Does anyone on here work for the Jobcentre?

[bigspender30]

I am considering applying for a job in our local jobcentre but have no idea what the culture is like etc? Can anyone give me any information? Many thanks x

You would need a Thick Skin

My DH (unfortunately) has to frequent our local centre as caliming JSA. He cannot use the loo - they are shut due to drug abuse.

At Christmas, no decorations. They "could be strangled with Tinsel"!!

We ask for help with benefits - they are too busy, tell you to apply online.

Lots of rude abusive "clients" shouting a lot.

DH always gets home in a foul mood and he only has to go once a fortnight.

However, behind the scenes they may have a camaraderie that makes up for it all. Or you may live in a better area. Go and chat with them.

What do you mean by culture?

My best friend does. It's very busy atm as you can imagine and sometimes they do get grief but they have security. On the plus side they are very flexible with hours.

Thanks for your replies. By culture, I mean what's it really like working for them. Are they family friendly. Are they all total jobsworths with no sense of humour? I did hear they have seats nailed to the ground now so people couldn't throw them!

Also interested in JC job, what is the interview like? Anyone experienced this with DWP.

Well said Milliways!
I too had to pay frequent visits there and hated it. Never met such a bunch of rude and arrogant people, sorry to say that includes most of the employees I met (sorry if you're one of the few friendly ones). I've never felt so belittled and worthless, and that's coming from someone who's always worked hard and got a good education!

Well I didn't even get an interview. Am gutted. The application form was strange. It had a list of 15 competancy based questions and no real scope to add in career history etc.
Anyone on here know about comp. based app forms?

Competency-based app forms are the in thing in the public sector - the idea is if you can show that you are competent to do all the bits of the job, they avoid any possible discrimination on age or anything else. And if you can do the job, they don't care what you did before.

So you have to think of impressive examples in your career history where you displayed each of the competencies - I imagine 'dealing with difficult people' is one of the main ones for Jobcentres!

Most people working there know the system is crap and they can't do anything about it, so end up pretty demoralised. Went on a course for first-time managers a while back and one lass was about to be put in charge of a JobCentrePlus. With no management experience, 50 staff who were already threatening to go on strike. It was a 'developmental opportunity'...

I asked her a few months later how it was going. She said 'You know {name of minister known to be a total &*£$}? A job in his office came up so I leapt at that instead.'
Explains a lot about JobCentres - half the staff are people who were on benefits and were forced to take the jobs to avoid losing them...

If you can deal with the buraeucracy and saying 'i can't help you' to desperate people, the hours are flexible, conditions not bad, etc.

I worked for them during pregnancy and from dd being 16 weeks old through til she started school. Am currently on carers break for next couple of years.

Have to say, conditions are great, wages are sometimes lower than average, but you can build a career if you want one, rather than just having a job.

Morale isn't always high, but at the moment, civil servant bashing is big on the political agenda and most frontline staff get enough of that from the clients, thanks very much.

The bureaucracy can drive you crackers, but if you can deal with that, you're half way there.

And once you're in the civil service, moving around the organisation is always a possibility as it's HUGE and has a lot of different opportunities.

In the current climate the job is quite secure. Thats about the best thing I can say sorry.

Bureaucracy....yes lots.

Security....well sorry I went on strike for screens a few years back, now the social security office is closed it means the jobcentres are the ones who deal with druggies etc.

Flexible...think flexi hours are becoming a thing of the past with the demand for new claims. some JCs are opening saturdays and evenings.

What exactly is the job and what area?

sorry big spender just realised you didnt get it. If its any help the recruitment process can be a bit crap. I have been turned down for promotion and so have some colleagues....even the management were surprised we didnt get through!

Is it worth asking for feedback? I take it I didn't answer the competancy rated questions the way they would like coz thats all the form really consists of. Am gutted. I have a background in recruitment and would have thought I would be more than capable of doing the job. Obviously not.

I applied and got knocked back too, no idea what I did wrong???

I applied and got called for literacy and numeracy tests but decided not to pursue it on the back of reading this thread! Agree the application form was dreadful with no scope to give proper background information. I can see that they are trying not to discriminate against people for lack of experience or education and trying to see if you are capable of doing the job, however I found the fact that they only asked for your experience of the last 3 years discriminatory. I have only been back at work for just over a year after 8 years as a SAHM so the application form would not have covered the fact that I am a graduate with eight years experience of running a small business. I squeezed it all into the section where they asked you to account for time in the last three years when you were not working!

They have really lost out not employing me, I have soo much to offer, but they will never know this as they didn't try to find out, just mind games where you try to guess what they are looking for. No one answers the questions honestly do they.

I agree skramble. I just went through the application form and put the answers in the order I thought they would want!

Me too! I just tried calling for feedback but the number was ringing out.
I want to know how they decide who to interview.

job Centres are really grim. You're better off registering with a service like shiftshack.com if you're after the kind of work job centres offer.