Zero information from the Home Office on what my job is

[makeupprincess]

I have been offered an EO job with the Home Office. It was a campaign with "various roles" across the UK. I have been given a start date in March, but I still don't know what the actual job I'm being offered is. All they can tell me is the generic information that was in the job advert to cover what the holders of the 900+ jobs may entail. I don't know what department I'd be working in, job role or description.

Is this normal? I have asked several times for more information but they just send me round in circles. I am reluctant to hand in my notice to my current job being totally clueless what I'm leaving a decent enough job to go to. I've never had this experience in any of my previous jobs (never worked for the Home Office/Civil Service before).

Haha welcome to the civil service!

this is totally normal for big recruitment campaigns. Basically there will be a bunch of approved jobs that are similar enough in nature that they could be done by anyone who could pass the interview you did. Aka competent rather than experienced in that area.

so right now there are a stack of applicants and a stack of jobs and some managers who are trying to link up people to certain job roles.

so they haven’t told you because they probably haven’t fully decided themselves yet.

The job you applied for however should have narrowed it down somewhat though, aka operations policy etc ?

It means you have been taken on in one of the big campaigns to fill the gaps wherever they might be by the time your security clearance comes through.
Currently there is a big need for case workers. People to work through applications and apply process.
Once you’re in you can move roles after you’ve passed probation. Most do after a couple of years.
You can expect to be offered a role with full information when the clearance comes though and should then have a chance to ask questions. A suitability chat.
In my unit I have been the one to make the calls. Chat about the shifts, location, work etc. Some people turn down roles and get offered different ones. Never any guarantee though.
The CS does this as it takes so long to get people in and areas of need change all the time. I bet you get offered asylum casework or crunching through ETA applications!

Thanks for your replies.

I have my clearance already and am due to start in March. They offered me a February start date initially but I couldn’t start that soon so now it’s March.

I still don’t know any details at all though. I don’t know the shifts, the location, what I’d be doing every day, nothing. Only that it’s EO within the Customer Services Group of the Home Office. Which apparently could be visas, passports, immigration or asylum and protection - so doesn’t narrow it down at all!

You can expect to be offered a role with full information when the clearance comes though and should then have a chance to ask questions.

this was what I expected - I was under the impression that once my formal offer came through, they would tell me what my role was, but they can’t tell me still. I’m getting quite frustrated with it all

CS is the section where they do a lot of the bulk data checking and case working.
They probably haven’t quite decided yet. Do you at least know the location? There are major CS units in so many areas. Sheffield, Croydon are two big ones. What do you still need to know?

They will be in touch. You’ll get a starter pack of information. You were probably allocated somewhere before when due to start in Feb and have gone back in the pot.

If you don’t intend to give notice until having received more information about the role, location etc, tell the Home Office contact that - might speed things up.