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HMRC Graduate Tax Specialist Programme 2016

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Does anyone know which locations are popular? I live in Bristol and am very keen to stay here, is Bristol popular?
Just for information, my health form was attached.

I'm also wondering if something different was said at other assessment centres and that's why people aren't sure if we'll be offered our chosen locations? At mine they were pretty clear that we'd only be offered from locations we'd chosen and therefore to be as open as possible but also make sure we didn't put anywhere down that we wouldn't realistically want to move to. They also made it seem like location would be taken into account prior to offers being given, one boy was only going to put central London, and he was told that as it is very popular that made his chances of getting an offer low and he should therefore think about putting other less popular locations down. From last year's thread it seems everyone was offered a location they had put down as a choice as well. Also it says in the successful email: 'We do everything we can to offer you your first choice location, but some locations may be oversubscribed.' So if you've put more than one they're not guaranteeing first choice but there's nothing about choices in general.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by tarnall
Does anyone know which locations are popular? I live in Bristol and am very keen to stay here, is Bristol popular?


I asked to stay in bristol, it's the only location I put down and quite a few people here have mentioned it.
I've not had any additional emails after the offer. Is everyone external or are internal candidates getting these emails too?
Reply 1264
Original post by smallone
I've not had any additional emails after the offer. Is everyone external or are internal candidates getting these emails too?


Have you filled in the next stage part on the portal. I believe each one is sent out after you complete them. As soon as I did that I received DBS email then after completing that I received this health one with no attachment.
Original post by smallone
I've not had any additional emails after the offer. Is everyone external or are internal candidates getting these emails too?


I am internal and have not had them. If you log into the CSR JOb portal there's a 'next stage' link you can click and I think that will prompt the emails, the link doesn't work for me though.
Ah the link doesn't work for me either. Do you think we won't have to do them as we did them before?
Original post by smallone
Ah the link doesn't work for me either. Do you think we won't have to do them as we did them before?


I hope so!
The link also doesn't work for me. I'm currently just finishing off the 2014 BDDP so hopefully the link is not meant to work. It'd be nice if we knew though!
Reply 1269
Hi everyone, just filling in the health form (seem to be the only one here that received the attachment?!) - where do we find our "candidate reference number"? I don't recall ever being given one and have looked all over the portal!
Original post by ecjb
Hi everyone, just filling in the health form (seem to be the only one here that received the attachment?!) - where do we find our "candidate reference number"? I don't recall ever being given one and have looked all over the portal!


I've seen on last years thread that they fill that in for you! But not sure..
Reply 1271
Original post by tarnall
I've seen on last years thread that they fill that in for you! But not sure..


Thanks for the reply :smile:
I just put "Not Provided" - they can figure it out!
Hey all

Just signed up to this forum after reading a few of the posts, I also received a provisional offer today. To add my voice to a few of the questions raised.....

1. Bristol does seem popular judging by what people have put.... I also have it as one of my two preferences
2. There was no attachment for me in the health declaration email but I'm sure I've already done it??
3. At the assessment centre it was pretty clear.......you score well = you get an offer. Nothing was mentioned about only giving offers to those based on location preference + score. We are at the mercy of the scoring system now..
4. I am fortunate enough for this to be my first an only graduate job application, having said that I am about to turn 30 and have spent the last 10 years working in a fairly good job. To those who were unsuccessful I would echo what others have done and be persistent. I would also suggest not dwelling and seeking employment elsewhere. I cannot help but feel my performance at the test stages and assessment centre was solely shaped by the skills i have developed during employment. I never did a single practice test and I'm not academically gifted...i am a C grade student!!
Losing hope for hearing locations today!
Just chiming in to say I too was successful!

I put down Birmingham and Nottingham and would be happy with either (but seriously I'd much rather get Birmingham).

I didn't receive an attachment on the health form email either.

I thought that 3 of the tasks went well and the 4th (the role play) was atrocious - I finished 10 or 15 minutes before the deadline. I know it doesn't really matter now, but I'm looking forward to feedback to see if my suspicions were right.
Got the successful e-mail and the 'provisional offer' status on the portal. Going to fill out the 'Next Stage' bit later tonight but I'm still unclear as to whether I have a proper offer or not as I only put down Stratford as my location which I assume is one of, if not the most popular.

There's two possible scenarios here:

a) They've sent out the provisional offers to the top x (let's assume 200) scoring candidates without taking into account location choices yet.

b) They've offered out the 200 offers with location choices in mind so the 200 offers aren't necessarily the top 200 performing candidates.

Option b obviously makes more sense as option a means someone like me who only chose one location may well have been the 150th best performing candidate and got the offer on that basis but if there are 80 better performing people above me who have chosen Stratford as their top location, I won't be getting an offer and this is all a massive con and I'll be informed I haven't actually got an offer for my one location choice. Surely they wouldn't do this though, right?
Original post by La Haine
Got the successful e-mail and the 'provisional offer' status on the portal. Going to fill out the 'Next Stage' bit later tonight but I'm still unclear as to whether I have a proper offer or not as I only put down Stratford as my location which I assume is one of, if not the most popular.

There's two possible scenarios here:

a) They've sent out the provisional offers to the top x (let's assume 200) scoring candidates without taking into account location choices yet.

b) They've offered out the 200 offers with location choices in mind so the 200 offers aren't necessarily the top 200 performing candidates.

Option b obviously makes more sense as option a means someone like me who only chose one location may well have been the 150th best performing candidate and got the offer on that basis but if there are 80 better performing people above me who have chosen Stratford as their top location, I won't be getting an offer and this is all a massive con and I'll be informed I haven't actually got an offer for my one location choice. Surely they wouldn't do this though, right?


Yes I think option B makes much more sense. If they just chose the top 200 performing candidates you have to also wonder how they would match people to locations. Eg someone is ranked 150 and has only chosen central London. There are no places left in central London but there are in Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool - how do they decide which location to give them? I highly doubt they would tell them here's the locations left, what's your choice as there would likely be multiple people in the same position and then one of the remainder locations might get over subscribed. It also correlates with last year where everyone who got an offer seemed to get one of their location choices (obviously not everyone got their first choice though).
That's reassuring to hear. Hopefully the process won't take more than a few days to finalise locations.
PS. Just noticed pay in London will be £29K? Why about £4K less than the H/O roles?
Original post by La Haine
PS. Just noticed pay in London will be £29K? Why about £4K less than the H/O roles?


This would be because its a graduate/training programme.

It normally takes 2 years to train a HO.
(edited 7 years ago)

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