CARELESS ‘BAD NEWS’ EMAIL INSULTING TO APPLICANTS, SAYS GRADUATE FOG
More than 500 candidates who applied for the 2010/11 Home Office graduate intern scheme have been told the programme has been cancelled.
Graduate Fog has learned that there were only 15 places available, which means that more than 33 graduates applied for every position.
And the bad news just kept on coming – as disappointed applicants saw their names and email addresses could be viewed by everyone else who had applied, thanks to what we assume was an administrative error.
To Graduate Fog, this blunder sums up the government’s slapdash attitude towards graduates. It also underlines the fact that while it expects private businesses to open their doors to university leavers seeking work, it knows the civil service cannot afford to do the same.
Effectively, they’re telling you to look elsewhere.
But where?
Although experts say there are signs that the private sector is recovering and a few more graduate jobs are coming through, my fear is that this is not going to be enough to make up for the loss of public sector graduate recruitment programmes that used to welcome so many of you after uni.
In closing its doors to graduates, the public sector is hoping you will move on to the private sector and seek work there instead. But what if there just aren’t enough jobs for all of you? What then?
The Home Office email was forwarded to me by one of Graduate Fog’s users, who was among the long list of applicants. It read:
Dear candidate
I am writing to let you know that unfortunately we have had to cancel the Home Office graduate intern programme this year and so won’t be going ahead with rest of the process.
This is a decision we have taken in response to the Government’s announcement of a Civil Service recruitment freeze. We have looked long and hard to see if there was any way to preserve what is undoubtedly a valuable programme. However, there are very limited exceptions to the freeze and the scheme does not qualify. Accordingly we cannot go ahead with the interviews as planned.
I know that you will be disappointed at this news. I’d like to thank you for the time and effort you put in to your application and for your interest in working for the Home Office.
Yours sincerely….
(I’ll spare the author’s blushes by keeping his/her name to myself, but the email was sent by a ‘Policy Analyst’ in the ‘Strategic Policy Team’, from the address ‘placement.application@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk‘)
Graduate Fog is disappointed for the candidates who had taken the trouble to complete the 15-page application form necessary for them to get to this stage.
(Hilarously, one of the criteria for the job was ‘Strong numerical and IT capability’… Bcc button, anyone?).
But I am not surprised by the announcement of the programme’s cancellation.
(Last month the METRO warned that it looked likely graduates would be hardest-hit by the civil service’s planned recruitment freeze.)
I’m not even surprised by the huge number of candidates who applied for such a small number of roles – we all know the graduate job market is set to be extremely tough this summer.
But what I’m shocked by is the Home Office’s careless disregard for retaining the applicants’ privacy as they delivered the bad news.
They have:
– exposed the identities of the candidates, when job applications are supposed to be confidential. This information could easily be passed on to countless others simply by forwarding the email. (“Ooh, look who also applied..”)
– revealed the personal email addresses of the candidates. In doing this, has the Home Office violated Data Protection laws?
– displayed a slapdash attitude towards young job-seekers. Would this sort of careless mistake have happened if the vacancies had been at a senior level within the civil service? Graduate Fog suspects not.
Yesterday, Graduate Fog asked the Home Office what went wrong – and a spokesperson has assured me that a statement is on its way. That was nearly 24 hours ago.
Everything about this story disappoints me – but my top two gripes are these:
– The lack of care and respect shown towards graduate applicants
and
– The cruel irony of the government failing to keep its side of the bargain in providing its share of graduate jobs, when it was the politicians (albeit a different party) that encouraged so many of you to go to university in the first place, because it was bound to pay off for you long-term. Or was it?
*Am I over-reacting to a simple admin boo-boo?
Or do you agree that this sends the message that politicians don’t give a stuff about graduates?
Wow this is awful news for all those who applied.
Looks like entrepreneurship may be the only way out for graduates.
