Words in adverts that p*ss you off...

[Mephisto]

"A career-defining opportunity"...it's a new low for you
"Working with the best team in the business"...some of them can't even spell their own names
"A dynamic, fast-paced environment"...requirements out of control, nobody has a clue what they're doing
"£Excellent"...I wouldn't blow my nose for the rate
"Greenfield project"...hasn't got sign-off yet

And plenty more I'm sure.

You owe me a new keyboard!!

[Mr.Whippy]

Nope, it is complete BS. The clearance rules and Cabinet Office guidelines allow for the time taken to obtain clearance by allowing an uncleared individual to be escorted or supervised while clearance is applied for

Because that's an efficient (not to mention expensive) use of resources.... using 2 people to do something that only requires 1 whilst you wait for an unknown period of time, which could be as long as 12 months, for clearance to be granted.

Also bear in mind that there are environments where access to anything is severely restricted, whether you're escorted/supervised or not, if you don't have the relevant clearance.

[AlfredJPruffock]

The one that niggles me are those that have an obscure requirement right at the end that should have been in the heading. For example

Crikey !

When you think about it - its all a bit of a joke really.

When you consider you can become a President of the USA of Prime Minister of the UK without any previous experience in that role whatsover.

[AlfredJPruffock]

taken from one today:

"You should have worked on a similar Project" advert does not state what the project even is !

Then apply for it !

OK - always bewre of the term ' fast paced environement ' - that means streee leves so high that runs the real risk of stroke or heart attack due to having to perform the role of there or more staff ... of course all for 'competeive rates ..'

[DaveB]

Because that's an efficient (not to mention expensive) use of resources.... using 2 people to do something that only requires 1 whilst you wait for an unknown period of time, which could be as long as 12 months, for clearance to be granted.

Also bear in mind that there are environments where access to anything is severely restricted, whether you're escorted/supervised or not, if you don't have the relevant clearance.

You dont have to be escorted 8 hours a day, and on the vast majority of projects you can happily get on with design and development work without having to go near classified data untill much later in the lifecycle.

It's down to the responsible manager to asses the risk you pose in the mean time and manage it appropriately.

MOD estimate that around 5% of projects cannot be managed this way and most of those wont get advertised publicly to begin with. If you know about them then you are already appropriately cleared, if you don't you will never get to hear about them anyway.

If agencies and the major suppliers like EDS or Accenture played by the rules there would be a lot more SC cleared people around and it would be a lot easier for them to staff projects properly. A things stand they are restricting themselves to a limited pool of resources and ruling out a lot of qualified and experienced people for no good reason.

[BrowneIssue]

you can become a President of the USA of Prime Minister of the UK

That explains a lot. I didn't realise that was President Osama Bin Elraki's (just WTF is that Merkin bloke's name) full title.

[Turion]

Then apply for it !

OK - always bewre of the term ' fast paced environement ' - that means streee leves so high that runs the real risk of stroke or heart attack due to having to perform the role of there or more staff ... of course all for 'competeive rates ..'

You're either suffering PTSD from a high stress role, or you just rolled out of the pub phissed

[Mustang]

it's quite clear that with such a large number of NHS jobs out there constantly advertised there is a big lack of supply in the market.. maybe they should open their doors and get someone equally (or more) capable? It takes the p*ss out of the Governments equal opportunities scheme when all they want to do is employ people on contracts over and above the terms they are restricted by through normal employment....

Fair comment and one which I can 100% agree. The big question is: what, if anything, can we do about it? The situation wont change unless something is done. Suggestions? PCG is one avenue but there needs to be more.

[DaveB]

Fair comment and one which I can 100% agree. The big question is: what, if anything, can we do about it? The situation wont change unless something is done. Suggestions? PCG is one avenue but there needs to be more.

Part of the problem is the same as with the requirements for SC. It's not the end client, the NHS, setting the requirements. A lot of the time it's the prime contractors like Atos and CSC.

[chris79]

Fair comment and one which I can 100% agree. The big question is: what, if anything, can we do about it? The situation wont change unless something is done. Suggestions? PCG is one avenue but there needs to be more.

The way I see it is if .gov has set rules to allow equal opportunities in their perm staffing, why shouldn't this be in place (being public body) for temp staffing too.. it basically leaves the management of the NHS with a situation where they are inclined to offer jobs on a temp/contract basis in order to bend the rules..

Why do they bend the rules? Well it's already been said that most of the jobs (even in IT) go to washed up nurses/doctors who have never worked an IT career. If they were to put it through the normal channels, equal opportunities would blow them out the water.. ?? Having said that I saw a perm NHS IT job advertised on a local .gov website and it still had "with extensive NHS background". None of the other emergency services do this, fire service, police etc.. they're all civilian staffed, they don't advertise "police background only"..

When my kids grow up they'll be saying "I'm going to college to study medicine so I can project manage infrastructure rollouts in hospitals".