NHS Admin/Office Jobs - application advice

MrBrindle

Hi all, like many other people in this country, I was made redundant at the end of June. I was fortunate enough to receive a decent redundancy package, as my employment was previously bordering on a constructive dismissal case due my employers outsourcing parts of my role during lockdown/when I was off on furlough. But I'd rather not go into that.

So at the moment, I'm applying for all sorts of things. I'm a graphic designer, but have worked in marketing as well for the past 4-5 years. Those sort of roles are non existent at the moment around West Wales, and I'm trying to bring in some money by doing freelance design work, but that's slow, and people don't want to spend money.

There are quite a few office, clerical and admin based jobs popping up often with the NHS and local health board, however I'm getting absolutely no luck whatsoever. These roles also desire the ability to speak and write in Welsh, of which I am fluent, so I'm hard pressed to believe that there are THAT many people applying for these jobs who also happen to speak Welsh! 

Having worked in marketing, I'd like to think that I've done quite a few admin based tasks in that role - organising meetings, leading meetings, note taking, creating reports, raising purchase orders, handling databases, liaising with suppliers, colleagues and customers, call handling, maintaining office equipment etc.

So after 6 applications I finally asked for some feedback as to where I'm going wrong, and the response was:

Lack of evidence of full range of administrative experience , lack of evidence of committee work/meeting/minutes. No example  provided of pressure working and meeting deadlines.

When it says 'evidence', are they expecting scenario explanations? The pressure working part is a bit strange as well as I wrote down that I have often worked alongside company directors to deliver projects under high pressure, of which also had specific deadlines.

Is there a specific format or tone that you need to write to achieve NHS shortlisting? Maybe I'm just barking up the wrong tree as I haven't worked as an official admin before.

Brynsam

MrBrindle said:

So after 6 applications I finally asked for some feedback as to where I'm going wrong, and the response was:

Lack of evidence of full range of administrative experience , lack of evidence of committee work/meeting/minutes. No example  provided of pressure working and meeting deadlines.

When it says 'evidence', are they expecting scenario explanations? The pressure working part is a bit strange as well as I wrote down that I have often worked alongside company directors to deliver projects under high pressure, of which also had specific deadlines.

That's really useful feedback. They are expecting hard facts and examples, not a generic statement such as 'used to working under pressure', which is frankly meaningless without specific instances. Keep it as short and succinct as you can, but you need to try and be more precise. 'Meetings' are not the same thing as 'committee meetings'; 'notes' are not 'minutes'. Spell out why you were under pressure - time? budget? pressing deadline? - and the consequences of failing. Take care not to ramble; write your answer and then try to boil it down to the essentials.

You also need to be aware that graphic designers aren't generally engaged for their administrative abilities, so if you are changing direction in your career, say so and say why/how you plan to increase and consolidate your admin skills.

Without wishing to depress you, you are almost certainly going to have to make a lot more than 6 applications. Good luck!

oh_really

Check your pm.

veraclaythorne

I honestly think you need to already work in the NHS to get interviews for these jobs.

My friend, who is an experienced receptionist/admin assistant in a children's centre has applied for multiple similar NHS jobs and has never got an interview. But yet has had other non-NHS interviews. 

I've worked in further education for 18yrs. I managed to secure one fixed term 4hr weekend shift in NHS Admin that was hiring multiple applicants back in December. Since then, I've applied for eight P/T NHS admin jobs, got eight interviews, and been unsuccessful eight times. Two of them this week! The feedback has been both vague and contradictory and made me feel that, in at least a couple of cases, they've already known exactly who they're hiring. 

[Deleted User]

I personally don’t think you need to have worked in the NHS before to get these sorts of jobs. 

I have friends and family that have went straight in after doing A-Levels, after graduating from university or career changer and walked into administration and clerical roles. 

You have to set out in your personal statement how you meet everything on the person specification. 

Use the STAR format. 

veraclaythorne

MarkN88 said:

I personally don’t think you need to have worked in the NHS before to get these sorts of jobs. 

I have friends and family that have went straight in after doing A-Levels, after graduating from university or career changer and walked into administration and clerical roles. 

You have to set out in your personal statement how you meet everything on the person specification. 

Use the STAR format. 

Well, certainly in the trusts I'm applying for it is massively beneficial. TBH, my supporting statement is fairly generic, I don't use specific examples, but I get the interviews no problem. It's getting the jobs that's really difficult as they're going internal. 

Money_Choices

Hello, I hope I can help you as I’ve had interviews for admin posts in the NHS ( in England not Wales, but  it is the same UK wide NHS job searching site).

What I found helpful was to read ‘The guidance for applicants’ information which can be found by scrolling down after the job description and personal specification. They also want you to give relevant specific examples of when you met the criteria in the person specification. I found using the STAR format a good way to give my examples.

The interviews are usually a panel of normally 3 but sometimes 2 people. They will expect specific examples to be given to their interview questions.

Hope this helps

Money Choices

MrBrindle

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I applied for a civil servant job within the plant and animal health agency, and their application format required detailed examples of such things as 'working together', 'changing and improving' and 'delivering at pace'. Is this what is required for NHS applications as well you think?

This is a bit of culture change for me when previously a generic cover letter, CV and portfolio is normally enough when applying.

polgara

You've got to realise that most NHS admin type roles can get up to 100+ applications; the requirement to speak/write Welsh might reduce that somewhat but in this economy a LOT of people are looking for stability so think that the NHS is safer than the private sector.  Given you are changing career you'll really need to stand out and explain why your skills are transferable - you'll be competing with people who have either years of NHS experience or years of comparable admin work or both so you need to give detailed examples of how you meet the person specification - for instance don't just put a list of 'I've experience of working in a pressured environment to tight deadlines, I've experience of equality and diversity' etc.  Also, if there is a requirement for committee meeting minutes its a lot more than just talking notes - in my experience that means that they are part of the formal governance structure of the organisation and are usually published/provided to CQC as part of the regulatory framework.  What banding are you looking at?  Entry level roles tend to be more flexible about experience but PAs to Directors/Chief Executives for instance I'd expect significant level of admin experience.

bexybest

Hi. I am a NHS manager and have recruited to admin roles previously. Hopefully I can help.

My main piece of advice is to go down the job specification and provide specific examples of when you have done that bullet point. Shortlisting is completed on a scoring card where each candidate is scored based on no evidence/some evidence but no example/fully evidenced with example. Try and put it in the order of the job spec so the manager can literally tick down the list as they are shortlisting.

But also for a Band 5 admin role I recently got 100+ applications.. albeit a lot of overseas applications and a lot of completely random/inappropriate, there was also a lot of NHS (not necessary internal to the Trust) and ultimately they score higher as they have experience of the weird beast that is the NHS, along with all it's quirks.

Good luck.

Slinky

My OH was successful recently with getting a civil service position. He took a week filling in the application form and we went over and over it with a fine toothed comb to ensure that all the answers incorporated the important words from within the question.

I would suggest that you take your time when answering, print off the questions and get somebody else to double check that your answers cover everything asked.