Menu
Departments
Back to main menu
Professions
Back to main menu
Life in the Civil Service
Back to main menu

The Civil Service

What do Civil Servants say?

Entry Routes
Back to main menu

Early Careers

Experienced Hires

Supported Schemes

Application Guidance
Back to main menu

Applying for a Job

Supporting your Application

Try our career matcher
Apply for jobs

Artificial
Intelligence
in recruitment

Understanding Artificial Intelligence in your job application – best practice and permitted use.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini etc; are powerful tools that can help you in various stages of your job application. Read about how it’s important to see them as a supplement to your skills, experiences, and potential – not as a replacement.

How to use AI in the application stage

Show more
  • refine and articulate ideas, structure thoughts, and improve clarity
  • research the organisation, including any major projects/initiatives available in the public domain
  • research industry or profession-related trends to relate to personal experiences
  • check readability, spelling, grammar, clarity, brevity, and impact
  • to inflate skills and experiences
  • copy and paste generic responses without editing them
  • to complete any assessments that are designed to evaluate personality and natural abilities such as situational judgement tests
  • providing the AI with organisation’s sensitive data – while it may be used to strengthen your example, do not input data such as figures

Enhance your narrative

Use AI to come up with ideas and structure your thoughts, but ensure the final application reflects your personal experience and skills.

Examples:

Ask AI to provide examples of how to describe leadership experiences, then personalise these examples with your own experiences.

Use AI to help you list relevant skills for the job, and then think about how you’ve demonstrated these skills in past experiences.

For behaviour statements, create a shortlist of relevant examples and write down what you would say. Then ask AI to help you bring the story to life more articulately, help with the STAR format, or provide ideas on where you could strengthen your chosen example.

Find out more hints and tips on applying to work here at HMRC.

Applying to work at HMRC

How to use AI at the interview stage

Show more
  • interview preparation, including mock interviews based on likely questions the candidate may be asked
  • research the organisation, including any major projects/initiatives available in the public domain
  • research industry or profession-related trends to relate to personal experiences
  • to answer questions during a live or pre-recorded interview
  • using answers provided by AI for situation-based questions

Enhancing Interview Skills

Use AI for mock interview preparation.

Examples:

Show AI the job description and ask it to generate mock interview questions. Reflect on these questions and prepare your responses based on your experiences.

Practice with AI-generated questions for behavioural interviews. Compare your responses with recommended approaches, then personalise them.

Seek suggestions on body language and communication tips for interviews, and practise these in mock sessions.

Final thoughts for candidates

We value authenticity. If you want your application to stand out, using a generic AI-generated response isn’t going to separate you from the crowd, even if it promises to personalise the response. Interviews are designed to probe deeper into your skills and experiences, so this will give us a clear indication of whether the application matches the real person at interview, or if it’s something AI has fabricated.

The goal of using AI in your job application is to enhance your written application and showcase your best self. It’s not about creating a persona that isn’t you. 

Remember – while evidence such as figures will help strengthen your examples, this information may be sensitive. If you’re using AI to enhance your narrative, remove these figures first and put them back in once you have finished using AI.

Start your HMRC journey today by looking at the vacancies we have available.

Current vacancies

Discover more about what we do, our business areas and life at HMRC.

Working for HMRC

Ask our employees questions for an insight into what it’s like to work at HMRC.

Ask us a question