Policy Profession - Civil Service

[TableTime123]

Hi,

I am interested in a policy career in the Civil Service. I have an undergraduate degree in a social science and also five years of work experience in administrative jobs. Given this background, would it be worth me applying for HEO policy jobs? Or would I not stand a chance due to my lack of policy experience?

Thank you

Absolutely go for it.

Make sure to revise the STAR method for your answers and research and get examples for the the behaviours Listed in the job description.

There are You Tube videos and plenty of great revision aids for civil service jobs. I recently started within the CS and I love it

HEO is entry level for policy roles so go for it.

By the way it's your work experience that will count, not your degree unless the post specifically asks for it (most do not unless in a profession like analytical).

Thank you for the advice and great to hear some positive opinions on the CS!

Even if it's not an expectation to have a degree, do you think having a degree will help at all in the application stage and also as part of the day to day job in policy?

The vast majority have a degree, and a huge percentage of policy EOs, HEOs and SEOs will have a postgraduate qualification, so it may help, but won't set you apart.
I'd also look at EO roles if you have an admin background as it may help you get a foot in the door. Depending on the area HEOs can be developing policy or doing all sorts of things you may not be able to demonstrate examples of. To get a role you need to be able to show you've done something similar, which can be tricky as policy roles are very government specific.

Having a degree won't help, everyone has one these days really. As I said, it's your work experience that will get you the job as it's where you will draw examples from for your behaviours, skills & experience.

Don't be one of those people who turn up with a degree expecting that will make anyone take any notice. What you could draw upon is any skills you learned while doing your degree, eg did you have to be very organised and how did you transfer that to your working life.

But really if you've been working for 5 yrs I wouldn't expect to hear about your degree in an interview (obviously you'd put it on the application form though!)

You generally don't need to evidence specific experience for an HEO policy role, think about your transferable skills you have from your work experience. There will be lots of applications for HEO roles so make sure you research how to navigate the civil service success profiles system so your application is tip top.

If you’re sure that you want to go into policy and want to apply for HEO roles I would recommend for nearly launched Fast Stream program https://www.faststream.gov.uk/government-policy/index.html.

Thank you for the suggestion for the fast stream. As part of my research into this, I had looked into the fast stream but from what I could see, they require you to be flexible with locations with the expectation that you will have to move around geographically at least once during the programme. As I have children, that wouldn't be feasible for me

If you having caring responsibilities you can get a relocation restriction and won’t be required to move. Where are you based if you don’t mind me asking?

Don't limit yourself to the fast stream, also look at direct entry jobs.

PP makes a very good point about location. Policy roles are generally London centric, you may get a non-London base, but are likely to be expected to travel to London regularly and at short notice if in something Minister's take an interest in. Stakeholder events would often be in London too.
But there are many non Policy, but still generalist roles in the CS too.

I would say it depends, they do try to move the roles outside of London. I work in Policy and I’m Manchester based. Some of the colleagues in my department are also Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Leeds based.

Majority of people do work in London but it’s not the case that you can’t do policy roles outside of London anymore. You can brief ministers through Teams etc. In my experience the only roles that you can’t do outside of London are Private office roles.

not sure I agree with some of the posts on this thread:

HEO is an entry level role for policy - you can get one of those jobs using examples from your degree alone! It could be someone’s first ever job even, as you can get it with zero work experience. Ignore the poster who said your degree won’t help.

HEO roles outside of policy might not be in your reach however.

Most people in CS don’t have a degree, and the ones that do, might not have a recent degree nor a relevant degree either. For example my manager is a geography undergraduate from 20+ years ago - it serves him no benefit in role or in life he says. I have a statistics degree from 3 years ago and am a Grade 7 in analytics. My degree makes me look like an IT god compared to the low digital literacy of my peers and the self-taught nature of CS

Thank you to everyone for their inputs so far. I appreciate it.

There seems to be a bit of a split then between whether a having a degree would offer much benefit or not. But then I suppose that may vary depending on the policy area? E.g. more niche areas of policy may require advisors to have an educational background in that specific area?

Even if having a degree it doesn't give me any direct advantage during applications, hopefully the experience of gathering and analysing research, writing essays, critiquing different ideas and theories etc would prepare me for some aspects of the job (if ever I'm successful at landing a policy job, of course).

Also, I think I'll take another look into the fast stream if there is the possibility of not having to relocate.

A few other questions for people that have had experience of working in policy. Would you say the job is intellectually stimulating, do you feel that you are making a tangible benefit to society, and does it offer a reasonable work life balance? As those are three key things that I am looking for in a career, but I realise it can be tricky having all three at the same time.

Back when I started a HEO ran smaller policy areas, it certainly wasn't an entry level role. Things have changed alright. But you can get all the 3 things you are looking for, not all the time, but often enough.

Degrees may depend on the Department. I was in a small technical one and often the only one in the room without a PhD.

I say go for it. I’m civil service but I’ve always been operational, now a G7 of an ops team and I love the variety and fast pace of that over policy. But many would say the opposite. Like you say, even if the degree doesn’t get you the job it’s going to be helpful. Agree in looking for EO posts too, as a foot in the door, once you’re in, you can apply internally for promotions