To be utterly demoralised by civil service recruitment?

[MabelMoo23]

I’m currently working in an admin role after stepping down in my career due to husband’s role and family commitments. I’m now trying to improve my situation and am applying to civil service roles.

I know all about success profiles / strengths etc. I’ve researched throughly and I’m applying to HEO roles which are fractionally above what I earn now. My previous salary is that of SEO level, but I appreciate it’s tough to externally get into SEO level.

But I can’t seem to crack it. I’ve had 3 interviews so far, for different roles, two not made it, but one I got onto the reserve list after making it to the final stage and being invited to a “fireside chat”.

that was hard, to get close, but not quite close enough. So I paid for some CS coaching and to be fair, got given some really good tips - for example in STAR saying HOW you did the action bit to get the result, not what.

saw a great role, another HEO, so applied and, 2 of the behaviours were the exact same ones as the role I applied for that I got on the reserve list. I didn’t even get a bloody interview!!! So frustrating. I can’t seem to crack it.

the really frustrating thing is, for a role I ended up on the reserve list for, for this role, my score on two of those identical behaviours was a 3, (all others including CV and experience were a 4). So Which actually really means, that whilst CS recruitment is designed to be “blind” ultimately, the scoring is still subjective. And of course as a result, CS recruitment is still biased to a certain extent, because internal CS staff obviously know how to answer these questions.

but I just can’t crack it. I even paid for a session of coaching, then didn’t even get an interview and I feel utterly demoralised now and wondering if I can even face trying again with different roles. I’ve spent literally hours doing applications, I know for CS you can’t just bang out an application, you have to follow the behaviours in success profiles and give examples. I’ve researched so much, done 3 interviews, tried to learn from feedback and I’m just not cracking it.

I don’t know if it’s even worth bothering trying anymore because I genuinely don’t know what else I can do. Just feel utterly demoralised by it all. Sorry no point to this thread other than a vent

There’s private secretary and executive assistant roles at HEO level.

There's a shortage of experienced project management professionals in the CS, perhaps you're underselling yourself?

Please don't let this knock you. I've been where you are. I stopped working when my kids were born due to a variety of reasons including health, and in the three years I didn't work, my husband's salary and career skyrocketed.

So when I got back in to my career, I chose a similar sector to what I had experience in and chose a role that was part time but held some responsibility (along the lines of an admin manager).

Then, after a year, I jumped back up to a role and salary that I was in previously. I thought I'd never be able to get back into it but it was surprisingly easy.

I did get a few rejections before I got a yes though. And that's SO normal! It's possible they already had people lined up. Or internal candidates, or they just clicked with someone else. That doesn't mean they can do the job better than you.

I think you just need to give yourself time and expand your search. Small organisations can be good; they tend to be quite flexible (if friendly) and easy to climb the ranks as there's less competition.

But also - I've actually realised that I'm not sure I'm any happier. So think wisely about where you work and what it will give you, beyond salary and pension.

Best of luck, you'll get there, I promise!

Current CS. HEO at the mo, but have worked G7 and SEO equivalent roles throughout my career. Lots of inconsistency in scoring. Sometimes I don't get an interview for SEO roles where I did for a G7 role. Also grades are no consistent across departments or professions. Currently languishing on 4 different reserve lists. Which is just frustrating!

So I feel you OP. The recruitment seems to be a bigger barrier than actually just doing the job.

OP, any update? Good news hopefully?