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Civil Service Fast Stream 2009!

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Quady

Well for the first two years of the scheme it was restricted to people who did Business, Engineering, Librarianship, Mathematical Science, Physical Science, Technology or IT Management for Business. I did chemistry (at York as it happens), but no, apart from a general interest in technology I had no formal qualifications in IT. As you know, the degree doesn't matter anymore.

The FSB doesn't look for detailed technical knowledge. The first half is an interview - read up on the areas they suggest and you will be fine and the second half is a recommedation of policy by way of a breifing. You only need as much technical knowledge as you did at FSAC (ie nothing special yet not completely clueless about the world).

Last year there was one more place on the scheme than there were people who got through to the FSB. However, that didn't mean a place was guarenteed - a quarter of people didn't pass. However, obviously thats a vast improvement on the prior selection gates.

Due to practically all Govt IT/technology being outsourced there isn't as large a need for technical skills when starting in the job as you might expect either.

Feel free to ask me anything on here or call/email Claire Baker who looks after the scheme:

http://www.cio.gov.uk/itprofession/faststream/other_info/contact.asp

I called last year with a bunch of questions and it was very helpful.

Thanks for this Quady - when I get a bit of time I'll do a bit more investigation and I may well take you up on that!

I'm quite relieved to hear about the requirements - I'm more tech-savvy than many people I know but I'm no computer scientist :smile:

.

Anyone else in for TIB?

Reply 701

gt94sss2

JackGoodwin

Wonder when starting date will be...september?

Depends which department you join.

If the Diplomatic Service, everyone successful is probably looking at October or November.

If a Central Department: those who have been successful this week could start as soon as early summer - though there is normally a lot of flexibility in choosing your starting date.

As you have applied for both the DS and central departments, you would need to fail/withdraw your DS option before they even tried starting to place you with a central dept...

Reply 702

Quady

Aylia

I'm more tech-savvy than many people I know but I'm no computer scientist :smile:

Well without causing offence to computer scientists TiB is all about communicating/managing IT projects and working with business requirements. If your the worlds best programmer but can't form a survey to assess staff engagement to assess the business benefit then you wouldn't be the right person for TiB. A highly business focused person who could not grasp technological issues would also be out. I'd say see how you do with central depts and do the TiB FSB then decide would be my reccommendation. But yes, anyone with TiB questions, feel free!

Reply 703

RuthG88

Congratulations to everyone who have got in and for the people who were knocked out, there's always next year :-)

I need some advice...I'm seriously considering applying for the Fast Stream in the next academic year but having read lots of threads on this forum dedicated to the FS I'm terrified about applying!

Maths isn't one of my strong points...I worked my arse off to get my GCSE 'C', so the prospect of numerical reasoning tests are giving me cold sweats. I'm fairly confident with the verbal reasoning and written tests as English is my strong point.

Is there an element of university snobbery in FS? I hope to obtain a 2:1 in politics from Nottingham Trent, however, theoretically, if I was to apply for FS and got through to the assessment centre stage and the recruiters had to choose between me and a Russell Group graduate, would they opt for the latter?

I have plenty of experience working in my local community and have taken part in and organized some regeneration projects in poorer areas of my city with my university society...would they value this?

Thank you for your time!

Reply 704

RuthG88

One more thing...I have no intention on applying for FCO or the Diplomatic Service. I would love to placed within Central Departments...I'm not fussy!! :-)

Reply 705

Quady

RuthG88

Is there an element of university snobbery in FS? I hope to obtain a 2:1 in politics from Nottingham Trent, however, theoretically, if I was to apply for FS and got through to the assessment centre stage and the recruiters had to choose between me and a Russell Group graduate, would they opt for the latter?

They wouldn't know, the recruiters don't have your application form so you could have gone anywhere. You could be on for a double first at Oxford or scraping a 2.2 post 1992 university it doesn't matter if you show the competancies your in if you don't your not.

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/corp/assets/publications/reports/faststream/2008/fs_all_tables_report_2007.pdf

Pages 18-20

admittedly 91 people applied from Nottingham Trent and 0 got in last year... But 3 got in for the 2005 competition

Reply 706

jonbar123

ruthg88- i know its time consuming but my best advice would be to read all the info. available at the fast stream website and then start at the beginning of this thread and have a glance through it all. a lot of questions you have now, and some that hadn't even occured to you yet will be answered (usually by one of a group of very helpful people). As Quady says, its all about passing the competancies. on the surface it certainly seems like a fair and open recruitment process. good luck deciding. :biggrin:

Reply 707

Stomm

RuthG88

Oddly enough I graduated with a 2:1 in IR with Politics from NTU in 2005. I'd recommend 'Ye Olde Salutation Inn' for an afternoon drinking session/student debate. They've got some decent beer, and if you can nab one of the snugs then you can get some decent seating where you don't have to shout at each other to be heard. IIRC the lunch menu wasn't too bad either...

I haven't made it through yet, but I did get to the FSAC stage last year. As has already been said at the FSAC, which is what they base their final decision on, none of the assessors have access to your application form.

RuthG88

I have plenty of experience working in my local community and have taken part in and organized some regeneration projects in poorer areas of my city with my university society...would they value this?

Thank you for your time!

What society is that? When I was there we tried to revive the IR society, but it wasn't taken up by the 2nd year students when we started our 3rd year, I don't remember any society that might have been connected with local regeneration, but then to be honest apart from the IR society I (with hindsight) foolishly stayed well clear of societies altogether...

Reply 708

RuthG88

Quady, Jonbar123 and Stomm thank you so much for your replies!

