2020 Executive Officer Civil Service

HungrySeagull

Just a thought - were the people who did their e-tray in mid February notified to say their results would be delayed? It might be due to this and PAS need to ensure that their results are correct before releasing them.

gestappo

HungrySeagull wrote: »

Just a thought - were the people who did their e-tray in mid February notified to say their results would be delayed? It might be due to this and PAS need to ensure that their results are correct before releasing them.

Yea that’s my thought too

gestappo

I emailed PAS this morning and they usually reply back quick enough but not today. Has anyone received a reply from PAS so far today?

I’m guessing there’s an awful lot going on behind the scenes, especially with the etray fiasco!

BonnieSituation

gestappo wrote: »

I emailed PAS this morning and they usually reply back quick enough but not today. Has anyone received a reply from PAS so far today?

I’m guessing there’s an awful lot going on behind the scenes, especially with the etray fiasco!

Given you were just ahead of me in OOM I'm surprised I got nothing from them.

gestappo

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Given you were just ahead of me in OOM I'm surprised I got nothing from them.

BonnieSituation has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space.

Your mailbox is full!

facade

I got the same email. My score was higher than the previous 2 results- crazy. They said it doesnt affect me because I'm already placed, and I agree im happy enough with the placement.

But for anyone who is not happy and got a higher score it might worth getting back on to PAS. I think the placements are all about timing, so if you should have been in a higher batch to be interviewed (based on your new results) your placement may have been to a more appropriate department.

Just a thought

BonnieSituation

gestappo wrote: »

Your mailbox is full!

Fire away

Galwayhurl

facade wrote: »

I got the same email. My score was higher than the previous 2 results- crazy. They said it doesnt affect me because I'm already placed, and I agree im happy enough with the placement.

But for anyone who is not happy and got a higher score it might worth getting back on to PAS. I think the placements are all about timing, so if you should have been in a higher batch to be interviewed (based on your new results) your placement may have been to a more appropriate department.

Just a thought

Hey Facade, can I ask where you were posted to? If you prefer to PM me that would be great.

Just going through vetting myself and waiting to hear about my assignment. Thanks.

Aointroim

gestappo wrote: »

I emailed PAS this morning and they usually reply back quick enough but not today. Has anyone received a reply from PAS so far today?

I’m guessing there’s an awful lot going on behind the scenes, especially with the etray fiasco!

I emailed and said I wanted someone to ring me, that got them to reply that they were too busy to ring candidates and thats when they were on the hook!

Had an email from the manager of the recruitment drive respond with my 4th different score, now even lower than the corrected one they sent me on publicjobs, she also went on yo say that i had pulled out Dublin but remained in contention for Wicklow.

The thing is i did pull out of Dublin but my preference and only other choice was Cork

They recalled their email but not before i replied and screenshotted their response.

I then get a “sorry we sent that by accident” because we are soo overwhelmed.

I am so exhausted with this, i did that e-tray for stage 2 5 months ago!

MonikaB

Aointroim wrote: »

I emailed and said I wanted someone to ring me, that got them to reply that they were too busy to ring candidates and thats when they were on the hook!

Had an email from the manager of the recruitment drive respond with my 4th different score, now even lower than the corrected one they sent me on publicjobs, she also went on yo say that i had pulled out Dublin but remained in contention for Wicklow.

The thing is i did pull out of Dublin but my preference and only other choice was Cork

They recalled their email but not before i replied and screenshotted their response.

I then get a “sorry we sent that by accident” because we are soo overwhelmed.

I am so exhausted with this, i did that e-tray for stage 2 5 months ago!

It really feels like such a mess this time around. I mean we all have candidates numbers assigned to us, it really isn't rocket science to keep the score to the correct id.

Seesee

JDWW wrote: »

I had received very similar stories from civilians in AGS and for that reason I turned down the placement...not worth the risk in my opinion.

But then you were off the list right?

doc22

things like this happen because the majority of staff WFH perhaps

Ooops..

Em_Caramel wrote: »

Hey I'm OOM 1 on 1.6 and PAS just informed me there's approx 39 people ahead of me on the panel. No idea how fast or how slow that'll move

Hi, I was just wondering if this is for the Open or Interdepartmental ...I'm so confused as to how this works?!

Aointroim

MonikaB wrote: »

It really feels like such a mess this time around. I mean we all have candidates numbers assigned to us, it really isn't rocket science to keep the score to the correct id.

