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Civil Service - EO exams
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Sure if you want a job within the Civil service its no hassle applying for a senior role if you already work there.
But apply outside of the Civil service and being expected to ask you current employer for a reference on the off chance that the Civil service might offer you a job seems incredibly short sited and out of touch with the world outside of the civil service.
Believe you me- its far easier to apply as an external candidate
Aoife and myself were looking for a sideways move into IT, we were refused internal transfers (not promotions) irrespective of our qualifications and suitability for the job, and advised the only way to change sections was to sit the external competition and beat the 11,000 odd other candidates at exam and then interview, made provide previous references from employers of less than 10 years ago, undergo medical evaluations by the CMO (despite the fact that we were quite happily working there already), and finally made wait while the internal promotional panel (which comprised 40% of the positions- but we were not eligible to apply for as we're both already EOs) got its act together and moved their people. As a final step- both our current sections are refusing to release us, as despite the fact that we are allegedly easily replaceable administrative EOs, they cannot find anyone sufficiently qualified to do our jobs (particularly in light of the fact that any new incoming staff have to agree to move to Portlaoise). So- 7 months down the road- we have job offers, but no idea of when we may eventually be given a date to move to the new section.......
Believe you me- its far far easier to get a promotion and initial post externally, than it is internally........0 -
smccarrick wrote: »Believe you me- its far easier to apply as an external candidate
Aoife and myself were looking for a sideways move into IT, we were refused internal transfers (not promotions) irrespective of our qualifications and suitability for the job, and advised the only way to change sections was to sit the external competition and beat the 11,000 odd other candidates at exam and then interview, made provide previous references from employers of less than 10 years ago, undergo medical evaluations by the CMO (despite the fact that we were quite happily working there already), and finally made wait while the internal promotional panel (which comprised 40% of the positions- but we were not eligible to apply for as we're both already EOs) got its act together and moved their people. As a final step- both our current sections are refusing to release us, as despite the fact that we are allegedly easily replaceable administrative EOs, they cannot find anyone sufficiently qualified to do our jobs (particularly in light of the fact that any new incoming staff have to agree to move to Portlaoise). So- 7 months down the road- we have job offers, but no idea of when we may eventually be given a date to move to the new section.......
Believe you me- its far far easier to get a promotion and initial post externally, than it is internally........
I still can't believe that our Unions signed up so willingly to decentralisation in its present guise. It will be the biggest waste of the public's money ever imo.0 -
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Well I did the interview and the written assessment today. The interview was fairly straight forward, the two people on the panel were very nice, made sure I had plenty of water and even got me a second one during the interview when they noticed I was running low. Never ran out of things to rabbit on about, the questions followed the pre-interview questionnaire word for word, although they allowed scope to bring in other examples too. Think I went on for longer than was planned, I only stumbled a bit at the end when I froze a bit when asked if I had any questions. Obviously I wanted to ask how long before we heard back and that kind of thing, but I drew a blank. Didn't matter anyway because they said to me that it would be about 10 days as I was leaving.
I had about an hour to wait around before the written exercise. First 20 minute exercise was to write a letter acknowledging receipt of a grant application, mentioning some specific details that were outlined. Make sure to keep an eye on the time here it's pretty tight. I decided to use the pen for both exercises, after one or two mistakes I think maybe the pencil would have been better!
The second 25 minute exercise kind of followed on from the letter. This time we were asked to analyse a grant application, marking it against criteria outlined in three documents. This was again fairly tight for time, and tricky enough.
Overall I think I did better in the interview than the written test. Happy enough anyway. Totally drained after it, I tend to hide my nerves fairly well before and during things like this, then feel exhausted afterwards.
In two weeks time hopefully I'll be posting here to let ye know I was successful.
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Jobs freeze coming up in the public sector apparently. Could throw a spanner in the works.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lenihan-to-order-jobs-freeze-as-slump-bites-1421241.html0 -
passinginterest wrote: »Well I did the interview and the written assessment today. The interview was fairly straight forward, the two people on the panel were very nice, made sure I had plenty of water and even got me a second one during the interview when they noticed I was running low. Never ran out of things to rabbit on about, the questions followed the pre-interview questionnaire word for word, although they allowed scope to bring in other examples too. Think I went on for longer than was planned, I only stumbled a bit at the end when I froze a bit when asked if I had any questions. Obviously I wanted to ask how long before we heard back and that kind of thing, but I drew a blank. Didn't matter anyway because they said to me that it would be about 10 days as I was leaving.
I had about an hour to wait around before the written exercise. First 20 minute exercise was to write a letter acknowledging receipt of a grant application, mentioning some specific details that were outlined. Make sure to keep an eye on the time here it's pretty tight. I decided to use the pen for both exercises, after one or two mistakes I think maybe the pencil would have been better!
The second 25 minute exercise kind of followed on from the letter. This time we were asked to analyse a grant application, marking it against criteria outlined in three documents. This was again fairly tight for time, and tricky enough.
Overall I think I did better in the interview than the written test. Happy enough anyway. Totally drained after it, I tend to hide my nerves fairly well before and during things like this, then feel exhausted afterwards.
In two weeks time hopefully I'll be posting here to let ye know I was successful.
Thanks for the update on this. Can you remember any of the questions asked at all? I suppose the main thing is to have more examples ready .....
The written excercise sounds tough enough and wont help that my handwriting is dreadful !!0 -
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I refer to your recent participation in the Stage 2 Selection Process held in connection with the above competition.
I am pleased to inform you that you have reached the qualifying standard and have been placed on the order of merit for Region 1. You will come under consideration for appointment to the position of Executive Officer in the Civil Service when and if vacancies arise in that region.
Candidates for any post on offer will be subject to the Public Appointments Service being satisfied as to qualification for appointment with regard to health, character and eligibility for the position of Executive Officer.
On behalf of the Public Appointments Service I would like to thank you for your application.
Got this today. Guess I did OK in the interview and practical. Would have been nice to get some idea of where on this order of merit I am or how many positions are likely to be offered.
Can't see too many jobs going in most Departments, the government won't want to contribute to the dole queues. They had to hire extra staff in Social Welfare to cope. Administrative staff in health and similar services are most at risk I suppose.
I'm happy anyway. Just hope I don't end up sitting on this list indefinitely. I know my current Department would like to keep me, hoping that they might be able to exert some influence. 0 -
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passinginterest wrote: »Got this today. Guess I did OK in the interview and practical. Would have been nice to get some idea of where on this order of merit I am or how many positions are likely to be offered.
Can't see too many jobs going in most Departments, the government won't want to contribute to the dole queues. They had to hire extra staff in Social Welfare to cope. Administrative staff in health and similar services are most at risk I suppose.
I'm happy anyway. Just hope I don't end up sitting on this list indefinitely. I know my current Department would like to keep me, hoping that they might be able to exert some influence.
Ring the public appointments commission where they'll let you know where exactly you are on the order of merit and when you might be called.0 -
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