Application Guidance
There are thousands of different job roles within Surrey County Council, and if you'd like to apply for a vacancy we would certainly welcome your application. We recognise that for some of you this will be your first job, or maybe the first time you've applied for a role in a long time, and so we are providing here some guidance and advice for applying.
With our roles being so varied, we recommend using the advice below as guidelines only, and applying it where suitable.
The guidance covers different elements of the application journey:
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Every job has a job description and a person specification / selection criteria.
The job description gives information about the duties of the job for which you are applying, who you would report to and where you would work.
The selection criteria outlines the experience, skills and qualifications we are looking for to fulfil the requirements of the job. The information you provide in your application is matched against the selection criteria to determine whether to invite you to interview.
We recommend you carefully read through both the job description and selection criteria to ensure you have a full understanding of what the job entails. This will help you write your application as well as apply for roles that are suitable for you.
Getting Started
Once you've found the job that interests you and have prepared your personal statement, you can apply online. If you register, your information will be stored for this job and future applications.
We encourage applicants to apply on line wherever possible. If you need to apply in another format (e.g. in Braille, on cassette, on paper or using the council's easy read application form) please contact us.
For the application form you will need to have to hand:
- Full contact details
- Your personal statement
- Your employment history with exact dates (dd/mm/yyyy) and reasons for leaving each role
- Other relevant experience
- Education and qualifications with exact dates (dd/mm/yyyy)
You will be asked complete an equalities monitoring form to help us monitor that our recruitment processes. Our goal is that our workforce reflects the community we serve.
Disability Confident
Surrey is a Disability Confident employer. If you are a disabled person, the Disability Confident symbol lets you know that:
- You will be automatically shortlisted for an interview if you meet the essential job criteria
- We will make reasonable adjustments to make sure that you are considered for a job on an equal basis with other applicants.
Please visit our Disability Confident page to learn more.
Registering online
If you have registered your details and decide to apply online for another job at a later stage, the online application system will automatically complete the following sections from your previous applications to save you time:
- full contact details
- education background
- employment history
- qualifications
- equal opportunities information.
Further assistance
For other information and guidance on applying for jobs, browse the links below:
- Find a job with Universal Jobmatch - help in finding the right kind of job and job coach.
- Eteach.com - teacher vacancies across the UK.
- Surrey Community Action - promoting voluntary work in Surrey.
- Jobsgopublic - search for jobs in the public sector nationwide.
- Surreyjobs.info - jobs with all local authorities in Surrey, health service, colleges and universities.
- Age Positive - DWP information on promoting age diversity in the workplace.
- Hot courses - advice, information and guidance on any aspect of learning or work in Surrey.
- Redundancy Help - this site gives advice to people who have been made redundant.
- The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) - provide advice about employment disputes.
- Gov.uk Website - links to information about retirement, including how to plan ahead, claim your pension and deal with tax issues.
Files available to download
- CV template (15.9 KB)
A template to help you to write your CV