Jobs in the Council

ianianian_2

Hello,

I was wandering how easy people thought it was to get a job in the council and whether after some disappointment my girlfriend should continue to apply for jobs with them?

I am currently under the opinion that most jobs that are advertised go internally. There is nothing wrong with this, if you work for the council, you know the employer, you’re a good worker, you should be able to get a job internally; however the fact that the job is advertised externally when the new employee is already decided annoys me greatly.

My girlfriend recently went to an assessment day for a council job. She decided that to make herself stand out at the start of the process before the ‘games’ began she would ask everyone to do a small introduction as she had recently moved to the area and would like to know more about everyone. The replies went as follows….
Hi I’m dave, I work for the council
Hi I’m bill, I work for the council
Hi I’m jen, I work for the council
Etc etc, out of 8 people she was the only one that didn’t already work for the council.

Not surprisingly, after good interview, the job went internally. This has happened several times to her and I’m wandering whether she should give up. In her latest interview she was told by the interviewee that everything went brilliantly but she wasn’t too up to date with council values! (that’s despite reciting their policies in the interview).

I have also had a few bad experiences for council jobs (which is ironic now as I work for a consultancy that charges me out to a council for twice the price they could have had me for!). I had an interview for an urban design job about a year ago. I spent the weeks before redesigning half of a city and writing a large for an assignment for the interview. Upon entering the interview i was immediately told that I was too young for the job but had to be given an interview because I’d made sure I’d tick all of the boxes in the personal specification.

The rather long winded question here is… should we keep applying for council jobs or have a percentage of them already gone however they are forced to advertised externally?

Thanks

Ian

jumpycheese1

A friend of my mum's applied to be on the council's bank staff - admin etc. Passed with flying colours and about 6 months later, she got a full time perm position at the council. About 4 months into the job, she received a phone call from the HR dept saying would she be able to do 3 weeks of admin work as her name has been called up. She politely told them - look at my name in the Outlook address book. They did and apologised. Duh!

If companies have a policy of recruiting internally, why can't they advertise the job on the intranet, job vacancies board etc. If they cannot find anyone suitable, then advertise externally. I hate companies that know they have someone interally in mind for a vacancy, then interview about 8 others and that person they had in mind gets the job!

I applied for a role for a govt dept and on the advert, it clearly stated, there is no-one internally that is suitable for the role. I have a couple of numeracy and literacy tests for the role in a couple of weeks time

Mr_Falling_Star

I have heard this as well, it beats me why councils do it. However saying this if you think about it, with a ageing population, emigration, promotion and sickness then they must logically want new people at some point. The GMB were running a campaign about lack of council staff some time ago. Besides if you were really keen you could apply for some really unpopular job in the council and then transfer?

~Beanie~

Why is she so desperate to work for the Council anyway?

retrocircles

it is hard to get into the council.

my DH worked in HR at the council until recently, ironically he moved to a different role internally. it's hard because the amount of applicants. for example a lowest scale admin role would attract 90+ perfectly good applications.

i'd love to get into the council! good pay, good working hours, often flexi-time, good holidays, good pension... !!!

Debt_Free_Chick

I have a feeling that Councils have to consider both internal AND external applicants. It's to demonstrate "Best Value" i.e. that they've recruited the best person available and not simply given the job to an existing employee.

It's tedious, but you could imagine that some council tax payers would complain of "jobs for the boys" if they didn't at least consider an external applicant.

Interestingly ..... they must eventually recruit externally, surely? If job A is filled by the person doing job B and then that is filled by the person doing job C ..... eventually, someone's job must be filled externally?

ianianian_2

I think they mostly go internally.

I think (i may be wrong) that they are forced to advertise externally.
This was the case when i worked in the NHS. I remember several cases during which a temporary contract ended and the post became full time. Instead of just giving the person that had been doing the role on a temporary basis the job, they had to put it up for interview.
It was therefore the case that the person that had been doing the job went to the interview, knew the boss well, knew the job etc etc ie it was just a formality they would get the full time role........which is fair enough!

On the flip side 100 odd people had spent time to fill in application forms, go to interviews when the job had already gone.

SandC

I think with them being councils and therefore representing all of us, they have to advertise externally even though they might already have someone earmarked for the job internally. It is worth applying because every so often it must be the case that an external applicant is better suited. It's the same with NHS jobs.

If your girlfriend is desperate to work for the council then she might have to enter by other means. It is easier to come from the outside in to part time positions or through recruitment agencies. Is she in a position where she can do some temping work? She should be able to do a bit of hunting and find out which local agencies the council uses for staff.

My friend has just left a part time job at our local council, she had not worked for the council previously. She said she has never been so bored in all her life and that the workload amounted to around 1 hour's worth per day. After some weeks she gave up asking for more work and found something else. This was in the Chief Exec's office.

Savvy_Sue

I certainly wouldn't give up applying to the council, but also I wouldn't limit myself to that. Housing Associations, local colleges and universities, other 'not for profit' organisations tend to have similar conditions of service.

It's a long time since I worked for a local council, but I used to work for a Housing Association. We also advertised all jobs externally as well as internally, and were more than happy to appoint from outside if internal candidates weren't the best at interview. Sometimes people assume they'll get a job they've gone for just because everyone knows them already, but it doesn't always work like that!

housemite

dont work for a local authority get a real job in the private sector.
Unless of course you want to sacrifice salary for a cushy number ,loads of holidays plus of course the extra couple of weeks sick per year ,and a pension scheme subsidised by the rest of us .
And if you find working in an enviroment were political correctness has long since taken away from the individual the right to work under his/her own initiative acceptable then go for it.

cwp500

ianianian wrote: »

Hello,

I was wandering how easy people thought it was to get a job in the council and whether after some disappointment my girlfriend should continue to apply for jobs with them?Thanks
Ian

From personal, and bitter experience, there is nothing to be gained by trying to get work in the council at the expense of other options. They are probably the last of the old traditional environments that have not moved with the times.

They seek to recruit internally for several reasons; it is cheap to promote internally; it is an easy way to avoid traiining; it is a system designed to maintain mediocrity and forbid external influences who may wish to institute change no matter how beneficial that may be.

Councils are generally run by political cliques at higher levels and these types tend to promote and employ diluted versions of themselves. The net effect of this is to produce a mediocre and second rate service that would not bear scrutiny in any private industry. Waste is therefore endemic in these environments and the mindset becomes protectionist and hostile to outsiders.

To avoid redundancy payments a system of job protection is maintained and second raters are allowed to carry on in alternative posts.

Hard facts to swallow and doubtless a horde of dull HR drones will complain about this post but it will ring true to every interviewee who has sat across the desk from these dull women (it is predominantly women) revelling in their ignorance of modernity.

Dont waste time with councils.