Immigration Control Officer - Dublin Airport

Tipp star

I was just wondering, regarding references.... It sayes to bring a reference to cover last 3 years, not to include a reference from your current employer. I have been employed in my current position longer than the 3 years... So do I need to bring any reference at all? A little confused.

Shane Fitz

Tipp star wrote: »

I was just wondering, regarding references.... It sayes to bring a reference to cover last 3 years, not to include a reference from your current employer. I have been employed in my current position longer than the 3 years... So do I need to bring any reference at all? A little confused.

You don't bring any references in that case.

Tipp star

Oh good. Thanks

The Veteran

Very quiet on here ...

Interviews all next week, surprised no activity this weekend from the 200 or so 'victims'

py2006

Best if luck to those being interviewed this week!

Unbuckledzebra

Same, Good luck to all.

Longstand14

Had the interview this morning, the panel were fairly nice. Suppose we will hear the result in the coming weeks.

The Veteran

Longstand14 wrote: »

Had the interview this morning, the panel were fairly nice. Suppose we will hear the result in the coming weeks.

Anymore feedback? Tough or routine? How long was it? Many others around?

Longstand14

The Veteran wrote: »

Anymore feedback? Tough or routine? How long was it? Many others around?

There was about 4 or 5 when I was there waiting for the interview. Mine was 35 minutes, it flys in. Tbh I think it went okay.

Turtyturd

Best of luck.

Friend has their's tomorrow so was just going through it with them earlier. Just approached it as the standard CO competency interview with a bit of focus on the specific ICO role.

RozDoyle

Found mine alright too, will be disappointed if I fail it to be honest. From what I could see while waiting, there were at least three panels going at the same time. Interview lasts for about half an hour, the four competencies are examined and then at the end you are asked if there is anything else you want to add regarding your application.

Turtyturd

Just out of curiosity was it specific questions about the bullet points under each competency or general questions about each of the 4/5 competencies?

Longstand14

RozDoyle wrote: »

Found mine alright too, will be disappointed if I fail it to be honest. From what I could see while waiting, there were at least three panels going at the same time. Interview lasts for about half an hour, the four competencies are examined and then at the end you are asked if there is anything else you want to add regarding your application.

Were you there this morning? Did they mention when they expect to let us know?

RozDoyle

In my case it was a bit of both. One panel member asked for pretty general examples but the other asked the questions much more specifically, even specifying what particular role they wanted the example from! This threw me a bit but I had a few examples ready so I ploughed on. It just meant that I felt I didn't get to give the best example of the competency that I thought I had.

sumpector

I was in this afternoon and asked, we should find out two weeks time. Found my interview panel quite tough to be honest, I thought I had prepared enough but since this was my first competency based interview, hard to gauge it really.

Did anybody confirm how many jobs were going?

RozDoyle

I was also told about two weeks time for results. Didn't ask about numbers though. I thought my panel was serious enough too. One in particular was very sticky with questions and didn't crack a smile once. Gosh, the more I think about it now, the less well I think it went!

Turtyturd

Were any interviewers part of the Border management unit or just general PAS staff?

I would have thought most of the interview would have related back to the application form, and expanding on the examples you gave there.

And I'd go with your initial feeling about how it went. It will nearly always seem worse than it was when you keep replaying it in your head.

RozDoyle

Turtyturd wrote: »

Were any interviewers part of the Border management unit or just general PAS staff?

I would have thought most of the interview would have related back to the application form, and expanding on the examples you gave there.

And I'd go with your initial feeling about how it went. It will nearly always seem worse than it was when you keep replaying it in your head.

Thanks Turtyturd.
Neither of my interviewers disclosed what section they work in. I actually found that strange as I've done PAS interviews before and they usually do mention at the beginning what department they're from.
They had my application form on a tablet/ipad and referred to it a little, especially at the start to do an overview of my career history! Not all the competencies are covered on the initial form either though so you will need to expand/have other examples.

sumpector

I've just been talking to a friend of mine who's been through a lot of PAS interviews, he says if it didn't feel like a complete disaster you're probably all right.

If nothing else, it's great experience. Best of luck to everybody who still has to do the interview.

cw67irl

Anyone get any clarification if they are going to fill all positions from the 199 interviews?

If they have 70 positions it seems a small pool to recruit from. Will they reach further into the panel if they find they arent getting enough candidates reaching the required standard?

Shuttle666

I did mine this morning and there were 5-6 others all starting interviews at the same time. Tablets with the application forms were just being handed in before the interview, so don't expect the interviewer to have got to read and take in every line. We went straight to the 4 competencies, 2 each, one of them was a supervisor at the airport, so that was good. Overall took about 30 minutes, no banana skins, but questions phrased in a way that I needed to talk around the examples I had in mind, or in one case come up with a new more relevant one. Good luck to everyone still to do theirs.

