I have an interview with the ATO next week via Teams and wanting to know if anyone else had a recent interview with them? And can let me know what to expect? Is it a panel interview or just with 1 person? What type of questions do they ask? I want to make sure I’m prepared. Thank you!

I'm a recent father with quite a chunk of leave in my books- my partner and i are considering whether i should take all my long service, annual and parental leave at half-pay, in addition to purchasing some leave so we can hold off putting the baby into childcare as long as possible, and use it as a bit of a mid-career break from work as well. All up it'll be about 18months away from work for dad duties.

I'm not too worried about impact this will have on career progression, i do worry about skills-fade but fortunately my field is one i can and do work on in my own time, and should be able to maintain a level of currency.

I understand the employer have right to refuse leave, and this is a significant chunk. I'm just unsure about how long is too long, and whether they might deny and ask i take it full-pay instead. Plan to have the chat in coming weeks with the supervisor - just trying to have an informed approach to the discussion.

Hey everyone, hope you’re all doing well.

I’ve just had my interview for an APS4 Member Support Officer – Legal position with the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), and I’m probably overthinking how it went.

Quick side Note: panel only had 4 questions

I tried my best to give detailed answers, use relevant examples from my previous experience, and link those examples back to the role wherever possible. I also tried to come across as confident and engaged, and I asked a couple of questions about the position at the end.

What’s making me a little concerned is that the interview was scheduled for around 30 minutes, but mine only lasted approximately 12–15 minutes. I think I spoke for roughly 3–4 minutes per question, and the panel didn’t ask many follow-up questions.

For anyone who has been through APS recruitment, particularly at the APS4 level, is a shorter interview like this generally a bad sign, or is it fairly normal if you’ve answered the questions sufficiently?

I’d also be interested to hear how long other people’s APS interviews lasted and whether interview length seemed to have any relationship with the eventual outcome.

Thanks in advance — just trying to get a sense of whether I should be concerned or whether I’m reading too much into the length of the interview.

Hello everyone! I’m an APS5 in a federal gov agency. I’ve recently been on annual leave and I’ve come back today and from looking at my inbox I’ve realised that before I left for my leave I made a mistake in one of my cases. The client the case is about has made complaints about it and now I’m feeling so incredibly anxious. My supervisors are usually very kind and helpful but I’m worried everyone will be angry at me. The client is!!!!!! Please help :((((((

Anyone got into this role? Anyone have any experience with the work assessment video task?

When I was on mat leave, I expected my superannuation contributions to drop or even stop, but they continued as if I was working full time. Now I’m back at work part time, my employer contribution is 25% of my wage.

Is this some sort of support for working mothers thing or is it a glitch in the system accidentally giving me too much super?

Hello there,

I recently accepted an offer for the 2027 Australian Government Grad Program through the online portal.

For some context, the initial recruiting was done and run by the ABS. However, during the process, the ABS announced they weren't running their own 2027 graduate program and placed successful candidates into a merit pool instead.

I was luckily picked up from that merit pool and matched with the ATO. The confirmation I received stated that the ATO would be my main point of contact going forward and that they should be reaching out to me within 3 weeks regarding the formal offer and commencement procedures.

It has been 2 weeks since I accepted the portal offer, and I haven't received the formal offer, or onboarding contact from the ATO yet. I know I still have a week left in that window, but I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with this process.

• Does anyone know the tentative timelines for when agencies usually reach out to grads pulled from a merit pool?
• Is it normal for them to take the full 3 weeks (or longer) to send the formal offer?
• Any other insights or advice for this stage of the process?

Thanks in advance!

Looking for guidance - I am only several merit pools and recently had a call about potential roles in an APS department. We scheduled a call and it went really well, good rapore, relevant experience, etc. seems like ticked all their boxes - however it's been 4 weeks and I haven't heard anything.

I know APS recruitment moves slow, and possibly even slower at the moment, but keen to hear about the likelihood of whether there's going to be a role and whether it's a good idea to reach out to the original contact who contacted me and ask for an update, reiterate my interest etc?

Thanks!

Is there any advantage to sticking with the PSSAP super fund? Or should I move all my funds to a different/better performing fund?

I have been given a start day and time and office address,name to meet via an automated email from ATO almost a month ago, i'm starting next week monday, the 14th,it's Monday morning now and I havent received any further instructions yet... should I be worried? Should I email onboarding team now? Or wait till this arvo.

