staff - I knew the legal document software trainers at GLD. But you'd probably need more of an IT background.

You could easily work with rolling out new practices/procedures which seems to be a big CS thing at the moment.