Any civil servants on here interested in a recruitment/promotion thread?

[Bookridden]

I work as an HEO in DWP and I'm interested in considering other civil service roles and possibly aiming for an SEO role. Anyone in a similar situation and want to swap stories, give each other a bit of mutual support?

Oh this is a wonderful idea!

I’ll be recruiting for a HEO role soon in a Programme Management Office.

Any tips on how to move into a Civil Service role from the outside? Probably a mid-level to senior role. I’ve had interviews but always seem to go to internal candidates.

Good luck to you both with your promotion and recruitment.

Please can I be cheeky and pick your brains? My DS will finish university this year from an engineering degree but is not expecting a great degree. (Struggled as pandemic meant no access to any practical lessons/labs which was not great for engineering but here we are).

He wants eventually to be involved with MoD but initially wants to stay local to his uni as girlfriend still studying. He is wondering at what level to start applying? Does he need to start at the bottom and work up then move sideways to MoD in the future? Or would having a degree mean he should aim slightly higher in the first place?

His only work experience so far is in hospitality so I think entry level might be more ‘comfortable’ for him but uni have kind of pushed the idea that they should be looking towards management roles.

Any advice would be very much appreciated 🙏

Apologies, should have said uni want them to aim for management trainee roles.

@QuestionForDC the CS is very competitive so I would suggest he apply across the two entry level grade (EO and AO) and be flexible about which dept. Once you're a permanent CS there are many many more jobs available to you and you can easily up grades and into depts of more interest. Bear in mind too the Fast Stream is paused for a few years so the competition is even higher so if he is serious he'll need to be very opened minded about dept and grade.

To add, HEO is traditionally the graduate/FS entry grade so he can apply to that one too but he should be open to apply for more junior roles to get an in

Oh and finally. you get plenty of people with degrees and masters at 2.1 and 1s from Russell Group universities in those junior entry grades so he shouldn't assume that he will be more attractive as a graduate. Especially if he's not expecting a very good degree he will be up against much more talented applicants (harsh but true I'm afraid). He could also look at CS apprenticeships. Hope that helps

MoD have just kicked off their graduate recruitment campaign. I'd tell your DS to apply for that. Engineering can be very useful in the area. Get him looking on civil service jobs, also linkdin and start following the different areas within MoD.
Good luck to him

@QuestionForDC has he thought about the Environment Agency? He could do some hands on work with the Flood and Coastal Erosion Team, get some practical experience before heading for the Mod.
The recruitment process is long winded and very slow, not sure if the civil service is the same.

I've been thinking of applying for the CS . I have a BA and an Ma, qualified TA with a strong interest in education and SEN. I am confident and quick thinking. BUT I'm disabled and have been out of the work place for years due to caring roles and needing surgeries etc. I love the idea of the CS but the pyschometric test things scare me silly. I'll end up over thinking them terribly and giving up after the first section. Is so nerve wracking trying to re enter the workplace after a huge break. I'm only 43 though! Loads of time left ? Or am I being stupid?

@devonianBiatch I joined civil service around your age after a few years freelancing. They're quite good on career breaks. Not all jobs are advertised with psychometric tests and there are a lot of practice ones you can do on line.

In terms of AO/HEO, I think it's quite easy to get promoted. Most of our AOs seem to be promoted within a couple of years.

I think the hardest thing, and the reason why internal candidates do better, is the competency style of interview and application. I know they've replaced them with behaviours but they're basically just the same. We've just done a load of interviews. My top tip would be to make sure you really listen to the question they ask and make sure your answer fits it. Always use the STAR method to answer and give examples where you've exhibited whatever they're asking about. Be prepared for questions like "Tell me about a difficult decision", "Give an example of how you were challenged", " What would you have done differently?

Where in the UK is he wanting to be based? DASA and DSTL are both currently recruiting and are MoD focused

Oh wow! Thank you all for the helpful responses. I will be passing all the information on to DS.

@dancingmice Thank you, this is exactly what I suspected and is really helpful to have it confirmed so that he doesn’t waste time on the ’wrong’ applications.

@dizzygirl1 Excellent, thank you. He is on LinkedIn so I’ll get him to check them out.

@Singleandproud Thank you for the suggestion, his area is aerospace rather than civil engineering so I’m not sure if the skills are transferable but I will definitely get him to look into it. Thank you.

@ThreeB those look like exactly the sort of areas he wants to aim for long term. He’s currently Sheffield/Derby way so I’m not sure anything is near him at the moment but he will definitely take a look at those. Just watched the ordnance munitions explosive apprenticeship video on DSTL page - he would love that. His particular interest areas are space/rockets and missiles.

Thank you all for your help.

Sorry to have derailed your thread @Bookridden - good luck with your job search. Are you looking to move to a different (geographical) area as well as change role?

I’m SEO grade in the civil service, was previously DWP for 12 years working up from AA to HEO then applied to the Scottish Government at SEO grade and was successful. Agree that STARR is the best way to shape answers both written and verbally, always take time listening to the question, ask for a second to write the question down, it gives you a few more seconds to think about your answer and it’s good to glance at the question during your answer just to re centre yourself a little

good luck to everyone applying!

@Bookridden yes I would definitely be up for that. I’m an SEO about to start applying for G7 roles. I started an an AA yeeeears ago and also really familiar with the success profiles when recruiting.

is the suggestion a WhatsApp group or similar?

@QuestionForDC DSTL may be a bit of a stretch location wise but DASA are definitely moving towards a more flexible recruitment package where location is not as important providing he is willing to travel when needed. It's worth him setting up a CS jobs alert so he can see what is coming up. I'd also suggest an alert that covers Lincoln (+15 miles) as that will bring a number of RAF stations into play, some of which do very cool things that may pique his interest

@ThreeB thank you so much, that is really helpful information. We will definitely look into that.