I was one of the candidates whose details were released. I am shocked mich like yourself, that an organisation like the Home Office could make such a blunder. The application form was 30-something pages, and the cancellation of the scheme is a real slap in the face. Not to mention we haven’t received an apology for the error. Your blog sums my feelings up perfectly.
“I am shocked mich like yourself, that an organisation like the Home Office could make such a blunder”
Did the fact that the government have mislaid reams of personal/private or sensitive classified data numerous times in the last 5 years not lower your expectations regarding their blundering? 😉
The irony is that us graduates that were refused are most likely of a higher calibre than the clowns that made this mistake.
I think the author of this blog post has confused civil service errors with the governments. Yes of course it was a civil service error but not because of the government’s decision and their slap-dash attitude towards the public sector. fine careful cutting with a scalpel indeed!
In times like these we should be supporting employed public sector workers and especially those in the Home Office as it is they, if anyone, who wield the most influence in getting the graduate scheme back. In the mean time it is our job to openly challenge the government’s decision to put a freeze on recruitment!
I suggest that all those who were effected by the leak email the Home Office and demand an explanation, it also gives us an opportunity to get together and campaign to re-instate the graduate scheme!
“The irony is that us graduates that were refused are most likely of a higher calibre than the clowns that made this mistake.”
Well… the Home Office pack (see: http://bit.ly/bBI3vT) would suggest that it was a current graduate intern who made the error…
Disappointed with this whole episode – albeit not surprising for myself. I graduated last year, and having missed out on a few good opportunities, I am very well accustomed to receiving bad news but this does take the biscuit. Describing my feelings as ‘disillusioned’ with regard to my graduate experience just doesn’t cover it…
I was one of the people very much disappointed by the Home Office, and I am not defending them, but is this all not being blown out of proportion?
1) Reference is made above to the number of applications as though this is a bad thing, but this is no ones’s fault, all grad schemes are oversubscribed and many probably have more applicants than this.
2) Ok, so they shouldn’t have allowed us all to see each other’s email addresses, but then someone forwards the email they sent to this website and allows them to see all the addresses. I consequently get an email from the person running this site, who emails me to say that we should be outraged about the lack of privacy. Hypocritical much?!?
I am bitterly disappointed by the whole experience, and I do think that the situation reflects the sorry state of affairs the government has found itself in, but this blog is all a bit too much, and trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill.
I was one of those disappointed by the cancellation of the scheme. It seemed like a great opportunity for fifteen people to get eleven months of paid work experience at a fraction of the cost of what the Home Office would have paid in bonuses last year.
A bad blunder also- something I’ve been used to hearing about from the Home Office in the past few years.
Recently received. An “administrative error”? On that part of the named below, it might seem. I trust the HO are getting rid of him, too…
—
Dear candidate,
Due to an administrative error the email about the cancellation of the Home Office Graduate Placement scheme showed candidates’ email addresses. No other information was included. We wish to apologise for the mistake. The Home Office takes your privacy extremely seriously and we would like to reassure you that all your other details are secure and remain strictly confidential.
I’d also like to reiterate our regret at the cancellation of the scheme, which is required as part of the Civil Service recruitment freeze.
Yours faithfully,
Tewodros Sile
Policy Adviser
Home Office
I’ll be honest and say that the most annoying part of the whole experience is the fact that I wasted valuable time filling in an application form that isn’t even going to be considered. Although I would have been annoyed had the email contained a rejection, I’d at least have the knowledge that I didn’t get the role because there were 15 other applicants better than me – not because the scheme has been dropped.
Lets put things in perspective here, it was only our email addresses which were disclosed – worst case scenario – we get a load of junk email.
Also I hardly think it shows a slapdash attitude towards graduates since the civil service job freeze was across the board, so this blog is slightly misleading in implying that graduates are the only victims.
Yeh I am annoyed, it’s out of our hands so lets just move on.
Wow – it’s great that so many of you have taken the trouble to comment – thank you! Also thank you to everybody who has emailed me privately to share your views.