The Veteran

Shuttle666 wrote: »

I did mine this morning and there were 5-6 others all starting interviews at the same time. Tablets with the application forms were just being handed in before the interview, so don't expect the interviewer to have got to read and take in every line. We went straight to the 4 competencies, 2 each, one of them was a supervisor at the airport, so that was good. Overall took about 30 minutes, no banana skins, but questions phrased in a way that I needed to talk around the examples I had in mind, or in one case come up with a new more relevant one. Good luck to everyone still to do theirs.

best of luck for the result - yesterday's crew said the interviewers didn't identify where they worked, how do you know one of your interviewers was a supervisor at the airport?

On the tablets, I'd say they read them yesterday for today rather than just before the interview

Shuttle666

best of luck for the result - yesterday's crew said the interviewers didn't identify where they worked, how do you know one of your interviewers was a supervisor at the airport?

The interviewer said so early in the interview, and also heard other two interviewers introducing themselves to other candidates as such.

On the tablets, I'd say they read them yesterday for today rather than just before the interview.

Possibly, but in any case you wouldn't expect them to remember too much detail with interviews every 30 minutes or so - in the first few answers I might have been better off to set the background of the example at bit better.

Overall it was a very fair interview, needed a bit of thought on the spot rather than just reciting prepared answers, and increased my interest in the role if anything, which is always good.

StokesDrift

Did my interview today as well. There were four of us sitting outside, all scheduled for the same time. My interview started about 15 mins late, and the panel consisted of a HR person and an airport supervisor. There were general questions about my previous career and then they moved on to the four competencies. The questions were very specific and, as others have mentioned, required a lot of thinking on your feet rather than relying on the prep work. I found the overall interview quite tough but interesting. I'm not sure how I did, but would like to wish best of luck to others still waiting to do their interview.

The Veteran

StokesDrift wrote: »

Did my interview today as well. There were four of us sitting outside, all scheduled for the same time. My interview started about 15 mins late, and the panel consisted of a HR person and an airport supervisor. There were general questions about my previous career and then they moved on to the four competencies. The questions were very specific and, as others have mentioned, required a lot of thinking on your feet rather than relying on the prep work. I found the overall interview quite tough but interesting. I'm not sure how I did, but would like to wish best of luck to others still waiting to do their interview.

Tough but fair with candidates having to think for themselves on the spot rather than rely on a script - that seems to be the emerging consensus.

That sounds really reasonable and also that the interview is reflecting the role which as a HR trained person is "perfect" in terms of that is how it's supposed to be

Unbuckledzebra

Did my interview Monday and have to say I found it fair, the panel seemed like decent people and explained everything clearly. Not sure I preformed at my best but who ever does in these things, think I did enough to prove myself all the same.
As I said above good luck to the rest of ye and bit a luck might meet a few of ye in training.

Sprog 4

The Veteran wrote: »

Tough but fair with candidates having to think for themselves on the spot rather than rely on a script - that seems to be the emerging consensus.

There really wasn't anything unexpected in my interview so not much thinking involved really If you read the familiarisation material I'll suggest you won't be surprised in any way. There are too many applicants for the interviewers to deviate from the set questions they have or to be creative with what they ask.

RozDoyle

Sprog 4 wrote: »

There really wasn't anything unexpected in my interview so not much thinking involved really If you read the familiarisation material I'll suggest you won't be surprised in any way. There are too many applicants for the interviewers to deviate from the set questions they have or to be creative with what they ask.

We are dealing with the top 200 people here, I'm pretty sure everyone is copped on enough to have read the familiarisation material prior to interview. Also we were given the competencies beforehand so nothing unexpected there.
What some posters, including myself have said is that the way in which the questions were asked/phrased was a bit different from what we have experienced in competency based interviews before be it for public or private jobs. For example I may have had examples for the customer service competency in my mind from my time working in retail. However, the interviewer didn't let me choose my own. Instead they said "ah I see you have worked in a pig factory, can you tell me how you demonstrated good customer service in that role" (not real examples!)
I am not trying to be negative or anything, I am only posting here to give others an idea of what to expect as I've always found boards useful for that in the past when I've been in similar situations. Anyway, as others have said, best of luck to all still left to go, hopefully we all pass together.

Soap MacTavish

just wondering with regard to the written references where they asked for at the interview stage for people who have done their interviews? thanks

StokesDrift

Soap MacTavish wrote: »

just wondering with regard to the written references where they asked for at the interview stage for people who have done their interviews? thanks

Yes, references and all other docs are asked for when you arrive at the reception desk. You'll also be asked to fill out the Garda vetting form.