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The Gambling Commission's guidance for job applicants on our recruiting and hiring processes.
Published: 3 July 2023
Last updated: 3 July 2023
This version was printed or saved on: 30 April 2024
Online version: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/careers/guide/our-application-process
Overview: Our whole application process is online.
When applying for a role at the Gambling Commission, you will be asked to complete an online application. The application form consists of questions detailing your employment history, relevant qualifications, and a supporting statement to showcase your skills and experience.
During the first part of your application, we ask you not to include any personally identifiable information, such as your name and email address. This is because we operate an inclusive recruitment process whereby hiring managers shortlist applicants solely based on the skills and experience listed within the application form.
The second part of your application form includes diversity monitoring questions which are not accessed by the hiring panel. This data is captured for data monitoring purposes and only viewed by our People Services team. Review our applicant guidance for tips on completing your application form.
We do not give feedback at this stage. Feedback will only be given after you have attended an interview.
An application is a great way to showcase your skills and experience. We have created this guidance to ensure your application is providing the great content we want to see from candidates.
We are operating an inclusive recruitment process. Therefore, ensure you do not include any personally identifiable information (such as your name and address) during the first section of your application form.
When completing this section, provide the main roles, responsibilities and achievements of your current and previous employment. Try and make these as relevant as possible to the role you are applying for. List this in order, starting with your most recent employer.
This section allows you the opportunity to bring your experience to light, emphasise the key skills, and experience you have to demonstrate your competency for the role. We will be looking for key examples that meet our essential and desirable criteria listed within the job description. Take the time to review the job description in detail. A good way to list your examples is by using the STAR technique format:
We will not ask you to upload a CV. Ensure your supporting statement covers your relevant skills and experience in detail. Try to be concise and aim for a supporting statement no longer than one side of A4 paper.
List any relevant qualifications that may be required or useful for the role such as an undergraduate, master's degree, or vocational courses you have taken.
Once you have completed the first page of your application, you will be asked to answer our screening and diversity monitoring questions. Your responses will not be viewed by the hiring panel.
Before submitting your application, go back through your application to ensure you have answered all the questions. Once submitted, you will receive an email to confirm we have received your application. When the hiring panel have concluded their shortlisting, you will receive an outcome of your application by email.
If you are successful for an interview, take a look at our interview process and guidance.
At the Gambling Commission we use competency-based interviews. Competencies are the behaviours which have shown to be effective in how you do a particular role.
Our interviews are formed around both our ways of working and other technical competencies that are relevant to the role you are applying for.
A competency-based interview asks each candidate the same questions which are designed to gather information about their particular skills and that of the role.
We use these questions:
A competency-based interview does not use open-ended questions. Instead, candidates will be asked questions which are designed to target a particular skill.
This gives candidates the opportunity to provide examples of situations where they have displayed behaviours that are required for the role. The responses given will allow the interviewer to determine how a candidate's particular experience compliments what is necessary to be successful in the role.
Please note the following information in preparation for your interview with us:
As the regulator of the National Lottery, there are some roles within the Commission that are prohibited from playing the National Lottery. This does not affect your family playing. We will inform you at interview if the role you have applied for is on the Prohibited List.
The interviewers will begin with some questions about yourself and your background. These will be followed up with competency questions to gain information about key behaviours in relation to the role. They often begin with phrases such as:
When answering the questions it is important to focus on your particular role, discussing your contribution in as much detail as possible. The interview panel will want you to succeed, so they will ask questions that allow you to demonstrate your strengths.
Yes. Feel free to bring notes to refer to during the interview. This will not affect your scoring. However, it is important you do not simply read from these notes but instead use them to prompt you during your interview.
The questions asked will be consistent with those asked of all candidates applying for the same position to ensure fairness and consistency. They will be unique to the role type so you will not be able to prepare a response prior to the interview.
A good way of ensuring you answer the questions well is to follow the STAR method. This will ensure that the answers you give are easy for the interviewers to understand both in terms of the situation but also the part that you played.
If you need to change your interview you should contact the individual who sent you the interview confirmation. Contact us as soon as possible to cancel your interview or withdraw your application on our recruitment website (opens in a new tab).
We will try our best to accommodate your request; however, this cannot be guaranteed, and will only be possible if there are remaining interview slots available.
Notify us of what support you require, such as a sign language interpreter or wheelchair access, by email at least 48 hours before your interview and we will do our best to accommodate you.
If you prefer, you can contact the central recruitment team rather than the hiring manager for this request.
We do not have parking facilities. The nearest car parks are Grand Central Station and the Town Hall, all of which are within a 5 minute walk from us.
The hiring manager will inform you of what will happen next once your interview is complete.
In some cases there will be a second stage to the interview process which might include meeting some team members or completing an exercise or presentation task. You will be provided with all of the details and timescales for this at your interview.
If there is not another stage then the hiring manager will give you a deadline of when you will hear back from us in regards to a decision. We will aim to inform you of the outcome as quickly as possible.
We understand how important feedback is and as part of the our ways of working, it will always be offered to candidates. You can request feedback at the final stage of your interview process.
The ways of working are 5 key behavioural traits that have been identified to be vital in helping us fulfil our vision and achieve our organisational goals.
They also describe the ways in which we want our employees to complete their role. It is important that we employ candidates who can adapt to these ways of working, which is why they are an important part of our selection and recruitment criteria.
As well as asking technical questions to determine your suitability for the role, the hiring manager will also identify how you will fit into their team and will use the ways of working to do this.
Before your interview, we recommend that you: