Who works for a local authority?
Discussion
After losing my job in the private sector last month I have been casting a wide net for potential positions. I find myself fed up and bored with the problems of working for SME business and the impact a bad quarter can have, whilst the Directors continue to reap all the reward (I know this is how it works but I am in bad mood!).
This morning I received an invitation for interview with the local authority in a fairly commercial position matching my skills. The spec and documents I have look excellent, and although it would mean a cut in pay, around 10%, I am very interested. However, coming from a purely commercial background and having a large degree of autonomy, will I find the public sector to constraining and admin driven?
We all know the problems this country is experiencing at the moment and I am looking for some of the security which comes form working within this sector. My GF works for them also and I joke about her colleagues and their working conditions, demands, pathetic excuses for time off and the almost diplomatic immunity all staff appear to have. At the moment it seems very appealing.
I am a person who has always looked at instant gratification over the long-term route. This is why I ended up in sales. I have made good money and enjoyed the experience but now I want some structure and prospects of progressing, rather than just getting better at a role and making more money.
Anyone here done/doing a similar thing and are your thoughts?
This morning I received an invitation for interview with the local authority in a fairly commercial position matching my skills. The spec and documents I have look excellent, and although it would mean a cut in pay, around 10%, I am very interested. However, coming from a purely commercial background and having a large degree of autonomy, will I find the public sector to constraining and admin driven?
We all know the problems this country is experiencing at the moment and I am looking for some of the security which comes form working within this sector. My GF works for them also and I joke about her colleagues and their working conditions, demands, pathetic excuses for time off and the almost diplomatic immunity all staff appear to have. At the moment it seems very appealing.
I am a person who has always looked at instant gratification over the long-term route. This is why I ended up in sales. I have made good money and enjoyed the experience but now I want some structure and prospects of progressing, rather than just getting better at a role and making more money.
Anyone here done/doing a similar thing and are your thoughts?
lingus75 said:
I find myself fed up and bored with the problems of working for SME business and the impact a bad quarter can have, whilst the Directors continue to reap all the reward (I know this is how it works but I am in bad mood!).
Reap all the reward........yeah right.What about foregoing your salary and having sleepless nights in order to stave off having to make people redundant.
directors are the ones who take the risk in the first place, are they not allowed to see some benefit of that risk?
sounds like you will fit in well in the public sector.
trumpet600 said:
lingus75 said:
I find myself fed up and bored with the problems of working for SME business and the impact a bad quarter can have, whilst the Directors continue to reap all the reward (I know this is how it works but I am in bad mood!).
Reap all the reward........yeah right.What about foregoing your salary and having sleepless nights in order to stave off having to make people redundant.
directors are the ones who take the risk in the first place, are they not allowed to see some benefit of that risk?
sounds like you will fit in well in the public sector.
Edited by lingus75 on Saturday 29th November 12:41
lingus75 said:
We all know the problems this country is experiencing at the moment and I am looking for some of the security which comes form working within this sector.
Isn't some massive percentage (75%?) of the jobs 'created' in this country over the last few years in the public sector? I think arguably there is a lot of 'dead wood' in local government (wheelie bin inspectors and lesbian arts coordinators) and when the crunch really comes there will a lot of losses in this arena.claypigeon60 said:
lingus75 said:
We all know the problems this country is experiencing at the moment and I am looking for some of the security which comes form working within this sector.
Isn't some massive percentage (75%?) of the jobs 'created' in this country over the last few years in the public sector? I think arguably there is a lot of 'dead wood' in local government (wheelie bin inspectors and lesbian arts coordinators) and when the crunch really comes there will a lot of losses in this arena.Who's paying for them & with what?
Worked for a local authority for 3 years. What job is it - is it to do with income generation? If so you'll be fine. Generally you'll be fine and you won't have too many constraints to work under. At this moment in time the public sector does sem to be more secure although I guess it depends on the targets (if any) that you'll be set. The only thing to note is that most public sector jobs have probationary periods which tend to be 6 months or so. Good luck and feel free to email if I can be of any help in terms of going through how it all works etc etc
[quote=JazD]Worked for a local authority for 3 years. What job is it - is it to do with income generation? quote]
It is income generation and commercial contracts, that’s why my skills fit. 10p, I already have the 15 page forms but I wasn't aware its points based? Is it the case that any success or achievements should be left out and a person should just answer with purely competency based replies?
It is income generation and commercial contracts, that’s why my skills fit. 10p, I already have the 15 page forms but I wasn't aware its points based? Is it the case that any success or achievements should be left out and a person should just answer with purely competency based replies?
