Civil service application tips

[OneBlueShoe]

Despite the media narrative around cuts in the civil service, I'm pretty keen to get in.

I've worked in charities for 15 years and consequently have been paid bugger all, and my pension has been at the statutory minimum. I've turned 40 this year and have decided to leave behind the 'charity dream' as it's no longer worth it - my pension is under £20k. I can't bear the thought of working in the purely commercial field so public sector rather than 3rd sector seems a good transition. Civil service pays 30%+ more than my current salary for essentially the same job, plus a whacking great pension. I couldn't complain on that!

There seem to be lots of suitable roles advertised, but I've only ever worked in small-medium charities who do not have robust selection procedures. I've not moved around lots so I've not actually done many job applications in my life. My gut tells me you have to know 'how' to apply with CS to get through the system.

Any tips?

In case it's relevant, the roles I'd look at are management accountant / finance business partner & at assistant level too - which is still more than I'm on for a demoted position. I don't even have a strong preference on the department - does that matter at all?

Thanks :)

I’ve recently got in. Not to any high flying type position but meh. It’s a job in the civil service! ONS to be precise

They helpfully score you for your application - and as you go through the whole process and my application scored a 6. This isn’t too bad at all! My best advice …

Take every single ‘buzz’ word from the person spec and shoe horn it in

ChatGPT. It’s genius. Just feed in the department, the specific role and tips for a successful application and see what it spits out. It’s great for inspiration and ideas although of course don’t lift anything from it verbatim - AI written stuff is very obvious.

Address every single point with something matching about how you specifically meet it. So don’t say ‘ I’m an excellent communicator.’ You say ‘My exemplary communication skills came into their own when I dealt with XYZ etc etc’

There is a definite formula and once you ‘get your eye in’ you’ll spot it.

I applied for 4 civil service jobs and got interviews for all 4. I only went with the ONS one in the end but I got the interviews because I worked to their formula.

Base you're personal statement closely on then job spec and gather some experience examples based on the behaviours being assessed using the STAR model.

and be careful with opting for the more money but demotion option. I done that and I'm bored senseless!

Oh it's bonkers! They don't care at ALL about your actual skills - they just want a narrative that hits their success profiles wheel. It's basically a mad libs game. But therefore fairly gameable.

So far as I know (from discussing this with civil servants) it's of zero value to have actual technical skills like in programming or mathematics, because demonstrable skills are banned, but if you can put together the narrative argument they have hidden in the job spec, you're golden. And always email the hiring manager if they put their email on the JD.

Thank you all this is really helpful - kinda confirming my instincts and some really great pointers, I will take this all on board! I'm really grateful, I'm a bit out of the loop so expect I will need a couple of interviews to get my mojo back but just getting through the application hurdle is a thing in itself - as I suspected, playing the system is key - so thank you!

In lockdown I had one zoom job interview and I stuck buzz words on post-its around the monitor as interviews bring out a tonne of nerves I never normally have and I can forget my name half the time. I used the phrase 'cultural capital' and I could see all 4 interviewers writing it down and me getting a big tick. Then I used the phrase 'change management' and out came the pens again. It was like post-it bingo! It sounds like a repeat may be in order for me over the next few months...

There's definitely a knack to applying, once you find a job advert you'll be able to click links that will take you to the 'official" hints and tips of how to apply - of course google also gives you help 😀. I agree to use STAR and make sure you get in all the buzz words - Good luck, I hope you find something suitable!

Yes you need to use STAR format, situation, task, action, result, I think?! Check that though. Quote the words in the competency back in your answer, make it super easy for them to give you that point. State the obvious. Use I not we.

Interviewers are really not allowed to use much discretion. You need to get say 4 or 5 marks in each question. If you don't pass one question then you will 'fail' the whole interview even if your other answers are amazing.

I recruit for the civil service (moj) and we use software to spot AI and discount any applications using it. We also want specific examples using STAR method, and someone to hit the technical score for qualifications, whilst including the appropriate behaviours and strengths. I've sifted a lot recently and any applications that've been waffly jargon just go straight in the bin with 2s across the board.
We also set online or in person tests. Our recent admin campaign (lowest salary level) went from 764 applications to 48 on that alone. Our BMs sifted 9 for interview for 5 vacancies.
It may be different in other departments but don't believe the bar isn't high and generic buzzwords will get you anywhere.

Also interviewers taking notes doesn't necessarily mean anything. I have to evidence a low score in the same way I evidence a high score. Sometimes I record examples I just can't believe people have used to compare notes with the panel and to give feedback if they request it.

Lots of departments are now allowing AI to be used to help compile applications

Ours have fairly recently added the statement to all job ads saying that use of AI is not permitted. It's isn't in most of the work we do outside of minute taking in strategic meetings, so that seems reasonable to me.

So far as I know (from discussing this with civil servants) it's of zero value to have actual technical skills like in programming or mathematics, because demonstrable skills are banned

What on earth are you talking about? If a role requires these skills, it will be on the spec and you won’t get anywhere without them. Do you think there are no programmers or mathematicians in the civil service?

There was once an idea (now decreasingly popular) that delivery or policy professionals didn’t need to be experts in their broader area- so for example you could move from health to education because the underlying skills of delivery or policy development were the same - but that’s both a) out of date, and b) nothing to do with technical skills being banned.

I mean when I've looked at the applications (it used to be part of my job). They are amazingly different from tech industry applications. Part of it is the anonymisation requirements, so you can't link to your Github or say the names of the specific things you have built or link to the papers you have published.

I'm sure it all makes sense in the world of the service, but it's its own universe, honestly. Anyway, not here for fight club! Good luck to you!

Indeed @Mellapi I was quite keen on some niche technical jobs last year, but couldn't work out how to anonymise my experience. By definition my relevant experience was 'outing', very few people do the things that I do.

The level of applicant numbers are ridiculous at present. 100 for a barely above minimum wage role recently and 1500+ for a higher level technical role.

My son is currently applying for a couple of jobs in the civil service (immigration and cps) he has a degree but no work experience other than volunteering for a charity. He is struggling with the STAR method any hints or tips he can use thanks

Hi! I am puzzled by something, and maybe you have the answer to this. I use Grammarly to check spelling and punctuation, and I was surprised to find that certain phrases seem to constantly get highlighted as AI written, no matter how much I rewrite them. I think it's because they're broader statements of skills and such, so there's only so many ways in which I can phrase them. It seems the clearer I try to make it, the higher the AI % it comes though. It's so frustrating. Mine usually range between 15 and 20% (for a 500 word personal statement), but I genuinely cannot take it any lower. I've tried everything I can think of. Should I be worried about my application being rejected because of that?