Civil service - what’s it like?

[notanothernamesurely]

I feel I need a new job. I used to love my job (local government) but I feel like it’s lost its shine - it feels too easy, has zero flexibility (no flexitime, no working from home, no holidays at short notice etc) no scope for promotion etc.

Im 40, I have a degree, my kids are in secondary school. Lots of people have suggested the civil service but I feel I’d probably have to start from the bottom (where I’d be taking a hefty pay cut) but is it worth it? I’ve spoken to a few people who started at the bottom and were promoted within a year and say there’s loads of scope to move about and that their jobs are v flexible in terms of hybrid, flexitime etc.

Please tell me your experiences of working in the civil service - particularly in relation to work life balance/ promotion/ manager supportiveness etc.

Thanks

Yes there is lots of scope to move around and and working arrangements are generally flexible. Most departments don’t expect staff to be in for more than three days a week. Line Managers vary in quality everywhere. Some are brilliant, some of useless and there’s everything in between.

I don’t think you would need to start at the bottom if you’re 40 and have worked for a local authority for years. You are free to apply for a job at any grade that’s available to external candidates and if you’ve got the experience for the role you’re applying for you would stand a competitive chance. I guess one difficulty is that you would be up against candidates that are more familiar with the CS recruitment process. But in my view CS recruitment is very transparent. You are advised what competencies they are looking for before interview and you can read up on what they want you to demonstrate.

That’s a very broad quarrying as there are so many yokes and departments. The ish is generally lower than private sector but he pension brings it to a similar level. My husband is leaving soon as he hates the area he works in.

My dept was painfully slow, honestly I was sat at home with nothing to do for a year and a half.

Found the lower level staff very entitled, very unwilling to take charge of anything. Managers didn’t give feedback. Very inefficient at all levels, in part because there wasn’t any money to hire where it was needed.

Pay is not good and no guarantee of promotion, which I found difficult.

Good holidays and sick leave though. Plenty of flexitime and condensed hours, there wasn’t really anyone around on a Friday!

@notanothernamesurely as a pp says the hardest part can be getting a job in the first place. Once you have a job it’s much easier to then move jobs, grades, departments etc.

One benefit is the CS do not discriminate on the basis of age, so with a degree you can apply for graduate posts and schemes.

At 40 with your DC in secondary school you can effectively start a new career. The CS are good at providing training, learning. & development. Go on to CS Jobs https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi and have a look at what’s available in your area.

https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk can help you narrow down areas you might find interesting.

The pension makes it even more appealing as in some cases it’s the equivalent of almost doubling your salary.

There are such a variety of roles so experiences can be very different. If you are working closely with ministers, it can be demanding and you may work longer hours, if you are working in a delivery role with the public there may be no WFH, you could work abroad; really there are a vast range of roles.

Opportunities will vary dependant on your location. Clearly there are more roles being created in Manchester at the moment, but, as with any location, you may be expected to travel. You mention you currently work in local government. Depending on your role and interests, there may be opportunities in the future for secondments, as there will be for Civil Servants to be seconded.

As my name suggests, I’ve just left teaching and started work at the civil service in June. I’ve taken a pay cut and gone in as an EO but I’m loving the flexibility and the department I’m working in. However I’ve heard significantly varied stories about other government departments and the way they work. I think I’ve been really lucky

How long is a piece of string? Which department? If you join the MOJ or HMPPS you won't be working from home and clocking off at 5. Some departments you don't get full civil service pension either it's LGPS which is decent but nowhere near the same. Do your research before you jump into a particular department or ministry

I started a job in the CS two years ago. There’s a lot of different departments though so you probably can’t really compare them.

My job is technical and requires 4 months intensive training (most people find it very tough).

I’m at the equivalent of AO level and the pay isn’t great (just under £27k). However there’s plenty of opportunity to move sideways or upwards, quite quickly. The employer pension contribution is almost 30% which takes the sting out of the low pay a bit. There’s also the option for lots of overtime to increase earnings.

The flexi-time is amazing allowing people to work around childcare, petcare or disabilities (it also helps keep your sickness absences low). That said, we work hard and have to hit very high productivity and accuracy targets.

I do enjoy it though.

I went in on a lower grade a few years back. It was a huge mistake I find it ridiculously slow moving and boring (and cant really see much internal movement wise that wouldnt be the same). Luckily they are flexible so i'm now very part time and term time but I need to look for a new job really. I'm too young to be sitting back hoping for retirement and boredom fries my brains

I’m in an arms-length body but get CS pension contributions, minimum one day a week in the office. I’m in a project role which means it’s fast paced and interesting but the downside is towards the end of the project, staff start moving on to new roles and you lose a lot of expertise and end up doing several people’s jobs while recruitment rumbles on interminably.

We’ve been through VES and a hiring freeze recently and are struggling to hire at level transfer internally, which means those roles then being advertised as temporary promotions, so more chance of moving up.

I do get frustrated with the slow pace generally sometimes, and I am 🙄 at the current “AI will solve all our problems!” narrative while procurement takes six months to a year and we lag behind with our software and systems. I often think we’re the blocker to progress in our sector because we’re overly bureaucratic and risk averse yet poorly resourced.

Thanks. It’s good to hear everyone’s experiences.

I love the idea of flexibility - this is something impossible in my current role and one of the pull factors along with the pension.

My experience is that it really varies by department- I've worked in one that was very slow and where everyone was demotivated, others where people have been truly brilliant. (And there are different aspects to slowness- there is the type of slowness that comes from demotivated staff- obviously bad- but equally sometimes things take time for a reason- for example, where we have a stat duty to consult on decisions then obviously we need to allow time for that- that time is there for a reason and is nothing to do with people being slow in a negative sense.)

The flexibility is great and tends to be taken seriously- people's non-working days are respected as much as they can possibly be. However, depending on your dept and role there may be times when you need to work more (we've had some late nights and weekend work recently coming up to a big deadline)- but it's certainly no worse than equivalent private sector role and often better.

Pay is crap, pension is great.

Job security is not great, despite what you might think, and redundancies happen regularly as do recruitment/promotion freezes. We are being strongly encouraged to use AI where possible and track the amount of time saved by doing so. Although nothing has been said officially, I can only imagine that this will lead to a 50% reduction in headcount in the next 5 years, at least at more junior levels. But I suspect the same is true for many jobs.

No reason to think that you will have to start at the bottom. Have a look at some ads and profiles https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles/success-profiles-civil-service-behaviours to get a sense of where you might sit. You need to be able to demonstrate your experience but this can be outside the CS.

For applications and interviews, you should definitely read up- there is a knack to making sure your application scores highly.