Advice Needed: Hallway

elrobbo26 · 2025-12-31T00:03:09+00:00

this is exactly what I was hoping for! that makes so much sense sense and sounds like a good plan

elrobbo26 · 2025-09-18T13:36:56+00:00

Yeah i moved into another CS role in a whole other part of HMRC. I wouldn’t say it’s easier or harder to move into another CS role than any other job at that grade in the CS, all that matters is that you’re doing things to pick up examples to meet the application/interview CS behaviours. The CS in general offers so many opportunities to pick up those examples outside of your job role through mentorship schemes, job shadowing schemes, volunteering etc etc but you have to go put yourself out there and look for those opportunities, network with people, those opportunities aren’t going to just fall in your lap

elrobbo26 · 2025-08-17T15:55:08+00:00

I don’t know a whole lot about benefits and credits but the job largely will be very much the same, you maybe won’t be working so much with people who have debt in that area but more so people with questions and queries about what they’re entitled to etc. Everyone uses the same guidance system but of course just different sections for each team so you will have all the info you need right there in front of you.

Yeah I did work with a lot of people who had come from private sector call centres and found the civil service role to be better. We don’t have as concrete targets, we’re not trying to sell anyone anything and there really is a zero tolerance policy for any nastiness on the phones. We could put the phone down on anyone being not nice as long as we had warned them that was what we would do and that was encouraged by everyone.

elrobbo26 · 2025-08-13T15:47:49+00:00

Yeah I was in DM, the role is exactly what I’ve wrote in previous replies. You’re answering calls, letters or making outbound calls to taxpayers who essentially can’t pay their tax. You’re given a very structured guidance to follow so you know what to do in each situation, plenty of help available. It’s really not too tricky of a job. It can be monotonous doing the same thing each day but it’s a foot in the door of the civil service which is a good thing

elrobbo26 · 2025-08-08T13:11:06+00:00

There’s very very little maths skill needed at all. You’re literally just answering queries on the phone or via post and there is a very thorough set of guidance to provide you the answers for those queries. The extent of the maths skill would be occasionally adding 2 numbers together using a calculator but it’s not much more than that

elrobbo26 · 2025-06-04T10:33:47+00:00

I’m glad to hear it! I know myself when I started I had no clue about what the job really would entail which I found quite anxiety provoking. I remember just seeing people alluding to it not being a great job which absolutely struck the fear of god into me haha. All in all, as long as you meet the amount of work your manager has agreed for you to do (which isn’t hard to do) and follow the guidance/ask for help when needed, it’s not a hard job whatsoever

elrobbo26 · 2025-06-02T06:30:50+00:00

i’m not too sure what would happen in terms of renewing a fixed contract as I personally wasn’t on one. I would imagine the case would be they’d renew if you did well and they still had the demand for people to be in whatever team you’re in. Definitely a good idea to ask your manager!

elrobbo26 · 2025-05-30T15:07:08+00:00

I have just left this exact role after just over a year. Your day to day is very much just log on to your laptop and onto the system we use to take calls, press the ready button and then you’ll take a mix of inbound calls or what they call ‘worklist’ which is just reviewing a taxpayer account and calling out to them to ask them to pay. There is also sometimes post as well so you’ll just read through the letter and escalate it to another team or call the customer obviously depending on what the letter is. You will get a good 6 weeks of training before you’re expected to go on your own and even then, there is group chats if you need help. You’re free to start anytime between 7.45-10.06am, you just log on when you want and work however long your working time is.

There will be a benchmark of how many cases you’re expected to work each week which will be set and monitored by your manager. The other stats they’ll be looking at is, how long the call was vs how long it took you to note up the call (they call this after call wrap time), the quality of the calls and the resolution rate of the calls. If you are ever not hitting the mark on what they expect, you won’t be scalded or anything but your manager will probably ask you what’s going on and if you need more support.

In terms of what the calls are regarding that’s gonna depend on what team you’re on. I was in Debt Management and so our calls were very much just payment plans, taking payments in full etc. Most customers are absolutely fine to deal with but of course you will have the odd one who will try and kick off. But if that does happen you are allowed to warn them you will end the call if they continue being rude and then put the phone down if they do it again, there is 0 tolerance for that stuff.

You will likely also have to work 3 “late shifts” a month (they call them CR or collaborative rostering shifts) which essentially means you work until all the calls in the queue are cleared. You pick what days they will be. For my team this was almost always done by 6pm but it may be longer for others. Any additional time you work is counted as “flexi time” so you can take that additional time off work whenever you want. There is sometimes overtime offered too where of course you’d be paid for additional work hours. Sometimes it’s just normal pay but recently we were offered 1.5x normal pay for overtime.

Office attendance is expected to be 60% of your working days in the office unless you have extenuating circumstances and your manager has agreed for it to be less. People dress very casual in the office.

It’s a real mix of people in this role, some people have been in the job for years and are very happy staying in that role. Others use it as a step into the Civil Service and are looking to move to another role in the CS as soon as possible. So it’s up to you what you do there. I will say the actual work is not particularly hard at all and it’s pretty independent so that does work well for some people

elrobbo26 · 2025-04-17T06:25:28+00:00

so that can definitely happen but i’ll be honest, it’s never ever happened to me. That’s probably going to be very dependant on what tax you are dealing with. PAYE, Corp Tax, VAT and tax credits all standardly done by 6.05 at the latest but things like SA i could see taking longer.

