Any Civil Service appliers or recruiters?

[Lightninginabox]

Trying desperately to get into Civil Service.

Am 45 - do you think there's ageism in hiring externals?

I have a lot of G6/7 type experience but earlier in my career. I am more than happy to start from scratch again in the departments that are in my area (Belfast) but I wonder am I flunking the interview?

I have done about 12-15 applications, getting up to 6s and 7s in application forms and have had three interviews, two turned down and one I think will be turned down as they shouldn't have posted it as available for Belfast, and one awful press/ministerial briefing in which I got a 4.

Any interview advice?

I’d also like to add my thanks to the people who’ve posted tips here. I spent hours searching and prepping for an interview that I never expected to get. My first CS interview on the Friday, got the congratulations phone call the following Monday. A week later I completed all the forms, my clearance was back after 3 weeks and I leave my current job later this month!

The info about STARR and the success profiles was invaluable to me and hopefully for others to come in the future. Oh and I’m mid-40’s so its definitely possible in middle age 😆

@guestusername ah that's amazing congratulations, and wonderful to have such a speedy entry too!

Thank you! I was very surprised as how quick it was because everything I’d read and been told was that it would take months!

@guestusername yes I was very lucky get in within 6 weeks, but I was in an ALB that had its own HR team and only required BPSS so was very straightforward thankfully!

I had a very similar experience (wondering if it's the same ALB!) Although I had a long notice period from my old job to get through. Good luck to anyone interviewing soon!

Just a small update from me, but thanks again!! I got offered the job!! So chuffed.

@TheWeeLittleDonkey that's brilliant well done!!! So pleased for you.

Wow, what a great thread! Just started applying for Civil Service this week and it's come as a bit of a shock. There are two jobs I'm currently interested in - one closed last night and I had 24 hours after finding it advertised to crash course on how to do a CS application. Suspect I will probably have not mastered the art, but it's a fairly niche area, so hoping that maybe I might get lucky.

Job 2 I have another 10 days to tackle, and it's even more niche, so I need to double down and get it right. This one just has two sections - CV and personal statement. There are 3 behaviours listed on the ad and 750 words allowed. Write up for the PS doesn't explicitly ask for behaviours and asks about why you want the role, why you are right for it etc. Any tips on how to approach this? How to chunk up the word count?

https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/cvs-cover-letters/civil-service-personal-statement

@Tupster check where it says these behaviours will be assessed. Quite often now these will be tested at interview only and statement more like traditional statement where you should demonstrate how you meet criteria using STAR examples.

You will need to prepare STAR examples specific to behaviours for interview. Of course trickier if says behaviours assessed also for application. Can always get clarification from named hiring manager.

@TonightMatthewIamgoingtobecher Thank you! That's really helpful. I've been back and really studied the ask. Behaviours are down as being assessed "during the selection process" - which is not entirely helpful. However, having had another look at at the ask for the personal statement, it says "You should provide evidence which demonstrates how your skills and experience align with the Skills and experience requirements of this role. We recommend that you give clear and specific examples for each criteria, including the impact of your actions." So, with the help of your translation, my plan is to do a sentence or so on what attracts me to the job, then take the Skills and Experience bullet by bullet and do a short STAR for each one. 2 out of 3 Behaviours are easily matched with the Skills bullets, so they will get covered off. The 3rd, I'll see how I can at least touch on. Then I'll prep verbal STARs for all 3 in case of interview.

Really appreciate your help and I feel I have a good idea how to plan this now. It's definitely a system that's easy to get wrong if you're an outsider. Only problem now is I have 750 words and 10 "skills & experience" bullets to cover. Would you literally do an example for each, so assessors can work down the list and tick them off, or would grouping multiple bullets into fewer examples work? Trickier for an assessor to work through but would afford more room for detail on actions taken.

Sounds like a very sensible approach. Best of luck

Sorry @Tupster just spotted your q. Yes given word count group together but a tip is to include the criteria in your example so signpost and be clear by saying something like I have demonstrable experience of x and x by .....

Hi, sorry this thread is a bit old, have an interview for a CS role, so my statement must have ticked enough boxes

But I have been looking at the strengths model ahead of preparing some STARR examples and had a question about the marking scheme

For instance 'Working Together' has eight strengths, in interview would I need to hit all eight, or am I picking up points for the ones I do?

