Epic Civil Service application procedure - how to cxcel?
Discussion
All my previous employment has been gained through the very 'personal' procedure you get with small private companies - where I can impress with being 'a jolly nice chap' and have been relatively successful.
However - I've just seen something I wish to apply for - Which is a Civil service job.
I have one week to complete the first stage, the online application. My only experience of anything similar was the monstrous forms I filled in regarding becoming a HATO. This job is part of a much, much, much bigger organisation than I have ever worked for, and its a very different application procedure to getting a job in a 10 man Ltd company, where you can just walk straight in, plonk a CV on the desk and wow the MD.
So - What can I do to make myself stand out at these early stages? It is a role that I genuinely think I am a great candidate for. I have the right qualifications, skill sets etc - but so will many more people. While I'm very confident that given the chance to meet someone in Person, I could impress, I first need to beat the very first go/no-go selection stage.
As such the only tools I have at my disposal are the words I write on the various sections of the forms.
Has anyone got any top tips?
Yes, yes, I understand the irony of spelling 'excel' wrong in the title...doh!
However - I've just seen something I wish to apply for - Which is a Civil service job.
I have one week to complete the first stage, the online application. My only experience of anything similar was the monstrous forms I filled in regarding becoming a HATO. This job is part of a much, much, much bigger organisation than I have ever worked for, and its a very different application procedure to getting a job in a 10 man Ltd company, where you can just walk straight in, plonk a CV on the desk and wow the MD.
So - What can I do to make myself stand out at these early stages? It is a role that I genuinely think I am a great candidate for. I have the right qualifications, skill sets etc - but so will many more people. While I'm very confident that given the chance to meet someone in Person, I could impress, I first need to beat the very first go/no-go selection stage.
As such the only tools I have at my disposal are the words I write on the various sections of the forms.
Has anyone got any top tips?
Yes, yes, I understand the irony of spelling 'excel' wrong in the title...doh!
Edited by snotrag on Wednesday 14th April 22:52
I filled out a civil service job application a few weeks ago got to the assessment stage didn’t get the job, but was up against people which had come from higher up jobs who were applying for a lower job some reason.
I had to write a letter according to set criteria in my one, they normally give you a job specification and person specification; I matched it to my experience and explained what I had done that matched what they wanted.
I used there words from job specification and person specification in my examples which got me to that stage.
For example they asked about stakeholder relationships I said the following;
“I was responsible for managing complex stakeholder relationships. It was necessary to negotiate a positive outcome by producing and executing credible and feasible solutions to ensure a project was not dismissed”.
Then went on to explain what I had done.
So I made it clear which section I was implying to, that I had experience in, as it will be HR filtering most of the time, so key words help.
It took me 3 days and some help from a friend before I was happy to send my one.
I had to write a letter according to set criteria in my one, they normally give you a job specification and person specification; I matched it to my experience and explained what I had done that matched what they wanted.
I used there words from job specification and person specification in my examples which got me to that stage.
For example they asked about stakeholder relationships I said the following;
“I was responsible for managing complex stakeholder relationships. It was necessary to negotiate a positive outcome by producing and executing credible and feasible solutions to ensure a project was not dismissed”.
Then went on to explain what I had done.
So I made it clear which section I was implying to, that I had experience in, as it will be HR filtering most of the time, so key words help.
It took me 3 days and some help from a friend before I was happy to send my one.
Edited by Yodafone on Thursday 15th April 10:34
If most of your work has been in small private sector companies, your first question is whether you will want to work in a large public sector organisation.
I'm and IT contrator and i've mainly worked for small (always private sector) companies. I'm now contracting for a county council. It's been a bit of a culture shock to say the least. Every decision is made on the basis of "how can I justify this decision". If they can't make that decision, which they usually can't, it gets bumped to the next level of management. In reality this means that it takes weeks to get even the simplest decision made, and in reality a lot of decisions just never get made.
I've taken to just making decisions and getting on with it, on the basis that by the time anyone makes a decision that there is any fallout, i'll be long gone. If I was looking for a perm career, then I would not want to work in the public sector.
I'm and IT contrator and i've mainly worked for small (always private sector) companies. I'm now contracting for a county council. It's been a bit of a culture shock to say the least. Every decision is made on the basis of "how can I justify this decision". If they can't make that decision, which they usually can't, it gets bumped to the next level of management. In reality this means that it takes weeks to get even the simplest decision made, and in reality a lot of decisions just never get made.
I've taken to just making decisions and getting on with it, on the basis that by the time anyone makes a decision that there is any fallout, i'll be long gone. If I was looking for a perm career, then I would not want to work in the public sector.
