Working together: a worked example
Megan Reilly, from our admin assistant CV example, is applying for an Executive Officer post in a government casework team. The advert asks for examples of Working together and Changing and improving. At Executive Officer grade, Working together includes building contacts outside your own team, listening with genuine interest, helping colleagues and changing ways of working so teams cooperate to achieve results (GOV.UK). Megan and her employer are made up.
In the three months after the change, double bookings fell from about eight a month to one, and the planner now uses the log to plan the next week's routes. The customer service team leader asked me to show the same approach to the accounts team.
What changed, with numbers, and what happened next.
Changing and improving: a worked example
At Executive Officer grade, Changing and improving includes reviewing your own and the team's work and suggesting improvements, helping others understand a change and why it is being made, and using technology to get efficient results (GOV.UK).
Stationery and PPE orders at our head office went out whenever someone noticed a shortage, so engineers sometimes waited days for gloves and masks, and we paid for urgent deliveries.
The problem in two sentences.
I reviewed three months of orders and found that most requests came on Mondays and Tuesdays. I suggested a fixed weekly order and explained the reasons to the office manager with the figures. I rebuilt the order sheet in Excel so each team entered what it needed by Wednesday noon, with a column showing what was already in stock. I asked the engineers' supervisor for feedback on the first draft and added a line for urgent safety items that could still be ordered the same day. I then explained the change at the operations meeting and answered questions about why it would not slow urgent orders.
Review, suggestion, explaining the reasons, technology and feedback: the grade's examples, shown through actions.
Orders now go out on the same day each week, we paid no urgent delivery charges in the first two months, and engineers have not had to wait for PPE since. I review the sheet each quarter and have removed two items nobody used.
The result and how you keep it working.
The anonymised CV that goes with it
You may be asked for a CV, and sometimes a supporting statement, as well as or instead of an application form. The Civil Service may ask for your CV in an anonymised format, leaving out information that could identify you, such as your name, age or gender, and you may be asked to include only the qualifications relevant to the role, for example professional qualifications. This keeps the process fair, so that irrelevant information is not taken into account (GOV.UK: Success Profiles candidate overview, checked 16 October 2026). The advert says what it wants.
Here is Megan’s CV made anonymous for the Executive Officer post. Compare it with her full admin assistant CV: her name, phone number, email and town are gone, and so are her sixth form and A levels, which are not relevant to the role and give away her age. Every job, its dates and the work in it stay, with the apprenticeship, and the profile now names the post. The Excel order sheet in her work history is the change her Changing and improving statement describes, so the CV and the statement tell the panel one consistent story.
Profile
Admin assistant with four years in a building services company's head office, supporting a team of 25. Handles phone and email enquiries, keeps job records up to date, books meetings and travel and raises purchase orders and invoices accurately. Confident in Excel and Microsoft 365. Looking for an Executive Officer post in a government casework team.
Work experience
Admin Assistant | Arden Building Services, Coventry | August 2022–present
Answer about 40 phone and email enquiries a day from customers and engineers, logging each job on the system.
Raise purchase orders and send around 150 invoices a month, matching each to a completed job sheet.
Book meeting rooms, engineers' travel and hotels, and take minutes at the weekly operations meeting.
Rebuilt the stationery and PPE order sheet in Excel, so orders now go out on the same day each week.
Handle customer details in line with the company's data protection procedure.
Reception and Admin Support (temporary) | Brooksby Recruitment | 2021–2022
Covered reception and typed letters and candidate documents for six consultants.
Qualifications
Level 3 Business Administration Apprenticeship | 2023
Skills
Microsoft Excel (filters, lookups, pivot tables), Word and Outlook
Purchase orders and invoicing
Minute taking
Diary, travel and meeting management
Typing at about 60 words a minute
How to write yours
The behaviours you are asked for are in the job description. Recruiting managers choose a selection for each role, so you will not be asked for all of them (GOV.UK).
- Read the examples for your grade in the Civil Service behaviours. They are written grade by grade, from Administrative Assistant and Administrative Officer upwards, and your example should show actions at the grade you are applying for (GOV.UK).
- Your example can come from work, work experience, volunteering or a hobby (GOV.UK).
- Tell it in order: the situation in one or two sentences, most of the words on what you did, then the result, with a number if you have one.
- Write “I”, not “we”: the panel is assessing what you did.
- Keep to the word limit in the advert, and use one example per behaviour unless the advert says otherwise.
- If you need an adjustment to the recruitment process, such as more time or large print, tell the recruiting manager (GOV.UK).
The nine Civil Service behaviours
These are the behaviours an advert can name (GOV.UK). Each has its own examples at each grade.
- Seeing the big picture
- Changing and improving
- Making effective decisions
- Leadership
- Communicating and influencing
- Working together
- Developing self and others
- Managing a quality service
- Delivering at pace