Can't seem to get past sift for civil service and no luck with other job applications either.

[Hatto415]

I trained as a teacher in the UK but did not finish my NQT year and instead taught internationally for several years. I returned to the UK but did not want to go back into teaching here so decided to change careers.

I ended up working as a support worker but I absolutely hated it - very poor salary, inadequate training, constant severe safeguarding issues, people with severe mental health issues who needed support I couldn't provide, and generally being in situations where I felt I had no idea what I was doing but was expected to know about everything. I started having nightmares about doing something wrong and something awful happening and I was getting panic attacks.

I ended up leaving the job with no job to go into as it was impacting my mental health so badly. Right after leaving, I found out I was pregnant (not planned). Since then, I kept applying for jobs but was constantly unsuccessful. I was applying for remote positions for jobs I found on Indeed, so maybe it's that I was competing with everyone in the country rather than just my local area?

As a teacher I feel the skills I have should be transferable. When applying, I go through the person spec and write in my application how I meet each one with examples. I've applied for jobs at £18k and jobs at £30k and usually spend all day on the application, only to not even get an interview.

As I've got further into my pregnancy, I've started to give up on it. I'm going to be taking my maternity allowance at the first possible opportunity (in a few weeks) so now I won't be available to work until June.

I heard that the civil service employs lots of ex-teachers, that they are good about waiting for people who can't start for a while and that the whole application process takes a long time anyway. I'm the main breadwinner and we are going to struggle while my DH is the solo earner. We will manage, but it would be a big weight off my mind to have a job ready to go into at the end of my maternity leave.

I thought that as an ex-teacher (and one year of that spent in a middle management role), I would have some decent examples for the civil service behaviours but apparently not. I have done six applications and haven't got past the sift. I'm trying to use the STAR method but clearly I'm not doing very well at it! At the moment I'm applying for EO and HEO jobs as they seem about the right level for me.

Is it just a numbers game? Is six applications nowhere near enough? Should I be expecting to send off 30/40/more? Or is it a case of if you're good at writing the behaviours, you should expect to pretty much always get an interview? Because of my time spent abroad, I can only apply for jobs with the most basic of security clearance required as I have only been back in the country for 2 years so I'm limited in how many are actually suitable for me to apply to.

If anyone has any tips to share/common mistakes then I would love to hear please.

Each application is scored so you should be able to get feedback on how well you have addressed the questions, it may not be what examples you use but how you apply them

I think from what you say and your experience so far you will be competing agai9nst applicant who are better qualified with more relevant experience
I advise go for jobs at lower level and look to get promoted
Why just the civil service there are loads of jobs available at the moment

Thank you for your response! One of my applications got feedback - they only assessed one behaviour and I scored a 3 but I think I've improved since then. Another one just didn't have a feedback button to check. Another one contained feedback but it was that they didn't count my degree as "numerate" and so didn't look at the behaviours. The others have been on MOJ/MOJ digital portals and they don't seem to give feedback if you're unsuccessful.

I've got a few others I'm waiting to get an answer from so hopefully I can get some feedback from them and be able to work out where I am going wrong.

Agree , your experience may be more suited for local council roles.

I think you may be right. I've read about teachers mostly going in at the HEO level but maybe I should focus more on EO jobs and get promoted once I'm in there. If I were to go lower than EO, the salary is really quite low and it would be a struggle but potentially something that would be doable for the short term.

I'm mostly focusing on the civil service right now because I worry that private companies will have a bigger issue with waiting for me to finish my maternity leave and will want me to start sooner, but I will apply for other jobs nearer the time too. I am just also a deflated as all of my applications for other jobs have been unsuccessful too. I guess I'm not really sure what I'm qualified to do other than teaching or who would want to hire me with the experience I have.

I will have a look at local council roles as well - thank you. I think if I can get a job there then that would help for the future with civil service applications if I wanted to still pursue it.

If you have the basic quals and experience (if not go down a scale as pp suggests) then it's all in the competency responses. You don't just use the STAR method you need to insert almost identical wording as the behavioural indicators into your response.

So if the indicator says "consults a wide range of stakeholders" then your response says "to achieve this I consulted a wide range of stakeholders"

Also the S and T elements need to be very brief. Most of the words should be the A and a short line for the R.

This is really useful advice. I think I have maybe spent too many words trying to explain the S and T. Also, as much as I have tried to follow the behavioural indicators, I definitely have not worded them as closely as that. I will keep this in mind. Thank you!

You need to look at the Behaviour profile for the grade and hit each point.
Making Effective Decisions HEO:

Understand own level of responsibility and empower others to make decisions where appropriate. what is your remit and how did you delegate a task?

Analyse and use a range of relevant, credible information from internal and external sources to support decisions. What research did you do to come to your decision?

Invite challenge and where appropriate involve others in decision making. How did you ask for and act on feedback?

Display confidence when making difficult decisions, even
if they prove to be unpopular. when someone pushed back on your decision how did you stand firm?

Consult with others to ensure the potential impacts on end users have been considered. who will be impacted by your decision and how did you include them?

Present strong recommendations in a timely manner outlining the consideration of other options, costs, benefits and risks. how did you convince people yours is the right decision?

Always, always use I never we. And have a specific example and not just a job description.

and yes, you need to use the words.
Understand own level of responsibility and empower others to make decisions where appropriate. As I understood this area was my sole responsibility I was able to give Jamie the task of deciding when xxx was appropriate.

I have picked up a couple of advice from this thread as I am currently applying for EO/AO jobs in the CS. I just have one challenge and would need any sort of advice to help me improve. I still don't understand the reasoning behind the Situational Judgement Test. The ones of Effective, Ineffective, Counterproductive. Is their any useful material I can practice with.
I have seen my insensitive comments like if you can't pass it then CS is not for you. I beg to differ because we all have the ability to learn and improve. Nobody was born with all the knowledge needed to navigate this life. We all strive to be better in life. I started of with a 3 on the competency questions and now I am comfortably on a 5.

I know you said you are applying for EO and HEO level but also have a look at AO. It is a foot in the door.

There are AO roles available at 7 locations of the Land Registry. Wage is £22,603 so above your bottom range of £18k. The roles are very good, very flexible with regards to family life, hybrid working, and there will be opportunities for you to develop yourself in preparation for the next EO recruitment in about 9 months time.

Search Registration Officer on gov website.

To add to the other advice, are you covering off the person spec in statements of suitability? The guidance on that is more sparse. Also try to talk about how your experience will assist you in the role and why you want it. I recently sifted for an EO role, it was a niche area so I was expecting lots of applications from people without direct experience which was fine, but candidates were really poor at talking about what they would bring to the role. In my experience lazy sifters will be drawn to internal candidates as a known entity so you really need to lay out why you can do the specific role.

When I'm sifting, I am much more interested in the statement of suitability and CV than the behaviours.