They went on to further claim that i hadnt hit the OOM and wont be called for stage 2 e-tray yet, but in the same email confirmed that my stage 2 e-tray results have been changed.....

They cant even keep track within their own emails! An absolute shambles!

Ashsummers

Did anyone else receive this today?

"I am emailing you in relation to the e-tray exercise that you sat as part of the selection process for the competition for Executive Officer 2020.

Our test provider identified an issue which affected the scoring of a proportion of candidates on this exercise. You were issued the incorrect pass mark.

The new pass mark is 342 and this means that you have now reached the pass mark and will be placed on a panel. We apologise for this error on behalf of our test provider and thank you for your understanding."

So strange. So now I've been offered an interview in April, when previously I was told I didn't qualify. I was in the first group after the original tests.

jules86

Ashsummers wrote: »

Did anyone else receive this today?

"I am emailing you in relation to the e-tray exercise that you sat as part of the selection process for the competition for Executive Officer 2020.

Our test provider identified an issue which affected the scoring of a proportion of candidates on this exercise. You were issued the incorrect pass mark.

The new pass mark is 342 and this means that you have now reached the pass mark and will be placed on a panel. We apologise for this error on behalf of our test provider and thank you for your understanding."

So strange. So now I've been offered an interview in April, when previously I was told I didn't qualify. I was in the first group after the original tests.

What a f**k up...

Congratulations on passing and best of luck in your interview.

gestappo

Ashsummers wrote: »

Did anyone else receive this today?

"I am emailing you in relation to the e-tray exercise that you sat as part of the selection process for the competition for Executive Officer 2020.

Our test provider identified an issue which affected the scoring of a proportion of candidates on this exercise. You were issued the incorrect pass mark.

The new pass mark is 342 and this means that you have now reached the pass mark and will be placed on a panel. We apologise for this error on behalf of our test provider and thank you for your understanding."

So strange. So now I've been offered an interview in April, when previously I was told I didn't qualify. I was in the first group after the original tests.

Mine never mentioned anything about a ‘pass mark’ just my new score.

But the qualifying score to pass onto the next stage was 409??

Ashsummers

Yeah, it's a strange one. I was in the first group to do the e-tray. Myself and my partner both were in that group, we both didn't meet the qualifying mark apparently at the time. I just missed out by a few points. I was very disappointed. But now today we both received this email. So it must have been a big error in how they calculated the qualifying score for that round. I'm delighted but really confused after months of thinking I didn't get it.

doc22

gestappo wrote: »

Mine never mentioned anything about a ‘pass mark’ just my new score.

But the qualifying score to pass onto the next stage was 409??

If they let people pass with 342 incorrectly, so they now have to let everyone with that score go forward, perhaps?

342 out of 800 is a very low etray pass

doc22

They'll lots of FOIs for PAS after this nonsense

Ashsummers

From the sounds of it they calculated some people's scores incorrectly. Only a small portion. If the calculation itself for computing the qualifying score is incorrect for some people, they've adjusted the mean pass mark. My original result was in the 400s.

Aointroim

Ashsummers wrote: »

From the sounds of it they calculated some people's scores incorrectly. Only a small portion. If the calculation itself for computing the qualifying score is incorrect for some people, they've adjusted the mean pass mark. My original result was in the 400s.

I have an email from them saying that only 200 people were affected and that this error was only noticed by the test provider in the latest test batch.

But I was in the first batch, back in November that did this and I have had my score “corrected” - it’s actually the second time they have corrected my score though, when they initially gave me the results they made a mistake and sent me someone elses..... how can they only spot an error for 200 people now? And how did that actually happen? Like if you are marking a test using software, why wasnt the same mistake applied to everyone?

BonnieSituation

Aointroim wrote: »

I have an email from them saying that only 200 people were affected and that this error was only noticed by the test provider in the latest test batch.

But I was in the first batch, back in November that did this and I have had my score “corrected” - it’s actually the second time they have corrected my score though, when they initially gave me the results they made a mistake and sent me someone elses..... how can they only spot an error for 200 people now? And how did that actually happen? Like if you are marking a test using software, why wasnt the same mistake applied to everyone?

They're 2 different issues.

The wrong score email where another person's name was sent, was an internal mail merge issue. Literally human error. It was rectified very quickly and no one was put out unduly. Human error happens, especially with thousands of applications being dealt with.

This re-scoring error is on the side of the test provider. Again, it was noted and anyone that has been affected have been notified.

