Job-hopping within civil sector
 

I am currently looking into a career in the civil sector and am likely to job hop within the civil service after I gain a few years of experience from my first job in the service.

Hence, I would like to hear from anyone who has job hop within the civil service (consecutive job-hopping) about their experience in terms of ease of finding job and increment in pay. Do the next agency who hire you pay a salary based on your previous MX scheme grading?

If I started off as a fresh grad with a MX 12 grade and am expected to attain MX 11 in about 4-5 years if I remain with the same agency, is there a possibility to get a new job in another civil service agency after say 3 years in my first job on a MX 11 or perhaps a better pay within the MX12 grade?

My apologies if the question sounds too basic or naive but I am willing to hear your comments anyway.

Thank you!

i presume you want to job-hop within govt sector. not sure wat u mean by civil service agency. In general there are only ministries and stat boards. Stat boards not civil service.
Suggest u check this website out Careers@Gov

Hey sorry for the confusion! Perhaps to be exact, job hop between stat boards or ministries. I've been to the career.gov site and in fact I have had an offer from there.

But before deciding on accepting the offer, I was wondering if i accepted the offer and stayed on the job for about 2 years on a MX12 scheme, what happens if i job hop to another organization (either stat board or ministry)? How would the new organization assess the scheme I shd be on? Would it be possible if I get a higher salary than what I would get in my current job (inclusive of yearly increment in the third year of stay)? Is it also possible that I could make the jump to MX 11 assuming I have the necessary experience for the job if that makes any sense?

its quite common to job-hop within govt sector.... it all depends on the vacancies, your exp and how u convince the interviewers...

likely news of you attending interview in another gov ministry will spread to your boss

Good point! Any other job hoppers within the civil service who have had the problem of your boss finding out u are applying for another job in another civil service organization?

whenever i come across a resume of a job-hopper, a flag is raised immediately. if you think job hopping can accelerate one's promotion, you can continue waiting. most likely it will slow down progression rather than speed up. asking for external posting or secondment is always a better strategy. you get the exposure and at the same time hedge your risks by retaining the put option in the parent agency. if you do well in the new agency, you can always apply for a transfer after that.

If you think you are some kind of roving talent, i think you need to reconsider whether people will really consider you as such 'talent'. Only 1 group of people can operate like this. They are called AOs.

You're old school. It's already been established that modern employees job hop now more than ever. Experts claim that it's important for one's growth and the exposure gained can be comparable to working in consulting firms where consultants "hop" from one project to the next in quick succession.

Please understand the context before applying ideas. but even before doing that, do recognise that these 'experts' are quite fickle and their ideas change all the time. They also tend to publish for the sake of publishing.

The broad HR framework of the civil service provides for progression largely within agency. exposure and development is provided for via some secondment/external postings but mostly still via job rotations within agencies. That is the fact. And this is the case in the govt because most agencies are quite large and can provide sufficient exposure in house without officers needing to move out. They value more depth of contextual knowledge and expertise that comes with years of experience within the agency.

If you ask me, what is being suggested viz. what i akin to be operating in a transient manner, is probably borne out of need rather than desire; a need that arises due to increasing job instability in today's job markets. Where people have no choice but to adapt. Don't believe me? try job hoping when your'e 40. perhaps a few people can do it. but not many.

if you think it is possible to do this within the public sector and do well, by all means try and let me know how it turns out. moreover, it is one thing for private companies to engage in a bidding war for 'talent' (im using the word loosely here), it's something else for public sector agencies to do the same at a systemic level. certainly not the best use of public sector funds. The most they can and will do is match your pay. not difficult, since they already have your record.