I can remember my first day in employment as if it was yesterday. It was a chill but bright November day in 1984. I had to report to the front desk of the HQ at 10.30am. Climbing the steps to the imposing front door was like conquering Everest, such was my teenage pride at entering the world of work.
Have you a similar story to tell?
I’m trying to find out how civil servants felt when they started working for the government. I’d like to know how you were recruited. How did you find out about the job – was it word of mouth, a newspaper article or a website for example?
How did you apply for the job? Did you send an email to request an application form, could you apply online or did you have to phone a department? What was the experience like?
I’m trying to understand the journey you take when you when you first start to work for the civil service.
Feel free to email me using the contact details above or better still, leave comments below.
9 comments ↓
Tom,
I’m not a civil servant any more, but can well remember my first day, 18 June 1984, in the then Department of Employment. I joined as an economist, after almost a year of unemployment (much of it spent doing voluntary work for Cambridge Labour Party!).
Peter Morrison was then an Employment Minister (a great friend of Eric Heffer, in one of the strangest friendships across the political divide). In my first week, I was told I would have to stand in for Peter Morrison, as he could not attend a Ministerial meeting in my policy area. Apparently everyone else in the hierarchy, all the way up to the Permanent Secretary, were also unavailable. Fortunately, our Permanent Secretary returned just in time and I was spared. To this day, I wonder if this way some kind of initiation prank on an innocent new recruit.
Perhaps one day I’ll be ready to spill the beans over my various “first days” with the government and the like. Becoming a casualty when auditioning for an NHS job, drawing the short straw as lifeguard at the nurses’ pool, civil service exams and assessments and tests, local government job sharing at PO level when they said it couldn’t be done. But I’m not ready just yet.
Nice try, Tom – but you’ll have to do a LOT better than that if you want to trick me into admitting that I’m secretly in the pay of Downing Str*…
Bugger.
I applied for my first job and those I didn’t get from adverts in the Sheffield Star. This was 1959. My mum told me to wear all clean clothes and hold my head and speak clearly.
After a few years of being professionally critical of the govt in the ploicy area I worked in, I was pleasantly surprised to see the relevant unit advertising in a trade title relevant to my work. The whole application form rigmarole was alien to me. Every job I had in the private sector had been gained by a good covering letter, a cv and a good interview. I felt I was being made to jump through bureaucratic hoops when being asked about competencies, ethnicity, etc. Can my experiences in my cv not talk for themselves? Any how I was rather combative in the interview – telling them a few home truth. Surprisingly, they were actually looking for someone to be a catalyst and I got the job. Moral- advertise where people are, don’t't just recruit the same types.
Tom,
I had been working for 15 years in the private sector and saw an ad in the Guardian for a role at COI Strategic Consultancy in 2001.
I applied (CV by email, had an initial chat and then formal panel interview and got the job).
I would not have even thought about joining the civil service if the ad had not been in a medium whare I was looking for jobs anyway.
Quite a culture change but really love the people we work with and the issues we deal with.
I would love to be able to describe my first day as a civil servant, but I can’t get a government job, despite being well qualified. The problem is that I am white, and almost all jobs are being allocated to non whites, so that departments can fulfil ‘diversity’ targets. In fact, the situation is so bad I am considering emigrating!
I joined the Civil Service in June 86. Despite having a HND in Computer Studies I had to sit a 3 hour Civil Service exam, and then attend an interview at Alencon House in Basingstoke.
I’ve been in the same Department for 22 years!
The minister paid just like all the others, he had to, because he knew I’d go to the papers if he didn’t. I walked out of that flat with 80 pounds in my hand, more money than I’d ever held, and a sense of shame that can never come off no matter how hard I scrub.
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