HMRC 042R Officer Caseworkers (External) October 2016

I've selected Liverpool too but did select Manchester as second choice.

My understanding was that they look at your first choice, and in the initial stages only compare you to other applicants for that choice- I.e. you'll be compared in competency with other applicants to Manchester. If you pass, and pass the interview, but then there aren't jobs for you in Manchester because everyone else took them, that's when they move onto your second/third choice, or offer you other locations.

I might be totally wrong but that's what I remember thinking when I read it!

Did everyone use specific examples on the competencies? Found it hard to with the word count

I did yes. This is the way I've always written competencies. I had mine already from previous recruitments though.

Ahhh fair enough, found it hard cause of the job I do currently. It's a complex chain of events that lead to the "effective decision"... Think it'll bite me on the arse

Yeah I hope so too
I really want this job
Are you a graduate? Internal or external?

Bristol not seen anyone else mention it yet though! I hope they actually have jobs going!

Same
Mine is on hold too
Has anyone applied to London and got through to next stage then???

Ahhh fair enough, found it hard cause of the job I do currently. It's a complex chain of events that lead to the "effective decision"... Think it'll bite me on the arse

I'm with you on this, it was so hard! I could easily use over 250 words just to describe the situation/context of the effective decisions I need to make, let alone how I actually go about making effective decisions. GAH!

Did everyone use specific examples on the competencies? Found it hard to with the word count

I've got a close friend in HMRC and he said that no one really understands what the competencies really are. Its a weird system. Even the police have just one form (a long one at that), and a fairly straight forward interview. How would you handle x situation etc.

I applied for Croydon and got through to next stage.

You've passed the competency stage?

I'm external, how about you?


Posted from TSR Mobile

Yeah tbh I think competencies aren't a great way to judge candidates, I bet lots of good ones slip through the net

The whole system seems to be designed to allow skilled and capable people to slip through. There is information on meeting competencies online, which appears to be about using a specific example and explaining the competency through that. But that wasn't what I understood they were after from the form/ the information pack. The concepts are so wide and with so little guidance that its quite possible to be capable and miss the point. For leadership, there are different aspects and different types and its perfectly possible to completely miss out because you wrote about the wrong type.

For example, in a Firefighting or Policing setting (and I imagine military), effective leadership is about giving clear and concise commands to the right people. Its all about telling people exactly what they need to do and expecting them to do it. There is no real back and forth (if there were, you'll have problems). Leadership in a business or university setting (say a society committee meeting) is completely different, as its all about maintaining a healthy group dynamic. That type of leadership is about knowing and respecting the group and gently keeping the group on task. The authoritarian style of leadership I mentioned above would lead to serious problems in that situation.

Its not even a hard task to design a question to get the right response. `In 250 words, write about an example of when you demonstrated good leadership in a group setting'. For communication, you could give a complex piece of documentation, say on VAT exemptions, and ask someone to come up with a version which a lay person could easily understand.

That's all without the issues that you can't save and go back to the application. If you happened to forget that you lived somewhere briefly in the last 5 years? Too bad, its submitted now, bad luck. What if you submitted the statements but then had a realisation on how you could of worded something better? Too bad, its too late. In a similar vein, what if you had the role profile and booklet opened in another tab, closed them after you filed the application, to only realise that you forgot to save them? Again, too bad, tough luck. Thats all without the issues of how the online tests were quite poor imo. The entire primary stage appears to be quite capable of excluding good and capable people, which is why I'm not going to be too worried (and I would counsel likewise for everyone else) if I failed to get through at this stage.

That was a fantastic read, couldn't have been more right