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Public service industry outlook

Erin Delaney

Careers Commentator
With public service comes great responsibility… and great conditions.

A career in public service has come a long way from the paper-pushing, gold-watch retirement of days gone by. You can work at community, state, national and even international levels in roles spanning the most exciting of projects — from creating and enforcing child protection policy, to national security and defence.

Grads that are most suited to this kind of work are usually empathic people with a strong sense of community, who want to be part of the greater good.

Competition for jobs can be high due to public service careers being secure, offering excellent work/life balance (shorter hours, flexible working arrangements, job sharing), paying high salaries and providing opportunities for structured career breaks.

As the government acclimatises to the digital landscape, recruitment needs are changing alongside this — particularly in customer-facing departments. One highly successful digitisation of an agency’s work includes Medicare’s relatively new online services, which have now almost completely replaced face-to-face general transactions. This is happening across the board, with each government portfolio investing in digital to move toward a model of customer self-service, enabling internal resources to be utilised more effectively, services to be rendered instantaneously and providing better taxpayer value overall.

The average entry-level package is $62,500 and the average industry hours are 35 per week, making this one of the best-value industries.

Job market outlook

Finding a job is an intimidating process at the best of times, and can be even more terrifying as a graduate when you look around and see everyone you know vying for the same roles. But the job outlook for public service positions isn’t all doom and gloom, and with this guide at your side, you’ll be well equipped to land yourself a grad role. Growth across public service jobs is mixed according to profession and department, but is expected to climb strongly overall.

It’s not always easy to predict the job market outlook for each government department. As policies and budgets change from year to year, government expenditure for each portfolio waxes and wanes – and so does the number of available jobs. The number of grad positions can also vary massively between departments, with some (such as Defence and the ATO) taking on up to ten times the amount of grads as others. Have a look at the graph below to see a snapshot of the grad intake at some of the federal government departments.

The key factor we’re looking at is graduate roles, and these programs remain very consistent across intake numbers. There is a high number of opportunities for talented grads.

Government graduates employed by year

How to get hired

Applications for a public service role are more involved than a lot of other industries, so it’s best to get started early and give yourself plenty of time to flesh out your application. Most roles require a current CV and tailored cover letter, and most importantly they will also ask for a selection criteria statement: each hiring manager identifies the selection criteria for the role in advance, which candidates write a short personal statement against. This ensures that the government can prove they hired the best possible candidate for the role according to predetermined criteria without prejudice, should any member of the public question the decision or hold them accountable for an eventual outcome of that hire. Your interview will likely involve a panel of at least two people, for similar reasons.

It’s important to understand the process used to assess selection criteria statements in order to put your best foot possible forward. Most government recruitment panels use the STAR method, which is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result.

Displaying your understanding of the micro and macro objectives of the role and department will give you an edge over other less well-prepared candidates, and don’t be afraid to ask questions — this will demonstrate your keen interest in the work.

Alternatives to public service

If you’re considering public service, you might also like to consider…

  • Education and training 
  • Health 
  • Charity and social work

Embed Image

<img src="https://connect-assets.prosple.com/cdn/ff/uFGAtlFiHlIOou4SqScc5bf4mYLbVqOCJC3sJ2FoLJc/1567132162/public/styles/scale_1000_no_upsize/public/2019-08/Infographic-public-service-overview-1104x1164-2019.jpg?itok=8NnTAeh7" alt="Public service overview 2019" />