@All – it seems we have a range of opinions here on how bad this blunder was – and what it represents. Many of you feel (like i do) that it was a pretty poor effort on the part of the civil service – whilst others feel it was an innocent mistake which had no great significance. Obviously there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ response to this situation and I’m absolutely fine with differing opinions on Graduate Fog – that’s what it’s all about!
@Thomas Allen – yes, you are probably right that I conflated the civil service and the government in this post. Perhaps it was residual anger from David Willetts’ labelling a students a ‘burden’ to the taxpayer on Thursday – and then this…Grr… I just feel that they really don’t give you the respect that you deserve after you’ve followed their advice to go to university – and it makes me furious! But I will be more careful in future, so thanks for pointing this out.
@Brendan – i’m being stupid – what do you mean? I saw there was a note in the application pack warning that there was a chance the scheme could be cancelled – is that what you were drawing our attention to?
@Anon – sorry you feel it was hypocritical of me to use your email address to contact you myself to update you on this situation. I knew when I did this i would lay myself open to this charge! but it came down to me asking myself ‘what would i want if this had happened to me?’ Since I’m not selling anything and have vowed not to use your email address to ever contact you again, I figured a short email keeping you up to date and reassuring you would be okay. Many apologies if you were offended by this. I have had 20 times the number of thank yous as i’ve had complaints – but i know that everyone feels differently about this kind of stuff so I can only say sorry again if you felt i did the wrong thing in dropping you a line.
@Freddy – Thanks for showing us the email you received from the Home Office. It’s certainly something that they’ve acknowledged their mistake. I know from private correspondence that a number of you were annoyed enough to lodge formal complaints – so perhaps that’s why they took this measure. And obviously they knew that I was going to publish a post about it on my site, so perhaps they were busy reading Graduate Fog!
Just one thing – and maybe it’s just me – but I’m never sure how sincere an email can sound when the person addresses you as ‘Dear candidate’?! If it were me I’d rather they just dropped that line and cut to the chase with ‘Due to…’ – but hey, maybe that’s just me!
As one of the applicants, I’m far more annoyed at this blog than I am at the mistake the Home Office made. For a start the headline is misleading as the Home Office did not ‘then publish candidate’s details online’, they simply forgot to conceal all the email addresses. Your headlines implies a deliberate (and malicious) act. I think it’s already been pointed out that you’ve confused the civil service with the government, and I completely disagree that the incident demonstrates a ‘slap dash attitute to graduates’. It demonstrates that the Home Office employs humans who make occassional mistakes which psuedo-journalists with blogs no one’s previously heard of use to try and increase traffic to their poorly-written content (have you noticed the spelling mistake in your blog, by the way?). Your arguements are wholly unconvincing (even if you hadn’t managed to get confused over what you were talking about, I don’t see much evidence in your rants).
What I do find shocking is the number of people who, apparently, wanted to work for the Home Office, but who are so quick to turn on their prospective employers and condemn them for a simple admin error (which would have been no big deal had someone not then passed the addresses on to you).
@Tanya de Grunwald:
You wrote: “Just one thing — and maybe it’s just me — but I’m never sure how sincere an email can sound when the person addresses you as ‘Dear candidate’?! If it were me I’d rather they just dropped that line and cut to the chase with ‘Due to…’ — but hey, maybe that’s just me!”
Why should we care about your opinion on their terms of address?. You weren’t an applicant, it wasn’t addressed to you, and your comment is clearly yet another attempt to stir up anger at a non-issue to put yourself and your blog on the virtual map. ‘Dear Candidate’ is far more polite than not bothering to address us at all, and, as you know, there are far too many candidates for them to address each individually. Speculating on their sincerity based simply on how an email is addressed is ridiculous, petty, and completely irrelevant.
I too was disappointed by the cancellation of this scheme as it would have been a great opportunity for the ‘lucky’ fifteen. However I am more frustrated that since annoucing the ‘freeze on recruitment’ there has been nothing posted on the Civil service website telling us how far this will extend and if it will work retro-actively. As jobs are still posted as available I am left wondering whether to continue the long process of application or simply walk away from the Civil Service. More needs to be said about this whole issue…
Hi all,
Really sorry to see the back of another internship scheme. It’s also a shame the email leak has overshadowed the loss of a great opportunity for graduates.
