Career change - Civil Service

[Plant2628]

I am mid 40s , former solicitor. I do governance work now. I am interested in making a move to the civil service. Anyone able to recommend the type of role to look for? I was thinking Policy related (expecting large pay cut) but any other suggestions to consider appreciated? Anyone able to say what the culture is like and flexibility?
Thanks

In theory it might be a good move for you, but there are big civil service jobs cuts going on right now and very little external recruitment.

Might be worth looking for jobs at regulators as well? I'm sure your governance experience would be v useful.

I am in the civil service, 25yrs and personally where I am, the culture is ok, bar a difficult senior in our area. I work in an operational team.

GLD? My experience is that the pay is low but the work can be extremely interesting, flexibility is decent (although with some long hours- people work for as long as is required, but far better than private practice), pension is excellent.

Where my friend works in the civil service, they are making 40% of staff redundant.

Not civil service, but have you considered local government? We’re desperate across the sector for legal staff if you’d consider that route

I'm looking for a change - non legal. So policy, operations - open to anything.
Which areas are redundancies happening?
Thanks

Can i suggest governance roles in schools, there's lots of jobs out there.

I’m in an nhs trust and dh local government. Cuts are across the board. That said there’s governance jobs there - we have clinical and corporate governance.

Appreciate you’re looking for a change but I think you’d find it easier to get into the CS (and at a higher grade) if you took a legal role - you could then look to move into a different area once you’re in. Lots of sideways moves in departments (including lawyers going into non-legal roles)

I am in the North. I would like to give it a shot finding a role. Not legal. I work in governance currently. I do a fair bit of line management and training.

I want a change - operational, learning and development, events, policy

I am open to being flexible.

Has anyone any suggestions? There are a lot of jobs - not sure what to target level wise etc or which of the above I would have a good shot at.

Anyone work in any of those areas and can share insight?

Thank you!!

In your shoes I would look at salary bands for the different depts and take it from there, i.e. can you afford to take a G7 or SEO role? Then you can filter on Civil Service Jobs by that grade and your preferred location and start to get an idea of what's out there.

With your background a role in an Arms-Length-Body (ALB) or regulator might be a good fit - you can filter the employer to whichever Depts/ALBs/orgs you like the sound of.

My advice is just to start reading as many JDs as you can, and start thinking of examples to fit those behaviours from your own experience. Then you can start to build a picture of what you might suit.

I echo others' comments about it being much easier to move sideways once you're in.

Thank you - good shout

What is your legal specialism? In contrast to some areas of the CS, HMRC are recruiting large numbers of compliance staff.

I would say that the advice above to get in first via a legal role then look to move sideways is very good - the roles available to you as an external applicant will be limited, and once you are 'in', there are many more that would become available to you. It may also be possible to get a 'managed' move internally. As a solicitor, you'd likely join as a G7 (potentially G6) and you may well find it easier to move sideways as a substantive G7 or G6 than to get into a role at that level as an external. Also, the work and the overall culture and experience of working in the CS is not remotely comparable to working as a solicitor in private practice - so you may surprise yourself by liking it more than you expect. I quit law to join the CS in a non-legal role, and looking back I probably would have been better off (and got to where I am much faster) if I had joined as a lawyer rather than re-training.

Thanks, appreciate all the tips
Emsyj37 what field did you retrain into?

I'm just done with law, not sure I can face going back to it.