Probably really naive - I have a long career, but this is the first CS application!

It is dependant on different interviewers, and I’ve only been the second/independant in recent times, which meant that I would make my own notes and rank each applicant for discussing with the interviewing LM with them making the decisions and entering final feedback

But I would be looking for the key parts against the criteria - in the sift going by written applications and in the interview questioning for the interviewee to elaborate (and maybe pull out a bit more)

I look at the job criteria and the strengths criteria. To a degree I will look for the key words, but try not to be dazzled by someone who states the key words but doesn’t back them up in their examples / answers to questions
In the past I’ve worked with someone who would highlight the key words in an application then count them - this was terrible as if someone wrote down “I never work in a team” he would score one point for “work in a team”

I’d recommend trying to see if you can cover as meant as possible, but nobody can be everything so try for the points that you can shine on.
A tiny mention of every point might sound good on quantity, but lose out on showing where you are strong

What we looked for in the last interviews that I was involved in was for example if a situation is aimed to describe “working together” :

1. have they shown the key elements we are after, and a range of the elements
2. do their other examples add anything to this
3. ask more questions directing to what I’m looking for

Then a bit of a score from:
They showed nothing / too weak about it (fail)
They showed some (could be developed)
They met the criteria we want
They exceeded the criteria
They were amazing above and beyond

Then compare each person, ranking them - that usually means trying to work out compromises on getting those that exceeded in one, met in another and needs to develop a bit on others

Thanks so much, very useful

I work for the CS and honest to God would never recommend working in it. It's all lip service to flex and hybrid working and the bullying policies etc. The level of work far exceeds the hours and people are frankly leaving in droves in my sector. I understand why people are applying, but it's the most miserable existence I've had since I was in HR and I'm desperate to leave.

Just to counter what you've said @Spooky2000 because it's all about balance on here, you cannot universally claim to know the job conditions and circumstances of half a million Civil Servants and be able to apply your own personal experience to all of us who work in the hundreds of government departments of which the top 5 are Ministry of Justice, DWP, HMRC, Ministry of Defence and the Home Office.

in my department we get flexi that is honoured and encouraged and yes, there's a lot of work (CS are not the lazy shirkers that Reese-Mogg would claim), so if you're in a very busy role like I am, I don't have someone holding a gun to my head or cracking the whip. I enjoy serving our country and I feel it's very meaningful work, and I have great colleagues. If ever I've had a poor manager (once in 8 years), I've resolved it and moved on.

I'm genuinely sorry you sound like you're having a miserable time in CS but it isn't true that everyone will experience that. If I were you I'd just look for a different manager, which is very often the root cause of issues you describe.

Thanks @Spooky2000 and @daisychain01 for the different views, am not in the CS so really can't comment - the role I am interested in suits me in a lot of ways, but am not expecting life in CS (if I were successful) to be easy - tbh after many years in the commercial world I find large bureaucratic organisations lend themselves to frustration and some pretty awful behaviours

Lol. Perhaps you could provide that reassurance to the thousands of MoJ workers campaigning via NAPO for a work life balance and reduced workload, subjected to performance and sickness absence management policies when burnout occurs.

Thanks, I'll just go get a new manager to work with. That'll sort it. 😆

ETA. I've worked in 3 of those top 5 departments. Lucky you that you are so happy 😁

I don't need to give anyone reassurance.

you just wrote off the entire Civil Service so I'm just giving a different perspective.

No organisation is perfect. I work in education/schools and it's a great school but education is no longer doing it for me. But I wouldn't say that to the eager enthusiastic student teachers who are loving being at our school.

I bloody love my CS job. They don't pay me enough and I have way too much work, but I worked in the 3rd sector for years and that was the same. My managers have always been ok at worst, excellent at best.

I did come in later, as a specialist, but my team is honestly a great place to work. There are so many different teams and departments you can't possibly generalise.

CS is a big sector so hard to say all jobs will be the same.

One thing I will say though in my experience it is slow to react. So if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in an understaff department unlikely to change anytime soon. Even simple recruitment takes an ages.