Hi all,

This thread has provided invaluable insight into applying for a role in the public service and I greatly appreciate the inputs of those who have contributed as they had given me information on what to expect (eg. long turnaround time, etc.); in the course of waiting, I practically went through all 400+ pages and can relate to the anxiety a number of people experienced. I have recently received an offer from a SB and thought I would provide as much details as possible to give others a gauge of how my timeline looked like.

Mid-Feb: Applied for a role in SB which had a closing time/date of 6pm on the last day of Feb

End Feb: 5mins after the closing time, HR called to schedule the first interview. HR requested for me to send across quite a fair bit of documents (education transcripts, NS transcript, testimonials, latest payslip, etc.) and to complete a couple of documents including providing 2 references and stating my expected salary before the first interview.

1st week of March: First interview with 2 ADs and HR. I would say this is one of the most – if not the most – engaging interviews I’ve ever had.

2nd week of March: Received email from Workday (not HR) requesting for additional information regarding my application.

3rd week of March: HR called to schedule a second interview. Second interview scheduled 2 days later with D, DD and HR. I asked what the timeline looked like in terms of next steps but got a non-committal response from HR (understandable). Towards the end of the interview, DD suddenly asked if I was interviewing at other places and when I said I was, DD commented they would probably need to get back to me sooner rather than later. I took this as a good sign they were interested.

1st week of April: HR called to ask if I’m still interested in the role and apologized for dropping off for awhile as there were other things she needed to attend to. She advised the process would take another 3 weeks but did not provide further details (no verbal offer).

Mid-April: HR emailed to ask what the minimum and maximum range of my expected salary was. Call with HR to discuss what the minimum and maximum range of my expected salary was (no verbal offer). She mentioned she had reached out to both of my references the day before and asked me to follow up with them as she had yet to hear from them. I casually asked if the interviewers had shared any feedback about me with her (to gauge their interest) and she avoided the question completely but said they had been chasing her (I took this as a good sign as well; after all if not interested, don’t need to chase). She said the salary proposal was almost done and she just needed to submit it for approval so it shouldn’t take too long.

3rd week of April: Texted HR to ask if there was anything else I needed to follow up from my end (eg. if my references still haven’t replied to her). She shared salary proposal was under review.

End April: Verbal offer from HR via a call. HR emailed with details of the offer shortly after the call ended. Details of offer from Vital came in 2 days after verbal offer and email from HR.

tl;dr:
Application to 1st interview: 2 weeks
1st interview to 2nd interview: 2 weeks
2nd interview to verbal offer: almost 6 weeks

Mid-career applicant in early 30s from private sector with ~7 years of relevant experience specific to the role. Private uni with FCH (just in case there are others out there who are from private unis and are hesitating to apply to public sector) and I received a slight increment on my base salary although the amount was slightly lower than what I had stated as my expected salary. I suppose it could have been worse as from reading the thread, it seems that it is not uncommon for mid-career applicants to take a pay cut to join the public sector. Application status on Workday was “In Process” throughout (even until now) if anyone is wondering. The role I had applied for was reposted once or twice during the process (I remember it was reposted after my first interview), but if my memory serves me well, they did not repost it after my second interview.

Like what others have shared, do not despair if there is some radio silence because they are probably quite busy interviewing other candidates as well. If anything, I’ve found HR to be quite helpful in terms of advising on what the timeline looks like and they have been fairly accurate. Needless to say there was still some anxiety on my part as well (and this was even though I thought the second interview ended on a good note) given that it took a fair bit of time from the second interview and I tried to offset this by continuing to apply for other roles I was interested in. All the best to those who are applying for roles in the public sector and waiting to hear back after your interviews!