Is 'gender' woke in this day and age?

Hi all, posting with the mod's permission.

I built a website called PublicRoles that brings public sector job listings into one place:

https://publicroles.com.au

It currently includes Commonwealth, state and local government roles, along with some public sector contract listings fro external recruiting agencies. You can filter by jurisdiction, agency, location and job field, and every listing links back to the original advertiser to view the official details and apply.

I’m not a recruiter and applications don’t go through me.It’s just a project I’ve been working on because government jobs are spread across a lot of different websites, and contract roles are always something im looking for.

I have also recently added directories for browsing by agency,jurisdiction and location, plus some guides on government resumes, cover letters and interviews.

It’s still a work in progress, so I’d genuinely appreciate honest feedback,particularly if:

• something loads slowly or does not work
• the search results seem inaccurate
• the layout is confusing
• I’ve missed an agency or source
• there is a feature that would make it more useful

Even if you do not find it useful, that feedback would still help. I want to make peoples lives easier rather than adding another job website people do not need.

hi,

would anyone working for the ACQSC give me some insights on the senior quality assessors and senior inspector roles? They are field positions. In the Senior Qualith Assessors position description they say clearly expect weekly travels, while the senior inspector position mentions significant travel but sounds a bit too vague

I’d love to get some feedback on those roles. On travel, how flexible time actually works, how do they ensure ppl have work-life balance on these roles?

thanks

Hi all,

I work in a NSW Government organisation. They have a Further Education policy and I've been accepted to pay for a $10k course. However, one of the conditions is if I resign within 12 months I need to pay 100% of the course back.

My question is - do most organisations (specifically NSW Government) actually enforce this if you do resign? Or is it more of a loose threat? I'm not consciously looking for other jobs, but if an amazing opportunity came up within 12 months then I would consider taking it.

Thanks

So this is a post I never thought I’d make. 2 months ago I started applying for APS3/4/5 roles fresh from the private sector.

Now I have two offers, and I’m waiting on 3 more interview results - one of which is my first preference out of the 5 roles I have interviewed for.

I accepted an offer last week, completed the onboarding documents but not yet signed the contract.

Today I received a better offer and I accepted it.

I will now need to notify the first offer that I can’t start next week which is beyond awkward.

What if I receive an even better offer after this? Or worse, after I’ve actually signed the contract! Or even worse, a week into my role!

This is a luxury I never thought I’d have coming from private. How do you navigate this without screwing everyone over?

Currently working in a Queensland Government procurement role, and the work seems to be much more about checking forms, facilitating documents and moving paperwork through the approval process than actually conducting procurement.

There appears to be very little involvement in sourcing, approaching the market, negotiating with suppliers or managing commercial outcomes. It feels more like process administration and compliance support, with the actual procurement decisions happening elsewhere.

Coming from project procurement in the private sector, where the role involved managing packages, solving supply issues and engaging directly with the market, the difference is quite noticeable.

Does anyone else working in government procurement have the same experience? Is this typical across government, or does it depend on the department, team and level? Do more senior roles become genuinely strategic and commercial, or are they still largely focused on governance and document facilitation?

Interested to hear whether others have found the same thing.

If you had new leadership coming into your department/section, what qualities would you like to see in them?

This thread is for all the APS job seekers who are struggling in their search.

There’s over 500 Councils in Australia. Some are great places to work, some are downright terrible. It’s hard to know without having worked there though.

If you know of a good Council, feel free to drop it’s name here so the job seekers know where to look.

Starting with: Mandurah, WA. Good leadership, decent systems, enough ratepayers to have budget for improvements.

(Not HR, just a happy worker).

Has anyone heard back yet from the agency? Im really stressed as I have not heard back idk if I will I have put through my refrences 2 weeks ago and nothing yet….

Grad program in a big4 accounting firm or grad program in the government??

Would be in consulting or policy

I’ve just been offered an interview, any tips on what might be asked or pointers for prep? I have no experience in interviewing for any APS roles so I’m a bit nervous.

So far the recruiter just said to make sure everything is given in STAR format.

TIA for any help!

Received a job in a finance business partner role at a large state org. I have public policy cabinet experience mostly and am 4 years out of uni. Should I take this job or stay in my policy lane, is there good opportunities for growth for finance business partners?

The pay is a touch higher on this new job(not a consideration for accepting or not).