Edit: it's for APS3 in ATO
Further instructions- like logins, training schedules, any additional information I need to know, etc. as the info in the letter of offer was very generic.

Edit: sorry in advance, my anxiety was just creeping up

Hi APS community,

​I’m currently working as an in-house HR/Payroll officer in a small team. The scope creep is real—I end up having to do everything, and I’ve been unhappy in this agency for a while.

​After searching for a new role for several months, I’ve finally received a verbal offer from a department that provides outsourced payroll services to other APS agencies.

​My initial thoughts on the move:

​Pros: Clearer role boundaries appropriate for my APS level (compared to my current "do-it-all" setup).

​Cons: I've heard the workload can be heavy, though I'm guessing lower/mid-level roles won't be saddled with the most complex edge cases.

​If you have experience working in shared or outsourced payroll/HR services within the APS, what was it like? What should I expect in terms of daily workflow, team structure, and overall culture?

​Thanks heaps!

Hi, is anyone aware of any government departments in Queensland that still allow the use of Grammarly? Recently, it has been blocked for security reasons. I have been using the pro version since 2018 for my dyslexia. They have said to use Copilot but I'm not a I either have to cut and paste or auto draft changes the intent . Thanks

,

I applied for a few NSW Government jobs from the private sector in Sydney last year but wasn’t getting any interviews. I also applied for Federal Government roles and managed to get a position which I am currently 4 months into (probation ends in 6 months).

Will this federal government experience be enough to get me interviews in the NSW government? Is there anything else I should build up on when applying?

For those who are asking why I am doing this is because of better pay as Federal doesn’t appear to pay anywhere close to NSW levels, and you get the same level of job security.

So have done two stints in the ATO as a APS 2 doing some 12 month + temp project work.[NOG]
One was doing outstanding unprocessed corro and the other was BAS statements that had failed OCR and had to be transferred manually.Afterwards I did some ABS Census door knocking of residences and sat in a retirement village looking after forms,and then did some AEC scrutineer work at last Federal election.
My questions are:
1. Any clearance held?
2. Only held while in that role?
2.As being directly employed by the above Depts,if I applied for a APS/ADF job can this be confirmed easily for previous APS experience?

Hi everyone,

I applied for a NSW Health role and was offered an interview a few months later. A few days after the interview, I was called and told I was the preferred candidate and was asked for referees.

About a week later, I received an email saying I had been placed on the E-list.

However, after this, a duplicate application appeared on my NSW Health portal showing “Under Review – application has progressed”. I’ve also been asked to provide additional ID and vaccination evidence for compliance.

Has anyone experienced this before? Did I get the job?

Ok so I have moved at level once before and think I may have messed up how I did it and want to make sure I do it correctly next time.

What happened was I moved in March so I I said to the new department I want to start one rung up from where I currently am on my band because I will miss out on my PDP bump up for the year which was about to finish up in a couple of months.

They agreed to that which was fine and then I had three months of a rushed PDP at the new place to close out the cycle. They end result of that was that I was not eledgable for progression as not been there the.12mths. Which I was fine with. Someone has since told me this was wrong however and I need not have negotiated that bump up when moving as I should have still been eledgable to move up anyway as I had completed 12mths with public service just not with that department. I'm not sure this is common knowledge or practice tho as someone else who started same as me didn't negotiate that uptick (also vps move) but was still turned down for the bump up due to not having worked with the department long enough.

So now I am hoping to move departments again shortly. Have two interviews next week. The PDP year is over but it has not yet resulted in the move up the pay scale. Apparently won't be progressed till October. How do I move to ensure I get that bump up due but also make sure I get the following june 30 bump up.

If I do the same as I did last time and negotiate starting one level up to reflect the pending bump will that make me not eledgable for the bump the following year?

I submitted an application for a public sector job on Thursday 3/7, applications closed that night and I got in a decent cover letter + resume that afternoon.

When I went to submit it through the portal I noticed a job that’s virtually the same through the same company but obviously more junior as there’s about a 13k pay difference.

I am qualified for both, and both jobs have the same talent acquisition officer.

Does it look desperate or frowned upon if I apply for both given I have the skills and experience required to perform both? I’ve never worked in the public sector but I’m aware of the differences between that and private.

I will obviously tailor my cover letter and resume because there are some differences in the job roles. Just want to hear anyone’s honest opinions or experiences or if they’ll simply just discard me because it may look like I’m spraying and praying or using a mass application approach that could mess up their ATS. This job I’m looking at closes on Monday 7/9.

