Civil service / MOJ reserve list

karliekay78

Hey guys, 
Just wanted to see if anyone here could share their civil service reserve list experience? I’ve been placed on two now - one for the Cabinet Office and this week - MOJ, for a policy role. Was so gutted, spent over a month preparing for the interview and it was my dream job really! I’m continuing the job search for now, but wondering if anything ever comes from being on the reserve list? Thanks  

Marcon

Judging by other posts on this forum there are sometimes job offers, but they aren't always exactly what was advertised in the first place - and the location isn't always the same, either. Fingers crossed you have better luck!

Emmia

So as you're on the reserve list, you're unlikely to be offered the specific job(s)  you applied for - if offered it will be a job requiring the same skills, but perhaps not in the same location.

Mrs_Ryan

I was on the reserve list for HMRC, I was offered the same job and location I applied for.

TELLIT01

It was a few years ago, but people who had been put on the reserve list did eventually start at our office.  Sometimes it was several months on the list before a job offer.

Emmia

Normally they tell you how long you'll be held on the list - 6 or 12 months is standard, so if you've not heard by then, you're not going to receive an offer. 

The other thing to bear in mind is that there might be lots of people on the reserve list (all of whom like you passed the interview) and you'll be ranked in order of your "score" - if 10 people "passed" the interview you might be number 2 (with number 1 getting and accepting the job) so the chances of a reserve offer are fairly high... or you might be number 10 - and the odds of being offered in that situation are therefore lower.

karliekay78

Interesting - in all honesty I thought it was a very polite way of saying, no thank you.  I've been put on both reserve lists for 12 months. Curious (and hopeful) to see if anything comes out of it... I do hope so because it is very rare that I even get shortlisted for most applications. 2020 is proving to be a tough journey!

Emmia

karliekay78 said:

Interesting - in all honesty I thought it was a very polite way of saying, no thank you.  I've been put on both reserve lists for 12 months. Curious (and hopeful) to see if anything comes out of it... I do hope so because it is very rare that I even get shortlisted for most applications. 2020 is proving to be a tough journey!

The Civil Service will tell you directly if you've not been successful, it will be a pretty impersonal email notification, but you'll be told.

The fact you made it to a reserve list, means that you successfully passed all stages of the recruitment, but if there is only 1 job, and multiple people who achieve/exceed the pass mark, only the highest scoring applicant will be offered the original post. If they decline (or fail the checks), they'll move onto the second candidate, and so on.