Civil service job application - how to be anonymous

[IPartridge]

I'm applying for the permanent position of a role that I'm temporarily working in. The application requires a CV which must not contain any identifying information. How can I do this?

I imagine this issue happens a lot with internal applications. I'm quite new to the civil service and this is my first application since joining.

I guess you are wondering how to talk about your current temporary role without it being obvious ?

Surely they just mean name etc. You can't be expected to leave job info off or make it so bland that they can't tell what you've been doing.

They mean things like your name, sex, age.
Things relevant to the job are perfectly acceptable.

Yes! I'm the only person in this role so it's obviously me.

I'm in quite a small org so you could probably identify anyone internal from their CV 🥴

You can discuss your current role and they will likely identify you in the sift. My advice is don’t expect an easy ride at interview, if you get one. Prepare for it seriously. Being interviewed by people who know you means there is no room for bluffing. Do organise a few mock interviews, but clearly don’t approach anyone involved in the sift or interview panel as they have to remain independent.

The funniest example of a so-called anonymised application I sifted was someone who, as required, left out their educational institution but then used organising the May Ball as one of their examples.

Are you sure that’s what it means? I’ve done this in teaching and although it’s blind, it’s just your name, sex, age, race etc that’s ‘blind’.

Isn’t it just names etc?
Are you well regarded at work? I’m NHS and if applying internally I would use specific examples that made it clear that I know the department well. E.g, “during my work establishing a service to optimise care for abc these were the specific problems I addressed….”. Anyone reading the application would probably be fairly certain it was me, but I haven’t broken the rules.

I understand its purpose but it seems to give an illusion of fairness when internal candidates can be identified.

The aim is to avoid discrimination at the sift stage on the grounds of sex, age, race (when it can be guessed from a name). It's not intended to make applicants entirely unidentifiable.

This, you’re overthinking it OP, you just don’t include your personal details like name etc.

I’ve been on the other end as a recruiting manager. Yes, they mean just don’t put in things like name, where you went to university, race etc. But it’s fine to put your current job in the CV, or use examples from it in a personal statement or behaviour examples. Yes, I do spot the internal candidate but I do my best to judge them on their merits. And in my department the sift and interview panel are meant to have an independent person to avoid favouring the internal candidate.