No one will lose out because if the error, as you're seeing now with your promotion to interview.

No one in PAS owes anyone a living. They're all COs, EOs and HEOs like everywhere in the CS. Mistakes happen and they're under resourced and all working from home, so mistakes are compounded sometimes and take a bit longer to rectify.

Cut them some slack and calm toi. You got to interview. Now it's up to you.

gestappo

BonnieSituation wrote: »

They're 2 different issues.

The wrong score email where another person's name was sent, was an internal mail merge issue. Literally human error. It was rectified very quickly and no one was put out unduly. Human error happens, especially with thousands of applications being dealt with.

This re-scoring error is on the side of the test provider. Again, it was noted and anyone that has been affected have been notified.

No one will lose out because if the error, as you're seeing now with your promotion to interview.

No one in PAS owes anyone a living. They're all COs, EOs and HEOs like everywhere in the CS. Mistakes happen and they're under resourced and all working from home, so mistakes are compounded sometimes and take a bit longer to rectify.

Cut them some slack and calm toi. You got to interview. Now it's up to you.

Tbh I’m quite concerned how the qualifying score dropped from 409 down to 342 yesterday. Mistakes happen, that’s fair enough but the qualifying score should not change.

doc22

gestappo wrote: »

Tbh I’m quite concerned how the qualifying score dropped from 409 down to 342 yesterday. Mistakes happen, that’s fair enough but the qualifying score should not change.

There changing goalposts and can't keep their story straight, which is frustrating for candidates. Their fobbing candidates off with different stories, not realizing that they are being shared online...

gestappo

doc22 wrote: »

There changing goalposts and can't keep their story straight, which is frustrating for candidates. Their fobbing candidates off with different stories, not realizing that they are being shared online...

PAS are fully aware of these threads, they know information is being discussed at length for each and every competition they run.

I just don’t agree with change in the qualifying score.

Aointroim

BonnieSituation wrote: »

They're 2 different issues.

The wrong score email where another person's name was sent, was an internal mail merge issue. Literally human error. It was rectified very quickly and no one was put out unduly. Human error happens, especially with thousands of applications being dealt with.

This re-scoring error is on the side of the test provider. Again, it was noted and anyone that has been affected have been notified.

No one will lose out because if the error, as you're seeing now with your promotion to interview.

No one in PAS owes anyone a living. They're all COs, EOs and HEOs like everywhere in the CS. Mistakes happen and they're under resourced and all working from home, so mistakes are compounded sometimes and take a bit longer to rectify.

Cut them some slack and calm toi. You got to interview. Now it's up to you.

Havent got to interview, because even though I have a qualifying score for the e-tray its not for my chosen county.....

So sorry, their job is to run a robust, fair process, and that is not the case!

Misinformation, human error, software and testing errors, are all terrible excuses for poor execution!

northdubgal

Anyone here on the interdepartmental panel from batch 1.6?

MonikaB

Aointroim wrote: »

Havent got to interview, because even though I have a qualifying score for the e-tray its not for my chosen county.....

So sorry, their job is to run a robust, fair process, and that is not the case!

Misinformation, human error, software and testing errors, are all terrible excuses for poor execution!

Exactly, nothing excuses this much error. I understand working from home complicates things , I've been working from home for 13months now. Nothing excuses such a big campaign going so wrong. It's not the first time PAS are running a campaign and if their staff can't manage maybe a re-training should be implemented. I can't imagine anyone would say it's ok it's just human error if me or any of.my colleagues mixed up pps numbers. Sending wrong info, with names nevertheless, to wrong people, can be seen as GDPR breach.

Dublintigger

Ashsummers wrote: »

Did anyone else receive this today?

"I am emailing you in relation to the e-tray exercise that you sat as part of the selection process for the competition for Executive Officer 2020.

Our test provider identified an issue which affected the scoring of a proportion of candidates on this exercise. You were issued the incorrect pass mark.

The new pass mark is 342 and this means that you have now reached the pass mark and will be placed on a panel. We apologise for this error on behalf of our test provider and thank you for your understanding."

So strange. So now I've been offered an interview in April, when previously I was told I didn't qualify. I was in the first group after the original tests.

Well done you for getting through.

At least they owned up to the mistake (from the provider that is) and it worked out well.

I don't think there is any point in looking to deeply in to it - just be grateful you are in the next stage! It is a tough enough process.