Council job application forms

Claire_MUFC

Is it just me that finds council job application forms a lot more harder than other application forms ? Long person specifications, having to cover each point in them, etc.

My local council has put about five apprenticeship vacancies up in the area of work that I am looking for. They close next Tuesday. I'm thinking of applying for them, but never know the best way to do the council applications due to them being so long, so many points to cover etc.

I was thinking of having a go at applying to one of the vacancies and then see if my Work Programme provider will have a look at it to see if I've gone about it the right way, set it out correctly etc. If I know I've done one right, I can do the others the same way.

However, my advisor is off ill and isn't back in until Monday, so it wouldn't leave much time to complete the others.

I could ask if another advisor could read over it, seen as mine is off. But its whether they actually would or not. Would feel bad asking, incase they say no. Haha.

Daedalus

Public sector jobs are all about the competencies, you need to hit them and explain how you hit them.

Dovah_diva

Council applications are easy, albeit long winded. As above, you need to meet every single competency, giving good example of each. For example, you wouldn't just say, 'I have used Word in my previous role'. You'd say something like 'In my previous role, I used Word on a daily basis to send letters to customers, devise leaflets and posters and to keep up to date records.....blah, blah, blah.'

SmallL

I recently completed an NHS application form and got invited to interview!
The advice i would give is to address each point, but try not to sound too 'robotic' in your answers.
However some of them require a 'yes/no' approach, one spec for me was 'must be willing to work weekends on rota' , for which i wrote 'I am willing to work weekends on a rota basis'

xxJudexx

I agree with what everyone else has said, it is all about the competencies.
If you do some research and find the most common ones and start to create 'stock' answers then your applications shouldn't take so long because you can almost copy and paste your answers, obviously making sure it is tailored to the role you are applying for.
I recently applied to a few council jobs and found this method much easier. And I got offered a council position!

DKLS

I have got to the point of not going for any job that insists on an application form, why they can't simple do the CV and 1-3 interviews is beyond me.

Missme

It's unnecessary to address each point individually as long as you make it clear what you're addressing i.e. label the section with the person spec reference - E1/E7/D2 blah blah 3 done, E2 blah 1 more done, etc..

It's a good way to show that you can draw information together into a coherent whole - great for jobs involving report writing or complex correspondence.

Combining equalities/diversity items with customer facing items makes it seem much less like paying lip-service to them.

And be dynamic don't say what your job involves say what you do e.g. " I provide clear and accurate responses to written queries, within timescales, using Word" or whatever.

You get used to doing them. Good luck.

jacques_chirac

DKLS wrote: »

I have got to the point of not going for any job that insists on an application form, why they can't simple do the CV and 1-3 interviews is beyond me.

When you have several hundred applicants it is far easier to process application forms. They don't have time to dig through a cv to see if you meet the criteria, with an application form they know exactly where the information will/ should be.

If you're too lazy to complete an application form, they'd probably not want you anyway?

DKLS

jacques_chirac wrote: »

When you have several hundred applicants it is far easier to process application forms. They don't have time to dig through a cv to see if you meet the criteria, with an application form they know exactly where the information will/ should be.

If you're too lazy to complete an application form, they'd probably not want you anyway?

What a load of tosh, using HR software I can narrow down 500 CVs down to a short list of say 25 candidates worthy of interview in around 3-4 mouse clicks depending on the criteria I have set in the software.

Quick read of those 25 CVS, and I can fire off the thanks but no thanks letters and invite successful candidates to interview with a few more mouse clicks. Job jobbed in less than 30 mins and I am back to my work.

Just shows how inefficient the public sector is if they have time to process 500 applications.

colino

Unfortunately local authorities (all ironically with huge personnel/HR departments!) are the tip of the public sector iceberg when it comes to achingly poor recruitment/selection/development processes. Clearly there was in the dim and distant past a thoroughly developed system for fairly, filtering senior posts, but that blokes left and now every post has a mountain of unnecessary steps to climb just so, "the system" is maintained. Recruitment professionals deal with far higher numbers than LA recruiters and they do it quicker and better than the form fillers. By all means grind through all the details requested if you want the job, but don't expect the interviewer to be part of the process or know anything about you!

ohreally

Public sector employers have recruitment policies that should be complied with.
This will be closely linked to equality and diversity monitoring - very few cv's will be equality compliant hence the need for standardisation and the ability to audit the process.