The end of financial year tends to lead to a drop off in hiring efforts for government agencies, as they adjust to the upcoming financial year and new budgeting becoming available. Keeping with that tradition, we saw a slight dip in the number of available roles over the month.

However, this lull was quite quick with an almost immediate uptick in roles being released to market.

Recruitment to support a new program at the Department of Education

Our primary focus for government roles has been in helping the Department of Education recruit for their new Ministerial lead Program: Rural and Remote Education. This Program aims to “deliver improved access to digital teaching, learning aids and collaboration tools for rural and remote schools.”

While there’s obvious emphasis on technology infrastructure, primarily, we’re sourcing candidates for program management through to project coordination to ensure everything is delivered effectively and efficiently.

Working with NSW Government departments

We are helping to recruit the initial team for this new greenfield program at the Department of Education, so we have a range of roles ranging from Program Directors to Project Managers, Business Analysts and Project Coordinators.

We’re also starting to work closely with business and marketing-facing teams within the Department of Customer Service. These roles involve the more business side of government and a lot of times work on real-issue topics and projects like Covid-19 support, vaccination communication and the move towards digital licensing.

All these programs of work are transformative in that you're taking something that’s been done a certain way for years (i.e., face-to-face classroom teaching or filling in paper forms), and making the experience better through tech.

If you have experience in transformative programs and want to be involved in some of the state’s most important and interesting projects with direct influence on how society interacts with government, then contact us to express your interest.

​Location Flexibility and salaries

​​These roles are based around Sydney, at offices from the CBD, Central & Everleigh through to Macquarie Park and Parramatta. Increasingly this year, there has been a big move to remote work and flexibility. All roles are now remote and work from home. Once current stay at home restrictions relax, the roles will continue to be flexible with possibly only 1 day per week in the office

To attract the best people, the government is offering market-rate and sometimes elevated salaries to ensure their projects can be delivered to the highest standard. 

Our job seeker tips for getting into government project services

Want to get into Project Services in the NSW government?

We’ve frequently found that, if a candidate has government experience in and around transformation and technology, then they’ll have a very good shot of at least securing an interview.

The difference between working in government roles and private sector roles is immense. There is a layer of politicisation that doesn’t exist in the private sector. Coupled with well defined and stringent lanes of work, the difference in ways of working is large. Working in government requires patience and understanding of how the public sector works to make change.

So, here are our top tips you can do to improve your chance of working in government project services, if you do not have government experience:

1. Start in a junior role as a means of entering government

If you’ve not worked in government before and you’re not having much luck securing your dream role, you may consider getting your foot in the door with a more junior role. Here you can work in and understand how government works, gain insight into ways of working and of course, network with other government workers.

2. Work in a project coordination role

To speed up entry into project services, you may need to consider working in a project coordinator role to get some experience behind you. Project coordination is all about being organised, following processes and managing stakeholders. Project coordination is the same in the private sector and having these skills gives you a strong base for future project services work. You will then find it easier to move up and around into other areas of government.

Government agencies usually move quickly to fill roles. Of late, we’re finding that hiring managers are taking their time to find the right person for the job, rather than taking the first candidate that fits their criteria. So, before applying, make sure your resume is up to date, formatted correctly, and clearly details your skills and exposure to relevant technologies.

If you would like to speak to a Government specialist contact our dedicated team, Dan Cobelli and Rick Nunez