Stomm, it's a society called 'Initi8'. I think they are quite new as they have a big recruitment campaign going on at the moment. We usually visit places like St. Annes or the Meadows and we paint old parks and buildings that will be turned into community halls/youth centres etc. We also organise parties and fun days out for young carers in the city. This Monday just gone I helped out at a soup kitchen for the homeless.

I really hope I don't sound pompous with my extra curricular activities. A guy accused me of that once which shocked me as he was doing commercial law...he thought he was better than the 'lower classes' as he had a 'upper class job'. I just like helping local communities and making a difference, albeit a tiny one.

I think I'll apply for the Fast Stream and pray to God I get accepted! However I will be buying GCSE maths revision books...it feels like I'm going back 5 years of my life, but it would be completely worth it if the civil service were crazy enough to hire me!!

Reply 709

Aylia

RuthG88

I think I'll apply for the Fast Stream and pray to God I get accepted! However I will be buying GCSE maths revision books...it feels like I'm going back 5 years of my life, but it would be completely worth it if the civil service were crazy enough to hire me!!

There's no shame in that! I did A-Level Maths, but I still ended up getting out my GCSE maths books in preparation.

Reply 710

FOXPRESIDENT

Well I got a unsucccesfull on both DS and Central Departments... .did badly in at least the briefing exercise (well awfully bad! - LOL) and not so good on the discussion element either. I'm looking forward to my FSAC report.

I only did mine on tuesday and found out on the wednesday afternoon that i failed.

Or the e-mail could have been earlier i'm not sure to be honest, probably done straight after i left the building :biggrin:

. But it was worth doing the process. There is always next time and future different jobs. Good luck everyone else!

Reply 711

Alphie

Sorry to here that mate. Good you're drawing some positives out of it though!

If you don't mind me asking was that this Tuesday you did the AC? I had mine on Monday and haven't heard anything yet, so wondering if by implication I'm on amber.

thanks.

Reply 712

Prince Rhyus

Just to confirm, the name of the university that you went to makes NO DIFFERENCE to how the assessors assess you.

They don't care which university you went to. They want to know what potential you have for succeeding on the Fast Stream. This is an assessment process that thinks nothing of chewing up and spitting out oxbridge graduates on a regular basis.

Reply 713

Drebin

Thanks for all the advice on here folks.

Just a quick question because I'm going mad checking the FS website every 15 minutes.

When results are posted should there be a comment against each of your selected options?

I had my FSAC on Tuesday and the scheme progress screen just says awaiting results with no details of the individual schemes (DS, HoP and CD). Does this mean that I may be in the amber band or just that my results aren't updated yet?

Essentially what I am wondering is whether there is a visible update that you have moved from not updated to the amber band or is there no way to tell.

I know this seems pretty impatient, but the suspense is killing me and I'd love to know what to watch out for.

Cheers.

Reply 714

squeezeevans

I had my FSAC on Thurs and found out yesterday afternoon that I've been successful yay :smile:

. I only applied for central departments though so that's the end of the line for me now and I just have to wait to see if I pass all the checks/see where I get allocated.

One thing that was weird though is there's no email/text/message in inbox to tell you you'd been successful. It was only that I went on My applications and it said view results which is how I found out. So keep checking people! And good luck! x

Reply 715

THB

I just got told that I got through FSAC and am now awaiting an invitation to the diplomatic first stage. I originally applied to the DS because it seemed like a win-win situation, but I was wondering, at this point, whether there are any disadvantages of going through DS process considering my first preference is probably just to work for central departments.

For example, is there an advantage to accepting central departments earlier- maybe in terms of department allocation or something? And I know that the central departments job is now guaranteed, but if I were to get an offer from the DS could I still reject it and accept the central departments job?

Oh and one other question, a bit off topic- do most departments give you a laptop? Mine is slowly but surely falling apart, but I figure there's not much point buying a new one if I'll get one from the civil service anyway..

Thanks!

p.s. thanks to everyone on this thread- it was a great help through the application process

Reply 716

gt94sss2

Drebin

I had my FSAC on Tuesday and the scheme progress screen just says awaiting results with no details of the individual schemes (DS, HoP and CD). Does this mean that I may be in the amber band or just that my results aren't updated yet?

Essentially what I am wondering is whether there is a visible update that you have moved from not updated to the amber band or is there no way to tell.

There is no way to tell..

Reply 717

gt94sss2

squeezeevans

I had my FSAC on Thurs and found out yesterday afternoon that I've been successful yay :smile:

Congratulations - its worth stating though that they only used to update the website once a week - normally towards the end of a week - don't see why they would do it more often this year!

Reply 718

gt94sss2

THB

For example, is there an advantage to accepting central departments earlier- maybe in terms of department allocation or something? And I know that the central departments job is now guaranteed, but if I were to get an offer from the DS could I still reject it and accept the central departments job?

There is no advantage in choosing central departments early in terms of department allocation. The only real difference would be start date, with the DS you would probably join in October.

If you opted for Central departments now you are likely to have a lot more flexibility in choosing your start date - especially if you wanted to start work before then.

Otherwise, until you withdraw/are unsuccessful at the DS option - the Cabinet Office won't start the process of looking to place you with another department.

Having said that, everyone knows that there are a couple of times of the year when candidates with high FSAC scores who are unsuccessful at DS enter the central depts system... and yes, if you got an offer for the DS you could turn it down and opt for Central departments.

Oh and one other question, a bit off topic- do most departments give you a laptop? Mine is slowly but surely falling apart, but I figure there's not much point buying a new one if I'll get one from the civil service anyway..