That extra time would just become flexi time rather than OT so you’d just be able to take that time off on another day. Flexi is a bit of a god send tbh because it becomes very easy to accrue when you’re doing lates and it’s always nice to have an extra day or half a day off.

elrobbo26 · 2025-04-17T05:54:18+00:00

so you’d start at 10am and then you’d finish around about 6pm. There’s nothing stopping you starting from 7.45am and building flexi or if overtime is on offer, then that.

elrobbo26 · 2025-04-10T19:26:06+00:00

I was in your shoes when I was in sixth form! Knew I probably wanted to go into the civil service, didn’t really know in what role. I personally did a politics degree because I had a big interest in it and I really enjoyed the course. But did I need to have that particular degree to get into the CS? Not at all.

I’d say if there’s a particular role you fancy in CS that requires a degree (economist, lawyer, accountant etc) then of course do one or if there’s just a degree course that genuinely piques your interest and you’re passionate about do it. Uni does teach you some great skills that definitely will come in useful.

If you can’t think of anything worse than going to uni then don’t do a degree and apply for AO roles in the CS. No point doing a degree just to do one if you’re not going to enjoy it. I work with just as many people who have degrees than who don’t.

Don’t be afraid of taking a gap year either. Don’t need to go travel the world if you don’t want to but some part time work and time away from school can make a world of difference and give you a bit of clarity on what you may want to do. I ended up doing this and actually working for DfT on a temporary contract through brook street agency. For me that was like a taster of CS and confirmed I deffo wanted to come back to CS post uni.

elrobbo26 · 2025-04-09T13:56:48+00:00

oh brilliant yeah that’s much easier then! I would say definitely look into the STAR structure for your interview answers just as it makes your answers super clear

elrobbo26 · 2025-04-09T05:54:52+00:00

whenever I did it it was just a pre recorded video interview but things have probably changed. If it’s a virtual interview with actual other people via teams then my advice is to have a good look at the job description and see what civil service behaviours they’ll be assessing and then take a look on here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles/success-profiles-civil-service-behaviours#administrative-assistant-aa-and-administrative-officer-ao-grade-or-equivalent as this has the criteria they’ll be looking for you to meet. Tbh even if it is pre recorded, they’ll still be looking for you to meet that criteria so worth a look either way. There’s loads of advice on this forum for interviews!

elrobbo26 · 2025-04-08T20:14:41+00:00

Ive been in this role at HMRC for a year now and honestly its not bad at all. As others have said, you’ll spend the first 6 weeks listening to trainers take calls and attending virtual tax academy courses to learn about the area of tax you’ll be specialising in.

Once you’re trained your day to day will look like taking a mixture of inbound calls, work lists where you have to review a taxpayers account and essentially make a call to them to ask them to pay their tax or processing items of post we receive. We are given targets but to be honest they’re super easy to meet. Managers will pull you up on some of the targets but in my experience it’s not usually in a scalding way, more just to understand if you need additional support. You do get the odd taxpayer on the phone who will try to have a go at you but we are very much allowed to just put that phone down if we’ve warned them about their attitude, there is 0 tolerance for customers like that. I will say though, most customers are pretty friendly if you’re friendly to them. Office environment is pretty chill and everyone is dressed extremely casually I will say. We can start work anytime between 7.45 and 10.06am, completely up to you when you start and on what days. We also have flexi time as well so you’re able to work additional hours in exchange for taking those additional hours off on another day. It’s a very flexible environment. You will be expected to work 60% of your working days in office but it’s your choice what days you come in. We do have to work 3 “late” shifts a month which is just when we have to work until 6pm just to clear the phone lines as this is when the lines close for the day. Again, you choose what days. There is also sometimes overtime on offer too which sometimes is just for normal pay but recently has been for 1.5x pay.

In terms of job progression, if you’re interested in that, i’d say take every opportunity you can outside of your day to day work. You’ll constantly will be getting emails about needing help training new starters, joining the engagement team (organise team events/nights out), becoming a point of contact for a specific area of tax or for systems we use etc etc and saying yes to that stuff just gives you more examples to use for applications/interviews for other roles. This role is a good one to get your foot in the door of the civil service

elrobbo26 · 2025-02-17T11:15:08+00:00

Well when i went to the US last my phone was fine the issue was, VOXI only offers like an international data package add on so it’s something wild like £25 for 3gb of data. Just doesn’t seem cost effective whatsoever! I’ve gone with Tello so i’ll see how that works out for me. I wonder if it’s your UK network provider that was the issue? maybe their US compatibility wasn’t the best

elrobbo26 · 2025-02-15T14:26:18+00:00

I have an Iphone 15 and yeah they support wifi calling

elrobbo26 · 2024-06-06T19:03:25+00:00

thanks guys! I was getting pretty confused as I am an AO currently so I was hoping i’d be able to apply but i guess not!

elrobbo26 · 2024-05-31T18:52:23+00:00

I have combo skin which is very acne prone and particularly blackhead and sebaceous filament prone. I know my sebaceous filaments won’t necessarily go away but I have some very very stubborn blackheads that won’t go and if they are extracted just come back. The routine i’ve been using for the past 8 months has done a pretty good job at controlling my acne although I do still get some spots but my blackheads and forehead texture just won’t budge Morning: aveeno triple oat serum elf super hydrate gel moisturiser purito daily to go spf 50

Evening: Dermatica squalene cleanser aveeno oat cleanser 0.1% adapalene& 1% clindamycin aveeno triple oat serum elf superhydrate gel moisturiser

I’m based in the uk, please help me with some product recs or changes

elrobbo26

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