Applying for SEO role within Civil Service - Application Form

[QforCucumber]

I have seen a role advertised, which is exactly what I do now in the Private Sector, within the Civil Service - closing date of Friday next week.
I know Success Profiles can be an absolute nightmare to complete and pass, could anyone advise any tips? Are there 'buzz' words that are being looked out for?
In the past a CV and covering letter have sufficed, and I've been in this job for coming up 6 years now so feel quite comfortable so the application form process scares me a little.

What are they currently asking for? Is it a personal statement?

In the level below you but I scored well on mine as I basically worked my way through all the bullet points of things they were looking for in a candidate and used examples of how I display that behaviour in my current role. (Didn't write it out in bullet point form just some paragraphs some of the behaviours amalgamated).

I was also asked to provide a statement on the lead behaviour required. So looking at the paragraph basically wrote out a situation which addressed all those behaviours using the STAR method and trying to put in the buzz words.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/717275/CSSBehaviours2018.pdf

You may have already found this link but here is the success profiles.
The buzz words aren't on there but I'll try and find them

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/717274/CSSStrengths2018.pdf

Last page has good words to try and include depending on what they're assessing you on

I find this while civil service thing so interesting. But so confusing! Do you have to learn all this stuff? The behaviours and mapping etc to be able to apply? I remember the old days of just worrying a cv and dropping it in. I would love to work for the civil service though!

It really depends on the role and department! My profession usually just requires a CV and covering letter.

@easylikeasundaymorning That's wonderful Thank you! It is a CV and a 1250 word Personal Statement, behaviours assessed are
Working Together
Managing a Quality Service
Delivering at Pace
Leadership
Same @somebody2lava this role is described as EXACTLY what I do now and so I know I'm more than capable of the job itself, but wow am I doubting my abilities when it comes to writing up the application.

ah, but then further down this is stated

'Your personal statement should be no longer than 1250 words. You should use this space to provide evidence for each essential criteria within the person specification. As the criteria are scored, we would recommend that you give clear examples for each including the impact of your actions. Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage'

So I don't have to reference the behaviours here?!

New SEO here!

the ad will say somewhere what the sift is done on. Unless it tells you otherwise, assume the behaviours are just for the interview and the advert is done on personal statement, where I would just focus on covering all the essential and desirable criteria and your motivations for wanting the role.

if the behaviours are part of the sift then it’s normally a separate section on the application for each behaviour. Then you want to focus on star and read up on the behaviour for your level and the level above (grade 7) to try and frame your answer to tick those boxes.

a good tip for those behaviours is to make sure your examples are things you did not what your team did. So it should always read I did this not we did this

Ah cross posted! Yes worry about the behaviours if you get an interview!

This is great thankyou @LolaDrek , so still be specific with the Person Spec and how I meet the essential and desirable? Make it personal but also non waffley? Does this still require specific examples?

Looks like this is my weekend being spent on a single job application.

Yes but not as a list. Talk about your past experiences and skills and just make sure you tick as many of the traits as you can.

the applications do take forever. I had to do a maths and English test for mine!

That’s right. You’ll get questions about the behaviours in the actual interview.

Use specific examples. This can feel a bit counter intuitive as for other sectors you’d highlight all your experience in a broader way. I’d suggest that, for each point in the criteria, you briefly introduce your experience overall and then write one detailed example.

Good luck!

Thankyou again all!

that’s exactly what I’m struggling with @FivePotatoesHigh the specifics, I’m used to briefly covering all aspects rather than specifically covering only a few - it feels so very alien!

If it’s 1250:words, use 400 for each competence and the STAR model to frame your examples. As pp have said use a specific example and say what you (I) did. The word count is tight so write the example and ruthlessly edit.

Yep it really does feel alien and counterintuitive when you’re used to other types of recruitment processes.

its a statement only by the looks of it for the job you’re applying for. What’s expected in the statement is you to be telling the recruiter why they want to hire you. You need to refer to the essential criteria for the job and provide examples in the statement that illustrate you have the essential experience. Sell yourself, don’t be afraid to big yourself up. I’ve recently gone through a promotion and struggled to sell myself as it doesn’t come naturally but it’s essential. Make the opening paragraph stand out. Good luck

This is helpful for writing personal statements

www.interviewgold.com/advice/personal-suitability-behaviour-statements/

Don't make the mistake of thinking by Delivering at Pace means doing something quickly. It doesn't. It means delivering something within a time frame, demonstrating how you have taken a methodical, structured approach. As a hiring manager if I see anything saying "I quickly did X/I rapidly changed approach etc" I bin it as they clearly don't understand the competency. Best of luck

Some more general tips, anytime you've written "we", cross it out and say "I". I want you know what you have done not the team you are part of. Make sure you explain "how" you've done something too, it's not so much the end result (although that clearly matters) it's how you got there and demonstrating the approach you took/leadership and management qualities/how did you bring others with you/did you need to adapt your initial approach if the situation changed etc.

CS jobs are mega competitive when they are advertised externally so you need to make sure you stand out

I’d take this with a bit of a pinch of salt as we don’t ‘bin’ applications, we score them. Perhaps you meant you mark people down for this. Which would be unreasonable given working quickly can sometime be a factor in delivering at pace. For example in my dept we often do emergency response work where working quickly would absolutely be a factor.

Generally though the key thing with delivering at pace is a) timely, quality delivery and b) trust the success profiles guide over randos on the internet who claim to bin applications.

Agree with what's said by PP. Unless there is a specific behaviour question in the application form don't worry about it until interview.

I've just recruited for CS and had a large number of applications. Definitely use the person spec as your structure for personal statement. You really don't want whoever is sifting having to hunt around to find bits demonstrating that you've met the essential criteria. For example when I did mine I did a very brief para on each item of person spec including an example, and in the same order provided.

I'm civil service although not office based. For behaviours assessed they like to see it in the STAR format. Situation, task, action, result. It's what they use for our in role assessments.

For buzz words look up the strengths dictionary

Thankyou everyone this is all really useful - @dancingmice @FivePotatoesHigh i understand, a lot of my role is reactive - and being able to accurately fix problems with a range of knowledge on the right step but also very swiftly so I think I know where to aim with that one (which is one of the required behaviours stated)

As a retired civil servant, I suggest you don't use language like "being able to accurately fix problems with a range of knowledge on the right step".

Use plain English!

Thanks @Fifthtimelucky I was supposed to delete half of that and hadn’t realised it had posted 🤦🏽‍♀️ was midway through wrangling a toddler!