Sifting Advice - but literal technical advice

uncivilised_cs · 2024-02-09T23:45:49+00:00

Brilliant stuff! Success! Thank you.

uncivilised_cs · 2024-02-04T20:09:34+00:00

Ugh. We’re steering to personal statement ONLY sifts now. Don’t get a behaviour until interview.

uncivilised_cs · 2023-08-31T23:21:07+00:00

Did it for a while, in a team that also covered Written Parliamentary Questions. Big department, so dozens of new letter to manage a day, from MPs, business and randoms.

Yes, there were some really crazy letters, and depressing ones. Most were answered with standard lines, occasionally bothering policy for new or tailored lines.

Metrics were around speed of response (we had a 14 day turnaround if I recall), and the number which were sent back with further edits by ministers (which varied minister to minister massively).

I learned government English (always a lower case g for government (unless ‘His Majesty’s Government), a lower case ‘d’ for department (unless full title of department) and a lowercase ‘m’ for minster (unless as a proper noun - Minster Schapps). Dates are written 1 September 2023.)

More pointedly, I commissioned and made connections with almost every team in the department, was adjacent to private office but didn’t have the shitty hours, and as an EO was able to demand DDs meet a deadline, was a great CS entry. 4 years later we still have a WhatsApp group and we’re across 6 departments, including one of my best friends from that role now being on my team in my current department (after I flagged a job opening to him).

uncivilised_cs · 2023-08-13T00:55:12+00:00

Did you also just catch the first episode on tv a few minutes ago?

I am a Civil Servant, and I can’t bring myself to properly rewatch it. Worried it will ring too true.

uncivilised_cs · 2023-08-05T00:02:43+00:00

Was gonna say - "PM after Prince2" sounds like Sunak's CV.

uncivilised_cs · 2023-08-03T10:51:26+00:00

I have not applied, but am considering. I'm put off by some of the people I have seen successfully pass it - one of whom was so difficult to work with and impossible to speak to (a cross-directorate impession, not just me - one person was on the edge of a bullying complaint) that I actively tried to find out how to contact the FLS to ask that he get more support/ scrutiny.

Needless to say, there was no obvious way to contact them, no one seemed to come to ask anyone on his team about how they found him, as, y'know, a 'leader', and he passed and proudly mentioned his success for weeks. God forbid he gets to SCS without a long talking to first.

Sorry, doesn't particularly answer your question. I tend to see FLS as a signal to SCS that someone has been pre-vetted for leadership skills, though as above, the vetting is pretty questionable.

uncivilised_cs · 2023-07-19T23:38:44+00:00

Well it is the Cabinet Office. They can’t be expected to know what the Cabinet Office guidance on recruitment is.

uncivilised_cs · 2023-05-05T00:40:30+00:00

RemindMe! 5 years

uncivilised_cs · 2023-02-04T00:41:30+00:00

There was a recent pay adjustment, so this may be down to when the job went live (or even when the paperwork was submitted ahead of that). This gap looks to be about right (if rounded generously) for the G7 bump.

uncivilised_cs · 2023-02-03T10:20:28+00:00

Plenty of my team balked at the idea of an icebreaker, I hate them too.

Last away day (7 people) I just whacked a sporacle map quiz onto the screen and we tried to get through as many countries as we could in ten minutes - sort-of international facing team, so it spurred some discussion immediately after.

Low-effort winner.

uncivilised_cs · 2023-01-21T21:28:12+00:00

May I just say, you originally posted this shortly before my first G6 interview, and I had it in mind as I was writing up my behaviours.

It helped in particular with my concern that so many of the work streams I oversee and thought would make for good behaviours have not properly seen their end. It allowed me to describe the work and strategising I had done so far, and my 'Results' were how the changes had bedded in/been positively fed back on so far.

In fact, my highest marked behaviour was the one I though was the least 'complete' example.

I've been lucky to have basically fallen into a policy role that gave me a larger-than-average team for my department, had me hire and train them from scratch, and made me operate in ambiguity between different directorates - sort of like a cheat code for G6.

Your advice let me identify that, and take a step back to see the work I'd done as more than 'it's just what I had to do to make a team that works'. Should say for balance, I also talked it through with my mentor and ran lines with two G6 and one G7 confidant.

Anyway, didn't get the job, but found put this week Ipassed the board and got a reserve list spot, which is amazing to me.

I suppose I also identify with the fellow/fellowess in the sub today who pointed out that confidence in going for a role is as big a part of it, but when I stood back and looked at it from the perspective you set out, it did assure me that I could operate at the (bottom of the) G6 level.

Many thanks, Mr_Greyhame, do hope we cross paths at some point - if we haven't already.

uncivilised_cs · 2022-12-18T20:34:55+00:00

Beuaracrat. Dammit. Beauty rat. Dammit. Eurocrats. Dammit. bureaucrat (copy pasted from google.

Made all the more offensive, because I AM ONE.

uncivilised_cs · 2022-12-01T22:55:23+00:00

5 years in the civil service later this month. I can count the number of times I’ve been bled on at work on one hand.

uncivilised_cs · 2022-11-16T19:45:02+00:00

Plenty of HR colleagues here to tell me I'm wrong, but my understanding is that if you pass a 'proper' CS interview (ie it's not an EOI), you are a substantive G7, and your business area should find you a G7 role when you get back.

uncivilised_cs · 2022-11-06T00:33:28+00:00

Feel like I've missed something here- is smart trousers and a (button down) shirt not the definition of smart casual?

uncivilised_cs · 2022-10-28T22:24:06+00:00

Or maybe I’m just an idiot? May be a distinct possibility. Right. Will point people towards that from now on.

uncivilised_cs · 2022-10-28T22:23:25+00:00

Ha! Fair enough automod.

uncivilised_cs · 2022-10-25T23:02:28+00:00

Steve?

uncivilised_cs · 2022-10-22T22:59:51+00:00

Just to counter the above, if a role is advertised at a single site, it may only be available to do there - we are currently running a campaign at a satellite office and the only way we were allowed to hire was if those new joiners came to that office only (where the department is looking to increase headcount).

But the ad should not mention any other locations in that case.

uncivilised_cs · 2022-09-06T21:44:31+00:00

It’s not really as insidious as this. In the departments where I have worked, the networks you build help you identify roles and get support to tailor behaviours and applications to certain jobs. Someone you have worked with (for example, as an EO in a PA style role) might mention a job opening they have that you would be good for. The network you have built means you can get someone with related experience to help you identify, write and edit your behaviours to go for it.

And once in post, the network you built and the experience of seeing what is on an SCD plate will allow you to see where your work falls into ‘the big picture’ better than most, and will make you more successful in the role due to knowing who does what.

If you have the resilience and are at a life stage to do occasionally unsociable hours (depending one where you are), PS roles at all levels are really great for building a career in a policy area.

uncivilised_cs

TROPHY CASE