DWP Recruiting Again - 2012

sherrilou

(quote) I have heard that all provisional offers should be made by 20/04 as postings will commence from 23/04/2012. A word of warning though, if you are lucky enough to receive a post but it is not at one of your preferred JobCentre sites, do not pass on it hoping to be offered another site! If you pass on a posting then you are removed from the list entirely for that location. Passing on a post will not affect your application for other areas if you applied for more than one but you will not be given another post in the same area (quote)

Well done you when is your start date.

Really boggles me if provisional offer made by 20/4 how would they expect external candidates to hand notice in etc by 23/04 or is this for just internal ones.

Also what was the point in the preferred working locations if they are gonna offer you a post there. Whilst i agree that if youve put that jcp down and then change your mind you should be taken off the list, but if you have not even ticked them in the first place they offer you it and you turn it down then your struck off the list so to speak is pointless.

Still waiting patiently. Well done again the wait was worth it for you.

By the way any other areas heard back yet or is it just Scotland thats pulled their fingers out

Sherrilou

Didyouseethat

sherrilou wrote: »

Well done you when is your start date.

Really boggles me if provisional offer made by 20/4 how would they expect external candidates to hand notice in etc by 23/04 or is this for just internal ones.

Also what was the point in the preferred working locations if they are gonna offer you a post there. Whilst i agree that if youve put that jcp down and then change your mind you should be taken off the list, but if you have not even ticked them in the first place they offer you it and you turn it down then your struck off the list so to speak is pointless.

Still waiting patiently. Well done again the wait was worth it for you.

By the way any other areas heard back yet or is it just Scotland thats pulled their fingers out

Sherrilou

Firstly, aylithuk, as far as I'm aware there is no 'pass' mark. If there are say 30 vacancies available then they will list everyone in terms of their interview score then offer the first 30 applicants a provisional offer whilst trying their best to accomodate your preferred sites. However, if you are in the top 30 but your preferred sits have already been provisionally offered to someone higher in the list then you will be offered another site. If you turn down that offer then what I'm being told is they will not try again to accomodate you and will instead look at the waiting list to fill the vacant positions. I believe they will be trying their best to ensure that successful applicants are given a preferred sit but it may not be possible if say there are 7 people who performed better who are all looking for the site that you want.

Sorry, I think I did a mince job of explaining. The provisional offers will be done up until 20/04, from 23/04/12 they will start allocating posts to those who have accepted the provisional offer. The actual start dates will most likely be in May at some point but no news on this as of yet. So far this means I'm in the dar about my posting and start date.

Hope thats clearer.

Sara_SkiBunny

How many EO positions are there going to be in each job centre? I applied to North/Mid-Wales and the advertisement said that there were 50 vacancies, but there were only 18 locations on the list. So if that's correct, it would mean there are at least 2 per site?

Incidentally, completing the preferred locations form was just a statistical exercise. If you are top of the merit list, you will be asked to choose which location you would like to work at. The lower down the merit list you are, the less you will have to choose from. Considering that some of those in my 'area' are almost a 2.5 hour drive away, I am crossing my fingers that I am somewhere near the top of the merit list. Here's hoping.

Oh, and you have to allow 20 WORKING days from accepting your provisional offer in order to allow for CRB, references etc.

Good luck all x

sammyroser

Sara_SkiBunny wrote: »

Incidentally, completing the preferred locations form was just a statistical exercise. If you are top of the merit list, you will be asked to choose which location you would like to work at. The lower down the merit list you are, the less you will have to choose from. Considering that some of those in my 'area' are almost a 2.5 hour drive away, I am crossing my fingers that I am somewhere near the top of the merit list. Here's hoping.

I'm in the same boat, most of the offices are at least an hours drive away in normal conditions, during rush hour they jump up to two hours. So am hoping to be close to the top of the list!