My situation is that I'm only 24, a recent graduate. I'm working in a Junior/Graduate type role at the moment. I have good work experience though for someone my age, have always worked, done industrial placements etc etc.
What I'm looking for is structure - currently I have no idea where my career will go with my current employer, nothing is layed out.
I'm old and wise enough to know my own character well - and I know that I will work best with more structure, more planning and more formality. I'm never going to perform if left to wing it, and I'm accepting that that is not a fault in my personality, its just who I am!
What I'm looking for is structure - currently I have no idea where my career will go with my current employer, nothing is layed out.
I'm old and wise enough to know my own character well - and I know that I will work best with more structure, more planning and more formality. I'm never going to perform if left to wing it, and I'm accepting that that is not a fault in my personality, its just who I am!
Just go for, they will have structure is it good structure or not is another question, You won't know until you tried it for your self to see if you like or not.
They will more likely to have jobs worths at the same time, but you can get that in private sector aswell but more likly in civil sector.
What is the job by the way.
They will more likely to have jobs worths at the same time, but you can get that in private sector aswell but more likly in civil sector.
What is the job by the way.
Yodafone said:
I filled out a civil service job application a few weeks ago got to the assessment stage didn’t get the job, but was up against people which had come from higher up jobs who were applying for a lower job some reason.
I had to write a letter according to set criteria in my one, they normally give you a job specification and person specification; I matched it to my experience and explained what I had done that matched what they wanted.
I used there words from job specification and person specification in my examples which got me to that stage.
For example they asked about stakeholder relationships I said the following;
“I was responsible for managing complex stakeholder relationships. It was necessary to negotiate a positive outcome by producing and executing credible and feasible solutions to ensure a project was not dismissed”.
Then went on to explain what I had done.
So I made it clear which section I was implying to, that I had experience in, as it will be HR filtering most of the time, so key words help.
It took me 3 days and some help from a friend before I was happy to send my one.
Great advice. They will be scoring your application against the person spec/job description. So for each part of the person spec, mention how you meet it and try to give an example.I had to write a letter according to set criteria in my one, they normally give you a job specification and person specification; I matched it to my experience and explained what I had done that matched what they wanted.
I used there words from job specification and person specification in my examples which got me to that stage.
For example they asked about stakeholder relationships I said the following;
“I was responsible for managing complex stakeholder relationships. It was necessary to negotiate a positive outcome by producing and executing credible and feasible solutions to ensure a project was not dismissed”.
Then went on to explain what I had done.
So I made it clear which section I was implying to, that I had experience in, as it will be HR filtering most of the time, so key words help.
It took me 3 days and some help from a friend before I was happy to send my one.
Edited by Yodafone on Thursday 15th April 10:34
If your score is high enough (i.e. you match enough lines of the person spec) then you will be invited to an interview.
Best advice I could give, being CS myself, would be to bear in mind how you structure your answers at both the written, and the interview stages. I may be teaching granny to suck eggs, but this is how they teach interview/assessment techniques. Bear in mind:
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Ie:
I was working for Company X in a Project Management role and was assigned to X Project (Situation)
I was given the task of leading the project.................blah blah...............(Task)
This involved creating detailed schedules, with specific anchor milestones.....blah..(Action)
I delivered the project within cost, time and performance ...............blah blah...(Result)
I've seen, internally at least, applications being thrown out for not being structured in the above way. Of course, how stringently they adhere to this depends what area of the CS you're applying for!
Best of Luck!
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Ie:
I was working for Company X in a Project Management role and was assigned to X Project (Situation)
I was given the task of leading the project.................blah blah...............(Task)
This involved creating detailed schedules, with specific anchor milestones.....blah..(Action)
I delivered the project within cost, time and performance ...............blah blah...(Result)
I've seen, internally at least, applications being thrown out for not being structured in the above way. Of course, how stringently they adhere to this depends what area of the CS you're applying for!
Best of Luck!
Thanks guys, submitted it last night.
Of course, as only the first stage of the process theres not much 'freedom' to put your thoughts across, but I did what I could. With a bit of luck I'll pass the go/no-go stage and then I get sent a number of online tests to complete.
Fingers crossed - despite it being a spur of the moment thing, the role does actually really interest me and I'm really hopeful.
Of course, as only the first stage of the process theres not much 'freedom' to put your thoughts across, but I did what I could. With a bit of luck I'll pass the go/no-go stage and then I get sent a number of online tests to complete.
Fingers crossed - despite it being a spur of the moment thing, the role does actually really interest me and I'm really hopeful.
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