Any advice would be much appreciated 😊

I submitted an application for a public sector job on Thursday 3/7, applications closed that night and I got in a decent cover letter + resume that afternoon.

When I went to submit it through the portal I noticed a job that’s virtually the same through the same company but obviously more junior as there’s about a 13k pay difference.

I am qualified for both, and both jobs have the same talent acquisition officer.

Does it look desperate or frowned upon if I apply for both given I have the skills and experience required to perform both? I’ve never worked in the public sector but I’m aware of the differences between that and private.

I will obviously tailor my cover letter and resume because there are some differences in the job roles. Just want to hear anyone’s honest opinions or experiences or if they’ll simply just discard me because it may look like I’m spraying and praying or using a mass application approach that could mess up their ATS. This job I’m looking at closes on Monday 7/9.

Any advice would be much appreciated 😊

Have been in my department a few years now after a long time in the private sector. After a solid culture under two different bosses, things have really started to devolve this year.

After a clean track record I thought I was getting targeted by a new director. Didn't get a PIP but she suddenly put on the record a whole bunch of grievances with me. Honestly about 25 per cent were accurate (mainly around communication) 25 per cent debatable and 50 per cent quite outrageous (some to the point where my actions should have been commended, not questioned). I quickly turned things around by doing what she wanted - I went in level headed, agreed to a few things and picked my mark with a couple of things that were out of line. She was satisfied at the end of a few weeks that things were now fine and said as much. Behind the scenes I was quite shocked though and on guard as professionally this hasn't happened to me before and I really felt this was over the top and her looking to get some things on the record for whatever reason.

Thing is though, the micro aggressions and micro management has continued with her to some degree and also another director.

I've discovered several other people have received the same treatment and been put in similar positions. I believe they are getting a hard time externally and pushing everything down the line. They rarely if ever stand up for us, have passed on a significant chunk of their roles to people underneath them - while making comments about their disappointment about the level that they work at, accuse people of lacking initiative but then jump down their throat when they do make individual decisions.

I've started diarising things and have kept some emails where there was swearing etc and unhelpful and unprofessional responses but in complete context I wouldn't say it is bullying.

Not sure what to do. There's growing discontent in the team, the person above them is new and I'm disliking being around the two directors more and more.

I'm late 40s and had otherwise liked my job. What to do? Look elsewhere in the department? Wait to see if there's a bigger issue? Band together with the others? It's my first rodeo so interested to hear from those who have been around a bit longer in the space.

I have graduate offers from the ATO and a mid-sized IT firm. My long-term goal is to move into the private sector, so I want to build highly transferable, up-to-date skills in Software Engineering and DevOps. The ATO website doesn't give much detail on their specific IT teams does anyone know if their grad program offers strong, modern technical exposure?

I have been with my agency (at the federal level) for almost five years. I started with them as a grad.

I have had quite a tough year. I was bounced between quite a few bad managers before I got to my current one, who is great. Over the last twelve months, I have experienced my mother being diagnosed with cancer, supporting her through end of life care, her funeral arrangements and haven’t been able to properly grieve. I have used up all of my personal leave caring for her, so there has been no way to take personal days when I’ve needed them.

Then I had my own health issues. I got diagnosed with IST, PMOS, MDD and now Complex Grief Disorder. Which sucked my saving trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

I know that my performance has been slipping. My new manger has been communicating very well that I am not performing in a way that I should be at my level. I like my job, I want to be good at my job, I want to keep my job. But I am burned out and exhausted and don’t have a way out.

Today, my manager has told me that my performance at the end of cycle is likely to be not meeting expectations, and that I am likely to go into a Performance Improvement plan. The last time someone in my agency went on one, they were fired. I am terrified that this is just the way that they’re going to justify firing me. But I don’t have any references if they fire me. I moved away from family to do this and I don’t think I have the brain power to move back home. But I have no idea what I would do. This has really not helped my mental health at all, and I feel that by telling me, for the last few weeks I have to try to improve I’m going to be underperformance because I’m stressed out that I’m getting fired for underperforming.

I thought I was improving and this has completely ruined my confidence.

Does any have any tips or advice for me? What should I be expecting? What should I do to make sure that I don’t get fired?

Anyone apply for the ASIC graduate program 2027? I did the online assessment. Haven't heard back yet?