Civil service process

Tango25

I interviewed for a civil service role a month ago, which was also a month after the closing date for applications. I couldn't say how the interview went as it was impossible to build any rapport with the interviewers. I've been waiting for feedback on my interview ever since. About 2 weeks ago my online application updated to give me a score of 5 on the initial sift, but no other notes to expand on this.
Is this all normal?
I can also see the interview slots available and another 28 were added yesterday (there's 18 vacancies).
Should I assume I've been unsuccessful?
I feel very out of the loop being a non-civil servant.

TELLIT01

Long, slow and convoluted is probably as good a description as any of the Civil Service recruitment process. When I applied it was about 4 months from application to starting, with long periods of total silence in between.
I certainly wouldn't start to worry yet. Not long before I retired there was a recruitment process where they tried to shorten the timescales. New trainees arrived, but it seemed to have escaped HR's notice that they couldn't give the newbies any system access until all the security checks had been done. That resulted in newbies doing very basic training and then being unable to consolidate that as they weren't allowed to touch any live information.
Hopefully a lesson has been learnt from that.

bingo_bango

My last promotion took 17 months from application to posting, and I was one of the better candidates. I thought that was quite short .

Tango25

Thank you, I would like to know if I'm still being considered, but does everyone find out at the same time either way? I've never had such a straight-laced interview, even when I joined the military I had a slight rapport with the board - is this also the norm?
Thank you for your replies.

tomtontom

The no rapport thing is normal - it's a (slightly cold) way of ensuring all candidates are treated equally. All candidates will usually hear within a day or so of each other.

SkimmySim

The competencies are marked out of 9! As long as you get 4 and above you've passed so congrats with that...!!

From previous experience the wait to hear back is rather long... Very long! I forgot that i applied to them when they called to offer me a position back in 09 my interview was in April/May and they offered me a job in August And i started the September!

bod1467

The process sounds guaranteed to ensure the civil service sort the chaff from the wheat ... with such a long decision making process the wheat will have been sifted and have already got jobs.

TELLIT01

bod1467 wrote: »

The process sounds guaranteed to ensure the civil service sort the chaff from the wheat ... with such a long decision making process the wheat will have been sifted and have already got jobs.

Sadly that is often a fair comment - certainly not always, but not unknown. The last lot of 'apprentices' taken on where I worked were ineligible if they had been unemployed for less than 6 months and they couldn't have anything higher than GCSE. Watching some of them filing documents was an experience. They had an alphabet sheet to help them file items in alphabetical order and they still managed to mess it up.
General recruitment seems to be increasing recently. Probably because the jobs market is improving and decent DWP staff, already sick of the way the place is run, are now voting with their feet. In the first few years I worked there, in the period around the banking collapse, hardly anybody left (Any job was better than no job), in the final year I was there people were leaving on a regular basis. Probably an average of 1 or 2 a month, which doesn't sound much until you realise the total staff number was only just over 100.

fira

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Long, slow and convoluted is probably as good a description as any of the Civil Service recruitment process. When I applied it was about 4 months from application to starting, with long periods of total silence in between.
I certainly wouldn't start to worry yet. Not long before I retired there was a recruitment process where they tried to shorten the timescales. New trainees arrived, but it seemed to have escaped HR's notice that they couldn't give the newbies any system access until all the security checks had been done. That resulted in newbies doing very basic training and then being unable to consolidate that as they weren't allowed to touch any live information.
Hopefully a lesson has been learnt from that.

I agree 100% with you TELLIT01. I am also now retired but could have written your message.

The one thing that I never understood is why they took so long to check references and/or education certificates provided by the new entrant. Sadly, quite a few times I saw someone, who'd started the job a good few months before and were doing OK, being escorted from the premises when the results of those checks came in.

Bill

Tango25

Since my interview (now 2 months ago) I've had an email requesting I send copies of my ID to them in the post and a further email requesting I sign and scan back a verification record form. Still no feedback on whether I've passed the interview, I'd like to hope I have and that they wouldn't put candidates through that that had failed, but it sounds as though that's no guarantee of a job offer anyway?

TELLIT01

Tango25 wrote: »

Since my interview (now 2 months ago) I've had an email requesting I send copies of my ID to them in the post and a further email requesting I sign and scan back a verification record form. Still no feedback on whether I've passed the interview, I'd like to hope I have and that they wouldn't put candidates through that that had failed, but it sounds as though that's no guarantee of a job offer anyway?

The timescales don't surprise me. It was over 3 months between interview and job offer for me. You are correct that there is no guarantee of a job offer even having passed the interview.