Civil Service Progression advice

[User65412]

Hi,
I've been offered a job in the civil service within the HR department of the ONS.
I'm quite keen to move into HR but this will be a big pay cut for me and I want to know if, and how easily, I can work my way up?
The job is HEO level.
I'm from a completely different sector in which I'm senior management and earn 45k. I'd want to get back up to this in a couple of years and hopefully surpass it within 5 to 10! Or, if I get the HR experience required I could perhaps move into the private sector in several years?
I just saw on another thread that it took someone 25 years to get to 45k in the civil service (presumably starting at the bottom of the scale) and this got me worried that there's not much scope for fast progression.
Any civil servants about that can enlighten me?

Career progression in CS comes from creating an impact, understanding the culture and not expecting to be promoted without being willing to move around and be on the lookout for vacancies,

just to point out you need to have successfully completed your probation period which tends to be 6 months in CS, before you are eligible to apply for another vacancy. You'd be better off sticking in the role for a year, and at the 9 month point be looking for new internal CS opportunities - including switching Govt departments if necessary.

the other thing to highlight is that qualifications count for a lot, so if you don't have any qualifications in HR, look at getting some under your belt. Normally the role profile is a good place to start, as it lists the required and desirable qualifications/certifications needed. Otherwise you will always be up against people who do have the formal HR qualifications at interview.

Thanks @daisychain01 that's really helpful! I'd be more than happy to stick it out forIa year and move around in future. I'm also keen to undertake the CIPD qualification as soon as I start in the role.

There’s a lot of movement and an acknowledgment that a many people coming in at lower grades are experienced, savvy and will progress fast if they pick up the specific civil service knowledge they need and are willing to move around.

I think they key things will be getting a qualification (CS is very good about paying for training, though time to do it can be an issue in practice), being willing to do lots of applications and move around if necessary, and being flexible and proactive in your day job. By that, I mean volunteering for things, getting involved in corporate stuff around well-being or whatever, really listening to All Staffs and Stand Ups so you pick up some of the things that are important to seniors and are big issues for the organisation. That puts you in a good position for interviews for higher grades.

I work in policy so am a generalist - came from a different field entirely but in policy-ish roles with a lot of similar core skills. Policy is very open ended (you could quite easily go from, say, working on agriculture policy in DEFRA to policing policy in the Home Office) - you do get some who specialise in a particular policy area through their careers, but generally a core skill is being able to quickly adapt your problem solving to various issues that you aren’t necessarily an expert in!

There are lots of opportunities across specialisms like HR too - especially given the number of departments looking for these skills - just get in there and, given you’re already thinking about how you can progress now, I have no doubt you can make it work!

Thanks @Yazoop
I was actually looking for policy roles but couldn't find any - I applied for this in the meantime and was surprised to have been successful to be honest! Now that I know more about it, though, it sounds very interesting.
I'm waiting to hear back at the moment - the job was advertised as either full or part time so I've requested 4 days. I really hope they can accommodate this as unfortunately I can't afford to work full time with the pay cut.
I'm hoping that 4 days (30ish hours) will be manageable with the CIPD as well. I normally work 50+ hours a week so I'm planning on using my usual evening working hours to study.