Basic navigation and search for vacancy holders (vX)
Source: gov.uk (2025-07-04)

Overview of common navigation in the Civil Service Jobs vX system, including search and table layouts for vacancy holders.

Basic navigation

The Navigation Panel is on the left-hand side of the screen, and is used to access applications, vacancies, interview schedules and your account settings.

The Dashboard button returns you to the home screen.

If you select Applications or Vacancies, you can see your recently viewed items.

Select the speech bubble icon to view any system messages, errors or updates.

Searching

Use the search box to find applications, vacancies, candidates or other text. You can enter IDs, job titles, names or email addresses and this will return a list of matches.

Advanced search

Within either the Applications or Vacancies sections, you can add more search criteria:
- Select Search, then the Edit Search button
- Type or select the criteria you want to search for. Use the search at the top of the list to narrow down the results. Some fields will show further options where you can select values to include or exclude.
- Select Add Search Criterion to save.
- You can add further criteria to your search using the same process.
- To run your search, select Search.
The results will be displayed in a table layout.

Saved searches

You can access your most recent searches by selecting the search box. You can also save a search to access in future in the My Tasks menu.

Once you have completed a search, you can save the details to access them again later:
- Select Edit Search.
- Select Save As New Search and enter a name for your search.
- Select either Private or Global - private searches are only visible to you, and global searches will be visible to all other users.
- For application searches, you can also select the option for Alert me when applicants are modified. This means you will receive notification emails when applications match your search criteria.
- Select Save.
If you have chosen the saved search alert option, every 15 minutes the system will check for applications that match your search criteria, and send an email when any new ones are found.

Stopping notification emails from searches

If you no longer want to receive notifications when applications match your search criteria:
- Go to your saved search.
- Select Edit Search.
- Deselect the Alert me option, then Save Search.
Vacancy holder quick links

On your Dashboard there are quick link buttons, which allow you to access guidance and navigate to the places you use most.

The Dashboard overview tab has quick links to:
- create a vacancy
- review vacancies in draft
- review vacancies requiring an update
The Sift and interviews tab has quick links to:
- review applications awaiting sift
- view the interview schedule
- add interview feedback
The Pre-employment checks tab has quick links to:
- upload missing ID
- track the progress of applications through pre-employment checks
- review applications requiring a risk assessment
- confirm checking requirements for candidates from other government departments
The Onboarding tab has a quick link to:
- complete new starter forms
The Vacancy overview tab shows a table with the status of all your vacancies.

The lists on each tab show more details about your vacancies and applications.

Table layouts

Table layouts show lists of applications, vacancies or interviews. You can filter information, reorder it, select rows and export to Excel.

Use the Displaying dropdown to change the number of rows displayed.

Use the Selected dropdown to select or deselect multiple list items.

Use Filter results to search and filter the list. You can also select the down arrow to filter individual or multiple columns.

Use Layout to select a different layout. These display the most common searches.

You can select individual or multiple rows from a table. If you want to view only your selected rows, select the Results dropdown then Show only selected.

To go to the full record for any row you can double-click it, or select it and click View from the List Action Toolbar (located under the main search box).

You can export your table into Excel by selecting Download layout.

Vacancy summary

All vacancy information is shown on the Vacancy Summary page.

Vacancy information tabs
- Summary shows essential information which is used to build the advert on Civil Service Jobs. You can edit vacancy forms by selecting Edit.
- Vacancy Forms contains the Vacancy details form with job advert details, and any other forms that have been used to create and manage the vacancy.
- Panel allows you to add, edit or remove panel members.
- Interviews shows all Interview Schedules for the vacancy - you may not have access to this.
- Applications shows applications and their status.
- History records all changes to the vacancy, and any vacancy emails that have been sent.
You can Copy or Add Comment to a vacancy using the List Action Toolbar.

Application summary

All information about an individual application is shown on the application summary page.

Candidate information tabs
- Candidate Summary shows important candidate information. You can Add Application Comments in this tab.
- Comments allows you to Add Comments and Store against candidate.
Application Forms shows all application and recruiter forms attached to the application:
- Forms will open in a new tab.
- In each form you can Edit, Print, Close or Compare another form.
- You can add a form by selecting +Add Form.
- Test results is present when online tests are required. It gives an overview of the candidate’s progress and scores.
Status buttons

Status buttons show under the candidate’s name. Use these to move candidate to the next status in the process.

List action toolbar

A toolbar with different options may appear at the top of the page. It shows relevant options in different parts of the system.

Account settings

You can access your account settings by selecting your name at the top of the page.

You can:
- Switch between multiple profiles
- Choose whether your searches should include archived data or use current data only - using archived data may make your searches slower
- Change your password
- Choose from the standard blue theme or an alternative high contrast theme
- Customise accessibility settings in the Preferences section
Setting your preferences

There are a range of options available to customise your view. These make navigation or interacting with controls easier for screen reader or keyboard-only users:
- Keyboard Focus - if set to ‘On’, enables a ‘focus snail’ animation in some areas such as the dashboard, which may be helpful to low vision keyboard users.
- Recent searches are accessed using the relevant button - if set to ‘On’, your recent searches are not displayed in the menu search bar, but can be reached via the Toggle Recent Search Terms button
- Remove popout lists of recent items from lefthand menu - if set to ‘On’, menu items will appear with the side menu itself, rather than displaying over the top of the main page
- Show buttons for adding search criteria and changing layouts - if set to ‘On’, the search criteria and layout dropdowns will only change the page content when a button is pressed
- Disable initial focus on the page for ATS interface (recommended for screen reader users) - if set to ‘On’, this ensures that keyboard focus always begins predictably at the skip links for the page
- Improve datatable layout for screen readers - if set to ‘On’, this means that the header row in tables will scroll upwards along with the content. If set to Off, the header row remains fixed at the top of the page while scrolling.
- Enable the slider for choosing pages of the datatable (not keyboard friendly) - if set to ‘On’, this displays a slider to navigate between pages. If set to ‘Off’, numbered links to pages are shown
- Add checkboxes to select datatable rows - if set to ‘On’, you can select rows in a table using the keyboard
- Replace the “select2” plugin with the native select (this removes the search function inside dropdowns) - if set to ‘On’, dropdown menus in forms will not include the search function, making it easier for screen reader users to navigate
Help and support

Contact your recruitment team if you need help using the system.