Civil service or move on?

[Wardza]

Hello everyone I hope you are well and having a lovely not too windy weekend!

I have been temping at the CS for a few months now and a vacancy has come up, my manager and his manager encouraged me to apply and I did and I believe there is a strong possibility that I can get the job (unless the interview is a massive disaster)

The role is simple and quite repetitive, I like the fact that I can do it easily and I will be getting more training soon to go into more interesting stuff... but I dont see myself staying there for more than 1 year maybe?

I have been looking at other roles and cannot really find anything better/that is worth the hassle changing for (For context I was working in education after a 10 year career break when I went on maternity leave and decided to stay at home to look after the little ones) So for me the fact that i am working there even at AO level is a milestone already.

Should I go for the role or should I look elsewhere? For those working in CS, how did you find moving around departments/roles? I just dont want to stay stuck for years doing the same boring stuff... Also I completed AAT level 2 and I was looking into continuing to level 3, how flexible would there be to allow me to work 4 days a week instead of 5? Is that something that can be done from day one or you have to have worked at the CS for a few months to be able to ask for reduction in days?

Sorry for the many questions and thank you so much in advance xxx

I would go for it. Half the battle is getting into the CS, once you’re in there are loads of opportunities to move around/up, especially at AO level.

The CS is generally a very family friendly employer; in my team we have some people on compressed hours, others work three days a week or term time only. Ask at interview; they can say yes or no and then you know where you stand.

There are also lots of apprenticeships available so it’s quite normal for people to have a day a week where they’re on study leave for whichever qualification they’re working on. Again, I think we have at least three people doing apprenticeships in my team. Is the AAT qualification related to the job?

I would explore all those things at interview.

There will be lots of opportunities to move up and around once you’re in.

I know loads of people who work 4 day weeks or 9 day fortnights.

I think you should go for it!

Go for it, and then you'll be able to access all the internal CSJ jobs. In 3 years I jumped from SEO to G6, my first job was super boring, but they paid for the qualification I needed and I moved to a new dept as a G7 in a brilliant role and jumped again 18 months later. I love the breadth of opportunities. They've paid for over £10,000 on qualifications for me in 5 years.

And yes there's usually a lot of flexibility over hours, so long as your local team is comfortable with capacity, especially as recruitment is limited in some areas atm. I personally always advise getting in and your feet under the table, and applying when you've built rapport, but nothing to stop you asking sooner than that. I personally think 4 days is a poisoned chalice and have found full time manageable with the huge amount of flexibility. If they are sponsoring you, you'd likely get paid study leave.

Doesn’t sound as if you have any other firm plans so seems obvious to secure this role and carry on thinking.
Yes it’s straightforward to request p/t hours once you’re in. Can even do it at the offer stage. Then pursue any development you can. You have to be proactive.
So many more opportunities for internal applicants once you’re in.

Definitely go for the job on a permanent basis. You can always leave again but getting in is the hard part! Has someone talked you through the peculiarly structured CS interview process? It's not something you can just wing on the day. Lots of advice on in the intranet and YouTube etc though.

I'd bite their hand off but do lots of prep on their interview approach.

Thank you for your response!!

The AAT is vaguely related, maybe if i progress to level 4 it would be more "justifiable" but right now there are no qualifications needed, the only reason why I did the AAT was because after my career break I thought I would upskill, and I know for a fact that the person who first interviewed me took that into account and thought let's give this mum a chance :')

wow that's amazing!! That's great for you!!
I spoke to a colleague in my department and asked him about courses as he has been there for 4 years now... he said our department doesnt have the budget so I don't expect them to pay for anything, to be honest I am happy to self-fund/look for cheap alternatives myself...
It is good to know you can go up and up! Especially as the starting salary for AO is quite low, would hate to be stuck in the salary for a long time.

Why is 4 days a poised chalice??

It is good to know you can go up and up!

The key is to be flexible with where you work, look at jobs at other organisations when ready to move, progress can be much slower internally unless it's a particularly big profession or department.

4 days often ends up as doing the full time job crammed into 4 days and less pay.

Whereas when you go below 80% FTE is more obvious than you’re not doing a full time job. And full time hours gets you full time pay.

From what you said, it would be daft not to go for it. If you find something more interesting you can hand your notice in and leave. It’s got a normal notice period, it’s not the army!

Yes we actually had a training session on this the other day, I found it odd that they offered to everyone, training on how to do an internal interview for other roles. The guy who did the presentation sits in interviewing panels and warned us about what to say/not to say/how to say, the word counts etc etc
Been watching youtube videos and writing things down, hope I dont forget my answers on the day though!! (all this talk and I haven't got an interview yet, but just getting myself prepared)

Why is 4 days a poised chalice??

Because in my experience you are expected to work a full time workload on a 4 day salary. Supervisors don't always consciously understand you're supposed to work 20% less!

Oh I understand now! makes complete sense.

Yes I will go for it thank you and thanks to everyone that has replied!! Will put my head down and focus fully :-)

@lopyrs ”I personally think four days is a poisoned chalice”

This made me laugh - I’d love to drop to four days but you can bet that nobody would pick up the extra work, and I’d knacker myself doing five days’ work in four, building up tonnes of flexi leave instead.

So yes, if you do request part-time hours @Wardza , do have a proper conversation around what the role will be expected to achieve in part-time hours.

@ProbableDoris yeah it was my experience (outside of the CS) I also found I had to work pretty damn hard when I only did 3 days too, I used to find it quite stressful. Definitely feel you can spread the load more over 5 days, and definitely prefer the salary!

It is one of the simultaneously most admirable and frustrating things about the civil service...(this in response to you saying how they offered a training session to everyone on how to interview well for other internal roles!). They really do encourage you to move up/sideways into different teams and explore other interests and disciplines. Which is great for the individual but can be exhausting as a manager as you train good people up and then wave goodbye to your fab colleagues when they promptly find their next job!

Yes I personally have never seen a workplace that needs to train their employees on how to apply for internal roles.. found it quite off especially as some of the people had been there for 5+ !
The man asked what was putting people off from applying and someone said that from the outside it was very difficult to understand how to write behaviours and statements... also for the money it looked too complicated! Wish they could just do normal CV+ Statement+ Interview; maybe that would encourage more people to apply?

Agree with this. Once you're in there's so much scope to move around into jobs that suit you better/are more challenging/better paid etc.

I'm considering getting in. Your post has made me think that temping might be a good idea.

@Wardza I agree with pp go for the job. Getting into the CS is the hard part.

You mention you have AAT 2, each Department has finance teams some of whom have AAT qualified staff. My advice is to get the job then start looking at finance jobs across the CS to get an idea of what opportunities there are.

Thank you everyone for the encouragement!! I went for it and I got the job :))))

Was told there were other 60 applicants, that alone feels pretty good :)

have a lovely weekend everyone!

Ah that's brilliant OP, well done!!

Congratulations OP that's great news!. I'm an EO and been in my role just over 2 years, I intended to move upto HEO but now I can't be bothered with the application / interview process !! ..... so for now I'm just enjoying a stress free job!

Congratulations!