MakemBill

aylithuk wrote: »

Well done on getting the post! Good to hear some news at last!
I know this is a long shot but you don't know what the pass rate is e.g. 36/40

Just wondering if it's going to be different for each area?

Aylith,

Areas will have different pass rates. As a hypothetical example; a lot of people talk about East London so let's make a scenario up there.

East London have 75 vacancies. They have to go down as far as 34 points to make up the number of people to cover the vacancies. If this throws up say 80 candidates (maybe 35 points only had 65 successes) then they would likely have the competencies in order of preference. So if they want leadership as the main competency, those that score 34 will be whittled down by those who score most on the desired competency. And so the process would continue until they get 75 preferred candidates. They may then decide that it's likely that up to 20 percent of candidates will refuse the offers as they aren't where they want to work, so they will have a reserve list that would more than cover this eventuality, taking from the top of the reserve list as required. So some people on 34 may get a job and others may not, which means theoretically that the pass rate here would be 35 to guarantee a job.

In East Scotland they may have been a bit brainier and the 80 posts there were covered by people scoring 38 or more so those on 35 wouldn’t have a lot of hope.

Hopefully there aren’t too many people scoring so highly as to fill all the vacancies with scores of 38, but until we get an offer, everyone who didn’t get a three is still in the running.

And good luck to them all.

MakemBill

Sara_SkiBunny wrote: »

How many EO positions are there going to be in each job centre? I applied to North/Mid-Wales and the advertisement said that there were 50 vacancies, but there were only 18 locations on the list. So if that's correct, it would mean there are at least 2 per site?

Sara

I was told by someone quite well up the food chain in DWP that they were forced to advertise the posts by ministers while they were still carrying out an evaluation of how many posts could be filled by surplus staff. In my area, they advertised between 60 and 100, but in reality they expect there to be shy of 60 after the surplus staff have been accommodated.

This is not official mind, but I suspect there is a fair bit of truth in the suggestion.

I know of one office in my area that is asking for 7 staff and others that were on the list that need none or just one. So the suggestion (while maybe not intended) that the jobs will be evenly spread over the offices is off the mark. I imagine thos in highly populated areas would be in more need than the rural locations.

MakemBill

I remember a security guard from a JCP (was it John) asking for advice on here and wondered if anyone had seen whether he posted again telling us how he'd got on.

Also Paradise Lost was another.

Just curious to know how you got on guys.

Esoog

MakemBill wrote: »

As there is no publicised pass rate until all of the interviews have been completed and results compiled and matched, there would be o way they'd suggest you'd passed. However, I do agree that it would have been far easier on their own resources, answering calls and e mails if they'd been more up front about where they were at regular intervals.

Does anyone believe that they'll learn from this process?

As I posted earlier the online "test" has already been changed (although it's pan-cs no other dept. has had so many vacancies I'd imagine) as has the practice for locations form so there's a few changes at least

Esoog

2tinkers wrote: »

Hi everyone. I applied for a different post with the DWP to the ones you're all discussing - a temp AO position and I could do with some advice.

I passed the online test and was invited to an interview - this weekend. I didn't have to submit any competencies but I was told which competencies I'd be asked about during the interview.

I haven't had a competency based interview before and I'm wondering how specific I need to be. e.g can I talk about being a member of a committee which meets regularly to discuss x, y and z or do I have to say 'on one occasion we met and discussed x... etc, etc' ? Can I say 'In my role as x, I regularly attend training courses to update my skills' or do I need to say 'As part of my role as x I recently attended a training course about _ and learned _ ' ?

I hope you see what I'm getting at. :-)

They will ask very direct questions, one (usually) per competence, ie "can you tell us a time that you solved a dispute" etc. You need to be specific, so mentioning "I regularly attend training courses to update my skills" isn't much use, the second one is better. Specific, specific, specific! Remember competence statements are not job descriptions

glasgirl

Anyone had an e-mail from Glasgow/Lanarkshire/East Dumbartonshire yet re waiting list or provisional offer?