Is there anyone out there who applied for the Home Office scheme who is willing to be interviewed over the phone?
I’m a journalist for the Careers section of the Guardian website and would really like to explore further some of your thoughts and experiences about this.
Drop me an email (I’ll keep your details to myself!) if you would like to chat about this further: kerry.eustice@guardian.co.uk
@Desperateattemptforpublicity?
Wow, thanks for the ego boost! ; )
I don’t mind that you and I have different takes on this story. What I do mind is the manner you chose to express your opinion. There was no need to be so rude and unpleasant.
Since you’re new to Graduate Fog, let me explain that this site is a place of discussion, debate and support. Everybody is entitled to their opinion – including me. And everybody is entitled to be treated with respect by other users – again, this includes me.
If you would like to comment again, please adjust your tone. I will not be publishing any more comments along the lines of the ones you have just submitted.
In the meantime, I wish you the best of luck with your job search.
@All
Update from Kerry at the Guardian – she says you can be anonymous if you’d prefer. x
@All
On Friday afternoon, the Home Office made this statement to Graduate Fog:
“A Home Office spokesperson said:
“On 24th May the government announced a Civil Service wide external
recruitment freeze affecting all departments. This freeze has lead to
the closure of the graduate intern scheme at the Home Office. The Home
Office is committed to providing opportunities to talented graduates
within the possibilities of government rules and financial realities.
This is reflected in the continuation of the cross civil service fast
stream programme in 2011.”
“We respect people’s privacy, and apologise for an administration error
which resulted in applicant’s emails being disclosed.”
A Graduate Fog user who emailed them directly on Friday also had this response:
“Thank you for your e-mail. We will shortly be e-mailing all candidates to apologise for what was an administrative error. However, I would like to take the opportunity to apologise personally — we really regret the mistake. I would like to add that all other details of your application remain secure and will be treated as strictly confidential.
Please give me a call on Monday if you have any concerns or questions that I can help with.
Apologies again,”
– And I should mention that they actually addressed her by her name this time!
“(have you noticed the spelling mistake in your blog, by the way?). Your arguements [sic] are wholly unconvincing”
Pot. Meet Kettle.
/rolls eyes
I’m endlessly amused at pedants who point out others’ perceived shortcomings, but then go on to make a spelling mistake in the next sentence. Priceless.
Agreed that of course you should give robust criticism on non-issues being blown out of proportion in to bloggable material if you feel that to be the case here, but there’s no need for your condescension and outright lack of courtesy. Internet warriors who act tough because they’re cloaked in anonymity really are the bane of the ‘net …
@ Desperate attempt for publicity?
The fact that they wrote ‘Dear candidate’ to me was quite ironic and an insult to me. As a person who took the time to apply for the position only to be let down at the very last minute I was disappointed yes but also angry that they terminated the scheme completely. I believe that the government should at the very least offer non-paid internships in all government sectors because it is obvious in this society full of graduates that experience is vital if one is to get a foot in the door. If they are going to cut a significant amount of jobs and schemes then there must be something else to replace them and non-paid internships are essential because they offer the one thing that I and every other graduate out there desperately wants – experience in their chosen field.
And for a person running a website without any real financial backing and completely on her own, I applaud Tanya for her efforts to create a discussion on this home office farce and think it is quite inconsiderate for you to state her remarks as ‘petty’ and ‘ridiculous’ when she is just making an effort to highlight the farce in question as well as try and get herself out there in the dog eat dog world that is the internet.
@GarethRees
Thanks for your support!
I didn’t realise it was news that occasionally spelling mistakes appear on blogs? (Especially ones run by an editor who does not have any money to pay herself, let alone an army of proof-readers!)
: (
A bit harsh, i thought!