Positive Application

I had two interviews last week; I was successful with the one (yippee!) but have to wait until the end of this week to find out about the other. 

​SO – I have been offered the role of VERY part-time Clerk to the Governors at a small primary school in a village in the middle-of-nowhere called Temple Guiting.  Have a look at https://www.templeguiting.gloucs.sch.uk/ - it is a beautiful place, with only 94 children, 5 teachers and 7 teaching-assistants.  It certainly won’t pay the bills but will be interesting and good experience.

Other job-related things can be rather dispiriting; for example, I spent about two hours on an application last week, sent it off and then the next day received a message saying ‘sorry but that role has been retracted…and we will update our website to reflect this’.  Hmmmm… NOT impressed as that is a WASTE OF MY TIME. Argh!!

I also did one for the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) yesterday, and it was enough to drive one MAD what with navigating all the civil service spiel and buzz-words.   For example, job vacancies have application process packs highlighting such HR models as STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or WHO (What, How, Outcome).  Then of course not only do you have to match the experience criteria on the job description but also provide evidence against Civil Service Ability, Behaviours and Success Profiles Overview. The Behaviours document is 21 pages long (admittedly it is split into different pay-grade expectations).  And as if it couldn’t get worse, I submitted the completed application form, to be immediately informed that I was required to "now complete a Situational Judgement Test", which would only take 40 minutes (it took 20). 
​

Civil Service job applicants are also given Top Tips as follows:

• Think about what you have done
• Assemble evidence and match it up
• Take your time [but you need to be mindful of closing dates to ensure you submit your application before the deadline]
• Write your first draft of answer [write down your behaviour example(s) before adding them to the application form, you may want to bullet point the key messages]
• Read it
• Keep within the word count
• Make sure you correct any spelling, punctuation or grammar issues
• Finalise your [refer back to the job description in the advert and in the behavioural indicators to ensure your evidence is relevant to the role]

 
REALLY?!  As you can imagine, it nearly drove me to open the bottle of wine in the fridge … and it was only 10.00am!!!