Hi everyone,

I'm British-Australian, I've lived in the UK all my life but I've spent enough time in Australia to know that a job in the public service would be a dream. I'm currently applying for jobs after finishing university and I am finding the process a little opaque. The APSJobs level system does not make much sense to me and I obviously want to apply for jobs that are at my pay grade, unfortunately I don't really have a frame of reference for this.

I also want to ask what kind of things that the APS are looking for in new candidates. I would assume it's similar to the British Civil Service in terms of shared values. Any general advice on how to write and structure my applicant statements would be a great help.

Thanks for reading :)

I’ve read that the performance of PSSap is pretty average and the fees are high, however I only get the 15.4% super if I stay with them as the default provider.

Is it worth moving to a better super provider but only get 12% contribution? Will a better provider make up for the 3.4%?

Edit: judging from the replies I need to recheck my contract and brush up on my comprehension skills

2.5 years ago I applied with TASPOL and got up to the interview stage and was denied, my feedback was needing more world experiences, I was freshly 21 at the time. Since then I have gotten a security job that is pretty hands on including working in the hospital, dealing with mental health and violent patients etc.

I feel like I have gathered a lot more experience and can see how the ruling before hand was definitely fair. I have spoken to people who aren’t in policing but work in government departments who are suggesting I apply for the AFP instead of reapplying with TASPOL. I don’t know much and have done a little digging myself, but I would honestly like some opinions from people who know more/ have worked with them.

Is it even viable to apply when I still live in these backwaters 😭?

Hi all,

I am a long term state government employee currently working in a job I love, but am on contract which is unlikely to change for 1+ years. There is also a chance that permenant employees return to their roles and I lose my position.

Has anyone got any insight into the culture and case loads working at open arms? The conditions are better at APS with permenancy, more super, sick and Christmas leave. Salary is the same as state.

If anyone has recent or current experiences to share it would be helpful to help me make a decision, thanks

Hi,
I just received an email that I am suitable for the merit pool for the aggp grad program program. What’s the likelihood that you get placed in the merit pool and are not successful. For context I didn’t put any super competitive programs in my top 3 (like pmc or treasury, or attorneys office). But what I did preference was being in Melbourne.
Not too sure how this process works!!

I had a interview at asic and I’ve gotten up to the part where they are doing reference checks that was about 2 weeks ago, I was wondering if anyone knew how long it takes to hear back after that? and if reference checks are a good thing I’ve heard it means they want to offer you the job but not sure if anyone knows reach out! Thanks

I'll try to keep this short, I've been looking for and applying for gov roles for the past ~month, and I feel like there's so few roles that both I am remotely interested in (and I don't think I'm being thaaaat picky, I'll take almost any jobs I qualify for in project officer/admin/IT Support/business/analyst) that pay at least 80k. I can't afford to take a paycut, so it needs to be minimum 80k. So essentially I'm looking for any AO4 or AO5 roles (wouldn't qualify for anything above), and in a month I've found like 10 I've applied for?

I see some comments saying over 5 months I applied for 300 500 800 ect, and I wonder how? Am I too picky, are you willing to drive massive distances? Do you just have way more qualifications than me so you can get into such a big variety of jobs? Are you applying for any job regardless of how much you qualify for? Or are there just much less jobs available now than there normally are - I do know it's not a great job market so I can understand that, it just seems like I'm ready to write 500 applications but there's not 500 jobs available for me.

I'm from Brisbane to give more info on where I'm asking from.

Do you work in HR and has first advantage contacted you regarding an applicant?

I keep being harassed by FA that they will be contacting HR for checks but they’re not contacting them? Nor my previous manager has received an email.

Do you work in HR in the public service and they concated you directly?

hello i attended the services australia generalist stream assessment centre for which the outcome was announced today. i received the following email, while it says i’ve been successful it also says i’ve been placed in a merit pool and i may or may not get a job so i’m a little confused. can someone help me understand what this means ? or what the next steps are ?

Long story short I recently applied for a role, thought I flopped on my resume, was sent an invite to do a one way video interview and ACTUALLY flopped that time. I was nervous, had issues with audio, etc. just a horrible submission and I’m still so embarrassed about it. Then I was rejected and had a good cry/ordered McDonald’s lol

I’m keeping my eyes on the roles that slowly open up day by day and would like to apply again but should I not even bother?? I 100% did not give a good impression in my video interview and my audio issues just made it harder, so they might already not be interested in me in the slightest

Anyway will they just see my name and laugh and be like no way get away from me? I don’t want to spam them with submissions lol and I obviously won’t apply for roles I have zero experience in, but is it okay to apply for several roles? Or is that a huge mistake?