Civil service

What is inside

1. 1

   How civil service hiring works

   A process with its own rules, run through one portal, scored to a published framework.

   • Civil Service Jobs, how to search it and how to set alerts that actually fire
   • The grades, AO through to Grade 7, and which ones take people with no experience
   • Success Profiles: behaviours, strengths, experience, ability and technical
   • Nationality rules, the right to work checks and what security clearance involves
   • Why the closing date matters more here than almost anywhere else
2. 2

   Success Profiles and the behaviours

   The framework every application is scored against, in plain English.

   • The nine behaviours and which ones come up most at entry grades
   • Reading a job advert to find the behaviours being tested
   • What the level descriptors mean at your grade, and what assessors are told to look for
   • STAR, and how civil service panels expect it to be structured
3. 3

   Your CV and statement of suitability

   The personal statement is usually what decides whether you get sat down in front of anyone.

   • Writing to a 250 or 750 word limit without padding
   • Mapping each paragraph to something in the advert
   • What counts as evidence when your experience is school, university or a part time job
   • The CV format the portal expects, and what to leave out
4. 4

   Writing behaviour statements

   The part most people lose marks on, taken one statement at a time.

   • A worked example, before and after, with the score reasoning
   • One strong example beaten into shape rather than four weak ones
   • Writing about a team effort without hiding your own part in it
   • Reusing evidence across behaviours without repeating yourself
5. 5

   The online tests

   Sat early, sat under time pressure, and the reason most applications end.

   • The Civil Service Judgement Test and what it is really measuring
   • Verbal and numerical reasoning, and the practice that actually moves your score
   • The Work Strengths Test and why you should not try to game it
   • Taking them at home: timing, breaks and what to do if something goes wrong
6. 6

   Video and panel interviews

   Scored question by question, against the same behaviours you wrote about.

   • Behaviour questions, strength questions, and telling them apart in the moment
   • Answering a strength question when you cannot prepare an example
   • Keeping an answer inside the time without racing
   • Questions worth asking a civil service panel at the end
7. 7

   Assessment centres and the Fast Stream

   The longer route, and what the extra stages are for.

   • How the Fast Stream differs from applying to a department directly
   • Group exercises, written exercises and the in-tray style tasks
   • What assessors write down, and what they are told to ignore
   • Preparing for a case study when you have never seen policy work before
8. 8

   After you apply

   Feedback here is more useful than almost any private employer gives you.

   • Reading your scores and working out where you actually lost marks
   • Reserve lists, how long they last and how to stay on one usefully
   • Applying again to the same department without repeating the same application
   • Keeping a record so the next application takes a third of the time