Civil Service application - tips 9 April 2022 at 9:58AM in Employment, jobseeking & training 5 replies 212 views

Ivrytwr3

Morning all,

Wifey is considering applying for a Civil Service post. Are there are tips or guides etc available?

It will be the first time she has applied for CS post and we understand there are some best ways to go through the application process.

Thanks.

DiseasedBunny

Don’t do it? The pay is diabolical, and the pension is not as good as it used to be…

Archie_Duke

What kind of ways do you mean?
I’ve applied (partly unsuccessfully) a couple of times in the last year. I’m not sure how much influence it’s possible to have on the process, as everything is completed through the painful CS jobs portal which requires particular steps, or specific tests, depending on the role in order to get through to interview. I did pass all the tests required for the roles I was applying for, on one I got through to interview and was offered the position the other one at a higher grade I didn’t get past selection for interview. For background I was previously an OF3 in the forces and the posts I was applying for were AO in the MCSA & MoD.

Emmia

Read the sucess profiles documents that will be linked to in the advert. 

Write examples using the SOAR, or STAR method. Think about the "How" and "What" the applicant "did"

Don't in response to a question like "how have you managed a sucessful project" put in answers like "I am a great/excellent/fantastic project manager". (That's it. Had a few of those lately)

Also, please don't just copy/paste the text from the sucess profile (had those too).

All applications are read by people (not machines) so a random string of buzzwords won't score well either (yes, another recent bunch of applications). 

I'm doing recruitment, and many of the applications I read are really poor, with basic spelling errors, dodgy (obvious) copy/paste, and examples that bear no relation to the listed employment history...

Pension is ok, payrises are basically non-existent (not even cost of living)... But I think its a great job.

hyubh

DiseasedBunny said:

Don’t do it? The pay is diabolical, and the pension is not as good as it used to be…

The pension is absurdly generous by private sector standards and can be better for some staff than in times past... (Not that the pension, in itself, should be the reason to go for any particular job.)

antonic

Ivrytwr3 said:

Morning all,

Wifey is considering applying for a Civil Service post. Are there are tips or guides etc available?

It will be the first time she has applied for CS post and we understand there are some best ways to go through the application process.

Thanks.

Make sure that when she writes her examples matched to Success Profiles https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles
That she uses the STAR principle 
S(ituation)
T(ask)
A(ction)
R(esult) when giving her examples -normally its 250 words for each example.

That she uses the word I a lot and that there is something measurable as a result (for example last job I had an interview for I said in my application that my actions saved £x).

As others have said pay isnt great but its a better pension than a private one.

Hope this helps