I do 
It was a random choice as jobs in my area came down to minimum wage bar/tourist type work or an LA. I have done it for 2.5 years and came from the private sector in London,so it was a bit of a shock. Yes, it's true there are loads of jobsworth-b
k-scratching-shysters here, lots of pointless red tape and everything is frustratingly slow and bureaucratic. The upside is it has allowed me lots of sideways and upwards choices, they DO recognise you if you are not an aforementioned shyster and I have increased my salary by over £11k in those 2.5 yrs as well as received lots of training & opportunities. I am about to take up a great role in Jan and my aim is to keep plugging and one day re-sell myself back to an LA as one of their overpaid consultants
The field you mention is increasingly popular and there is a slow movement now in the public sector to be a bit more 'business like', driven by their ever increasing needs to make efficiency savings.
This is my 6th different role since I started, so if you have any questions about applications or interviews I'll happily try & answer them
It was a random choice as jobs in my area came down to minimum wage bar/tourist type work or an LA. I have done it for 2.5 years and came from the private sector in London,so it was a bit of a shock. Yes, it's true there are loads of jobsworth-bk-scratching-shysters here, lots of pointless red tape and everything is frustratingly slow and bureaucratic. The upside is it has allowed me lots of sideways and upwards choices, they DO recognise you if you are not an aforementioned shyster and I have increased my salary by over £11k in those 2.5 yrs as well as received lots of training & opportunities. I am about to take up a great role in Jan and my aim is to keep plugging and one day re-sell myself back to an LA as one of their overpaid consultants The field you mention is increasingly popular and there is a slow movement now in the public sector to be a bit more 'business like', driven by their ever increasing needs to make efficiency savings.
This is my 6th different role since I started, so if you have any questions about applications or interviews I'll happily try & answer them
lingus75 said:
blueyes said:
LA?
No testicles and a hatred of tea or coffee will be an advantage.
Well, I dont like tea or coffee anyway. No testicles? I am confused as to why this would be hurdle during the interview process.No testicles and a hatred of tea or coffee will be an advantage.
wait for it....
........in an LA... the spend the first 2 hours of the day doing feck all apart from drinking tea and scratching their balls.
Boom-tish!
Edited by blueyes on Saturday 29th November 13:44
lingus75 said:
blueyes said:
LA?
No testicles and a hatred of tea or coffee will be an advantage.
Well, I dont like tea or coffee anyway. No testicles? I am confused as to why this would be hurdle during the interview process.No testicles and a hatred of tea or coffee will be an advantage.
I have never got a job with an application form. They are one of my greatest pet hates. The CV and covering letter is an internationally-recognised way of applying for a job and to deliberately direct and extract information that has no bearing on how well you can do they job is a form of lazy discrimination on behalf of public-sector HR departments.
The most effective way of ensuring a well-balanced workforce is to remove all identifying factors from the mix altogether, even replace names with code numbers until decisions about interviewees are made.
I enjoy working in Local Government - yes I get paid less than my private sector equivalents but the generous leave and flexi-time allowances make up for it to me. There is more job security, although this is far from cast iron as budget pressures are huge (especially in planning and housing where income from planning applications has, of course, disappeared in recent months!), and there are consultancies in a lot of Councils at the moment helping them restructure and 'outsource' to save cash.
I have experience...
1) The dept I know of had 70 staff and only 1 of them was non white and there were no people with physical disabilities - so the notion of diversity gone mad is either a myth or just didn't exist in that dept.
2)I've also worked at 2 massive companies (private) and they had their fair number of layabouts that the public sector often gets criticised for on here.
3) I foudn the working atmosphere to be much better/nicer than a private sector company
4) Things are slow!! applications process and things like ordering/buying stuff - because they have so many procedures etc
5) The same dept in another authority had recently had some redundancies which apparently was unheard of in that line of work for the past 30 years - so not everyone is safe I imagine.
TBH I never really made the distinction between private/public as the job I wnated just happened to be a public sector one - I say go for it if you can take the salary cut.
1) The dept I know of had 70 staff and only 1 of them was non white and there were no people with physical disabilities - so the notion of diversity gone mad is either a myth or just didn't exist in that dept.
2)I've also worked at 2 massive companies (private) and they had their fair number of layabouts that the public sector often gets criticised for on here.
3) I foudn the working atmosphere to be much better/nicer than a private sector company
4) Things are slow!! applications process and things like ordering/buying stuff - because they have so many procedures etc
5) The same dept in another authority had recently had some redundancies which apparently was unheard of in that line of work for the past 30 years - so not everyone is safe I imagine.
TBH I never really made the distinction between private/public as the job I wnated just happened to be a public sector one - I say go for it if you can take the salary cut.
Edited by mouk786 on Saturday 29th November 19:28
lingus75 said:
This morning I received an invitation for interview with the local authority in a fairly commercial position matching my skills. The spec and documents I have look excellent, and although it would mean a cut in pay, around 10%,
I don't want to sound harsh but if you're out of work now then how can you experience a "cut in pay" unless benefits are greater than we think they are...?Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff