DWP Recruiting Again - 2012

Lancelot_25

cloe23 wrote: »

I work for the DWP at HEO grade and for this exercise this is completely not true, the department is massively over on there headcount at the lower grade (band and need to promote internally to get the balance back between the two grades. And there are a lot of educated, critical thinking graduates/ex professionals at band B grade who took the job because 'they needed any job' in the last wave of recruitment who are all going for promotion.

Hey Cloe

You make a valid and interesting point. In some districts the weighting of band b's is currently over the required band b levels. In an ideal world it would make economic sense to promote internally but as it has been made external it is open to fair recruitment and therefore no distinction can be made bedween internal abd external applicants. The sifting process is anonymous and although it will be clear at interview stage that you work for the department, it has to be fair. Anyone can ask for feedback afterwards and if any anomalies were to be revealed then it would have the potential of a law suit for unfair recruitment. As a public body it has to do things by the book and at every stage it is audited. Some people talk about an unfair bias between internal / external applicants. On the whole I think it is balanced out. I agree there are many intelligent AO's that deserve promotion as there is not a great deal of development opportunity within. At the end of the day it will be down to the interview and who comes out better on the day.

Good luck Cloe for future ventures : )

Lancelot 25

Lancelot_25

I am however confused. In a previous post you mention that you are applying for an EO position and suddenly you are a HEO?? hmmm

drwho2011

I applied in one of the London districts and have been told they had approx 10,000 applications, test pass will rise so only 2000 will go through to sifting (which suggests 80% percentile). Of this 1000 will be selected for interview.

So 20 interviews for each advertised vacancy. Although have heard they planned to recruit more than the advertised 50.

agrinnall

Lorac05 wrote: »

That would be the 'ideal' way to do it but that was not how this exercise was set up - you had to submit an application for each area you wanted to be considered for.

I agree, having applied to 5 areas it would have been a lot easier if it had worked in the 'ideal' way. In fact, last weekend I wrote to Chris Grayling, the minister responsible for the DWP, pointing out my thoughts on the deficiences of the application process, with this being one of them. Should anyone else wish to share their views with him his email address is [EMAIL="chris.grayling.mp@parliament.uk"]chris.grayling.mp@parliament.uk[/EMAIL]. Maybe they will take note of what's happened this time and streamline it when they start the AO recruitment.

soothyerboots

I'm sure he really couldn't care less what you think.

Esoog

soothyerboots wrote: »

I'm sure he really couldn't care less what you think.

Personally he may not, but professionally he has a duty to care regardless :E

Kazbat

agrinnall wrote: »

Are you sure you've applied for the right thing? Most of the vacancies have gone from the website now but the Welsh speaking ones are still there and I believe the information I've copied below is identical on all the advertisments.

After submission of your application you will be invited to complete an online assessment that takes up to 75 minutes to complete and example questions are available once logged in.

Please complete the online assessment at your earliest convenience as you will have up to midnight on the 29th January 2012 to submit your completed assessment. Unfortunately we will not be able to progress any applications from applicants that have not completed the test by this time.

All communications will be electronic therefore it is vital that you check your email and communication centre regularly. In addition please check your spam/junk email as your email provider may filter emails to here.

Thanks for this. I applied for the 100 EO posts in the North West (Merseyside area). There is definitely nothing on the vacancy about an on-line test nor have I received an email regarding a test or anything about the locations form. When I check the status of my application form it just says it is being processed. If the test had to be completed by the 29 Jan, then I've obviously missed the boat. But I shall complain to the Civil Service website where I saw the vacancies advertised.

FairyCakes

I'm sorry Kazbat but it does sound as if you've missed the boat

The job advert (which I printed - also North West) said

After submission of your application you will be invited to complete an online assessment that takes up to 7 minutes to complete and example questions are available once logged in.
Please complete the online assessment at your earliest convenience as you will have up to midnight on the 22nd January 2012 to submit your completed assessment. Unfortunately we will not be able to progress any applications from applicants that have not completed the test by this time.

The deadline was later amended to 23rd January.

If you didn't receive the email you should have phoned the helpline (information available in the 'Help' section when you log in to civil service jobs.)

gettingready

still "awaiting review"... anyone knows when there will be some news?

got an interview for another job tomorrow, even less money.. sigh....

mommarat

checked my status today and apparently I have withdrawn from one of my applications. It was one that had previously been stuck on submission and I reported last week. After 10 mins got through to someone on the phone and they said they will look into it. Thought everything had gone to easily for me compared to the problems others have had on this thread.:eek: