Clerical Positions in the Civil and Public Service

catwalkqueen

Lucky3307 wrote: »

Thanks a million for the info but just wondering which of the email did you sent your comments too !!! Thanks again ioi

Hi Lucky
The email address is clerical2014 (at) publicjobs (dot) ie

Lucky3307

catwalkqueen wrote: »

Hi Lucky
The email address is clerical2014 (at) publicjobs (dot) ie

Thanks a million appreciate the info; got it sent ok but to what avail is the question; best of luck to you & all

skeleton_boy

I'm really starting to think I should of put down Dublin..

wotaccent

FloatingVoter wrote: »

One bottle of wine in me. Lets assume the figures are correct. How many of them are students looking for a summer job ? Right ...that a few grand off the top to start with. Even if they get it - they're gone come October.

How many people will give up, get better paying jobs, are waiting for the EO competition, are using this for practice ? Another few grand.

Looking better ?

Then you have to do what everybody else does - assume you're the best person there is for the job and its their loss if they don't know it.

Everybody in here has displayed an ability to knock a few sentences together. Clarity of thought is evident. Some of us might even be able to add and subtract.

Great post, FloatingVoter! It cheered me up

francozola

So what's the latest news? Has anyone completed or even got the link to Part B yet?
I completed Part A last weekend, got an E-Mail to say my results had been saved.

Should I expect an e-mail tomorrow for Part B?

egan2020

francozola wrote: »

So what's the latest news? Has anyone completed or even got the link to Part B yet?
I completed Part A last weekend, got an E-Mail to say my results had been saved.

Should I expect an e-mail tomorrow for Part B?

Some people have until tomorrow to complete the questionnaire so I would imagine they would wait until all questionnaires have been completed and submitted before starting on the aptitude tests. I highly doubt emails will be sent over the weekend so maybe next week.

price690

have until sunday to complete questionnaire, initially it was friday.

yenom

skeleton_boy wrote: »

I'm really starting to think I should of put down Dublin..

Waterford has a big Welfare office and also has a big Revenue office.

Technocentral

One would imagine that the first part would cut down the numbers hugely so that there won't be huge pressure on the server for the aptitude test?

Divisadero

Technocentral wrote: »

One would imagine that the first part would cut down the numbers hugely so that there won't be huge pressure on the server for the aptitude test?

Everybody who completes the questionnaire will get to do the aptitude test. The culling comes after the first aptitude test (or Part . However the online aptitude test might go okay as it is run by a private company Saville Testing. Well their examples work fine anyway. So we shall have to wait and see!

wotaccent

Technocentral wrote: »

One would imagine that the first part would cut down the numbers hugely so that there won't be huge pressure on the server for the aptitude test?

As I understand it, every applicant should do the unsupervised aptitude test, as both parts make up Stage 1. The booklet states that once you submit the assessment questionnaire, you will receive details for the next part after a number of days. It doesn't say 'if you're successful'. However, on the other hand, it also states that an applicant must reach the required standard in both parts. So unless we did reach the required standard in part 1, it's a waste of time doing part 2. Very ambiguous!

The latter would be quite unfair, in my opinion. No one can decide if someone's no good just by the assessment questionnaire.

Technocentral

Divisadero wrote: »

Everybody who completes the questionnaire will get to do the aptitude test. The culling comes after the first aptitude test (or Part . However the online aptitude test might go okay as it is run by a private company Saville Testing. Well their examples work fine anyway. So we shall have to wait and see!

Oh, thats worrying if its the case, as doing an aptitude with constant crashes would be much worse than doing that questionnaire with them that we just did.:(

davydoc

egan2020 wrote: »

Some people have until tomorrow to complete the questionnaire so I would imagine they would wait until all questionnaires have been completed and submitted before starting on the aptitude tests. I highly doubt emails will be sent over the weekend so maybe next week.

Is it not extended to Saturday at 15.00 ???

shmeee

davydoc wrote: »

Is it not extended to Saturday at 15.00 ???

I got a message saying it was extended till Sunday @ 3pm

Dear candidate,
Due to the exceptional number of applicants (over 28,000) for the Clerical campaign you may be experiencing delays in accessing the Assessment Questionnaire. To ensure that all applicants who have not yet completed the Questionnaire are allotted sufficient time to complete it, your test window will remain open until 15.00h Sunday, 20 July 2014 and not the time/date indicated to you previously.
If you have already completed the Questionnaire please ignore the message above.

Regards,
Clerical 2014
Recruitment Unit

davydoc

shmeee wrote: »

I got a message saying it was extended till Sunday @ 3pm

Dear candidate,
Due to the exceptional number of applicants (over 28,000) for the Clerical campaign you may be experiencing delays in accessing the Assessment Questionnaire. To ensure that all applicants who have not yet completed the Questionnaire are allotted sufficient time to complete it, your test window will remain open until 15.00h Sunday, 20 July 2014 and not the time/date indicated to you previously.
If you have already completed the Questionnaire please ignore the message above.

Regards,
Clerical 2014
Recruitment Unit

Thats the one......Didn't think it was Friday...

Starttalking

Hi guys, I am starting to worry now, 2 days ago, I tried to do the questionnaire and got "unable to connect" at 92%, before doing the test, i was here and noticed the problem and also got a message saying it is extend to saturday. Now, at this time of a day (7:54am), I can't even log in (when i clicked Applicant, it went to a blank page) What could I do?

ronan123

I think the whole thing is a right cock up, I did the online, i have no idea if i went over the time frame, no on screen timer, got disconnected 4 times, Unable to connect error countless times, and every time i was reconnected the answers and questions were in a diferent random order from my previous atempt, and it saved some of my answers but not all the answers, for the ones it saved they would of been incorrect for the new order of questions.

Such a poor set up, I cant really understand how they manage to let this happen, they knew the amount of applicants, they knew what to expect in terms of server traffic etc...

Technocentral

Starttalking wrote: »

Hi guys, I am starting to worry now, 2 days ago, I tried to do the questionnaire and got "unable to connect" at 92%, before doing the test, i was here and noticed the problem and also got a message saying it is extend to saturday. Now, at this time of a day (7:54am), I can't even log in (when i clicked Applicant, it went to a blank page) What could I do? [/QUO

Messaged support from within the questionaire when I tried forst around 10pm, (link on top right) they got back the next day and reset my link so I could do it from the start again which I did.

Starttalking

Thank you Technocentral! I got it done at around 9am but I can't go back to the previous questions, so I don't know did they mess up my answers. (Others mentioned they can see their previous answers) Anyway, its done, and let's hope for the best. Hope they can improve their system for the aptitude test.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

davydoc wrote: »

I worked in it for a year , here in Donegal, and to a man or woman , every SINGLE permanent member of staff had to go to Dublin initially, and then apply for a transfer out - apparently you do this as soon as you start - and the average seemed to be 2-3 years in Dublin, then transferred. It's the same in the north, they all seem to start in Belfast, and then get transferred back closer to home. This, though, is just my experience of people I've met.

Thats the case sometimes but I started in the CS in 2007 and never had to go to Dublin. Luck of the draw I suppose!

paintinglasses

I still can't log in. My deadline was extended until today at 1 or 3 but I can't log in to check or do the test:(
I get an apache tomcat error, must Google it and see what that means!

Just completed test in internet explorer!

davydoc

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

Thats the case sometimes but I started in the CS in 2007 and never had to go to Dublin. Luck of the draw I suppose!

Where did you start, and where did you live when you applied ?

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

davydoc wrote: »

Where did you start, and where did you live when you applied ?

I lived in Westmeath when I applied and started in Galway.

sternbyrne

Hi, has anyone been sent a link to Part B yet?

FloatingVoter

sternbyrne wrote: »

Hi, has anyone been sent a link to Part B yet?

Not that I'm aware of. Some of the extended deadlines for part A are later on today. So anytime from tomorrow onwards would be likely.

shmeee

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Not that I'm aware of. Some of the extended deadlines for part A are later on today. So anytime from tomorrow onwards would be likely.

My deadline only passed at 3 today so will be a few days I say before next part sent out.

FloatingVoter

shmeee wrote: »

My deadline only passed at 3 today so will be a few days I say before next part sent out.

I'm imagine so. After the messing last week, hopefully they'll spend the early part of next week improving the server. They know now exactly how many people will be doing part B. So no excuses for screw-ups the second time around.

The_Conductor

FloatingVoter wrote: »

I'm imagine so. After the messing last week, hopefully they'll spend the early part of next week improving the server. They know now exactly how many people will be doing part B. So no excuses for screw-ups the second time around.

Don't bet on it- this isn't the first time they've encountered 'issues' with their online testing.

karaokeman

Anyone else think the salary scales are a little unfair? I was reading an article in the Independent this morning about the starting salary being €11. I know that mightn't be bad for entry level, but the article states it takes 18 years to reach the top wage. Is this not a very slow progression to go from €22,880 to €36,000 (assuming this is a 40-hour a week job)?

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/28500-scramble-for-civil-service-jobs-at-11-an-hour-30444949.html

Divisadero

There is some hope that the aptitude tests might run smoothly as they have outsourced the tests to a private company Saville. See the sample tests by following the link in the handbook (not the ones on the PAS site) these are the Saville tests. They are loaded onto your computer first so connection is not an issue. Of course it could still be a right mess but at least the PAS are not running it. There was trouble with the online questionnaire in 2013 too so they can't really be as surprised as they claim. I'd hate to be a front line member of staff in the clerical recruitment section of the PAS though! I bet they are left dealing with all the fallout and answering all the queries etc.