Executive Officer (Dublin) in the Civil Service 2023

Dubliner2023

Does anyone know what happens when you're in both the open and interdepartmental? Are there two separate interviews, do you get placed on two different panels? Thanks :)

M1ntyPyth0n

OoM in the 220s

Numerical: 735 / 800

Verbal: 720 / 800

Situational Judgement: 488 / 800

I'll be honest, I have no idea what happened with situational, I can't seem to judge the strength of responses / most appropriate one well at all.

I had a half finished written exercise answer so I don't know that that was taken into account for the OoM at all yet?

Congrats to everyone who got through to the next round anyways, and hope the first batch get through interviews alright.

Eod100

Somehow failed the situational judgement. No idea how. The answers are very subjective so not sure what I missed. Anyone know why there wasn't a score for the written scenario?

EoghanMc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121048262#Comment_121048262

Best of luck this year 🤞

monaghan2022

Under 150 oom not called to interview yet I’d say first 100 called just. Started as a CO just but I’d only take Dublin if straight away blended as over an hours commute.

Dravokivich

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121048376#Comment_121048376

The written scenario was meant to be for the interview.

Bookworm23

Does anyone know if the interviews are online?

Help_Dubai

Does anyone know up to what number on the OOM was called to interview in last years competition? Like where would you need to be for an interview?

Ahshurlookit

They exhausted the Dublin panel last time, that's why they ran a Dublin only competition this time around. Rest assured, everyone who passed the exams will be interviewed at some stage in the next 2 years.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121048619#Comment_121048619

And that panel was supposed to run for two years (same as this one)

Help_Dubai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121048619#Comment_121048619

But if there are over 2000 on the oom here, surely those at 1500-2000 won’t get an interview? Must have been a huge percentage of people didn’t bother going to interviews last time or failed?

Eod100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121048519#Comment_121048519

Seems a bit of a wasted effort doing it at this stage when anyone who failed won't get to an interview

HiggieL

@Eod100 This is part of the interview process

blondie1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121048269#Comment_121048269

I got placed off the panel last year . You only get called once for the interview and get scored for both based on that interview.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121048822#Comment_121048822

So doing well in the interview can move you up the OOM? Does it change it a lot?

Ahshurlookit

You're missing out the other possibility, that there is huge vacancies at the EO grade across the Civil Service, particularly in Dublin. There is a slight difference in the last competition as people who placed high on the OOM of a county other than Dublin might reject the offer of an interview. But about 1,500 people were offered an interview in Dublin since Christmas.

jessshel

Ye they are on zoom

koifish

1500, that's mad! I didn't even think they'd process that many COs.

And Fritzelly I've heard the interviews can influence your OOM - if you perform well and/or have anything new to add (new work experience, studying etc.) it could reduce it or else just stays the same I think.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121049075#Comment_121049075

Will have to have a word with the AP then - "so about that acting up thing..."

Mentioned earlier in the thread there's about a 25% attrition rate at EO level or so I was told by an higher up

mrsdewinter

This is my first tilt at this, so please excuse what could be a silly question: my OOM, is that unique to me? Or is it possible that these rankings are joint? You can see what I'm driving at: If I have an OOM of, say, 100, does that mean that there are 99 people ahead of me in the rankings? Or is it possible that there are 3 people at No 99, 25 people at No 98, etc? (this latter scenario turned out to be the case when I went for a role in the public sector, so I'm just wondering if it's the same with the PAS)

HiggieL

No I am pretty sure everyone has unique number. So if you were 100, 99 people are ahead

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121049469#Comment_121049469

It's unique - if you were 100 there would be 99 people ahead of you and the next person would 101

mrsdewinter

Brilliant - thanks, @HiggieL and @fritzelly !

Guffy

Id assume the maths test would be the tie breaker for same scores then?

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121049535#Comment_121049535

My understanding is that maths never plays in whatsoever. If two+ people tie they'll just be randomly placed next to each other on OOM

Catalan69

I was in the 1400s/680s open/Inter and interviewed. There were a month or two of Interviews after my number my reached

Shanehoof1000

It is not envisaged that appointments will be made from this competition after 30th June 2025.

The Dublin panel was exhausted in both the Executive Officer 2020 and Executive Officer 2022 competitions.

I emailed them last night and got the above response , I hope this helps

skidmarkoner

So considering they reached 2000s in last years within a year I'd say they'll easily hit the same again this year.

Plus with record employment hundreds will have other jobs by the time the their oom is called.

PmMeUrDogs

Mid 700s on math, 600 ish verbal, 373 situational, passed by the skin of my teeth on that one. Expected, I was confused by it.

Oom 1900s. Don't think I'll be getting called anytime soon!

rosknight

Would be interesting to know How many were placed on the Panel? This would be an indicator of how many positions they expect to have to fill.

I expect they set the pass mark to get a quota for the panel.

dubbloke100

Placed OOM mid 700's in the inter-departmental competition. Whats my chances of getting called for an interview?

eamonnq

If someone misjudged the amount of words used in one of the responses and went over the 500 word limit, and there application was not continued with due to this, is there any way of finding out the issue or appealing it ?

Not myself.

Technocentral

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121051787#Comment_121051787

LargeVolumeRecruitment5@publicjobs.ie is the email address for queries.

Technocentral

Good luck to all, I passed all 3, got top tier result for situational, middle for verbal reasoning and lower for numerical.

HBpencil

Does anyone have a copy of the information booklet? I tried to view it but they’ve taken it off already.

jessshel

Anyone any tips for interview 🙏

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121053511#Comment_121053511

Lots of prep!

user1250

@jessshel review civil service renewal 2030 with a good focus on theme 3.

EO 2022 thread have some good tips and example questions 🙂

HiggieL

This one?

user1250

Yes and good example questions in the below link.

Hope this helps!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058227180/the-questions-you-might-get-asked-at-eo-heo-thread-for-the-civil-service#latest

jessshel

Thanks so much

HiggieL

@user1250 thanks so much 😀

blondie1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121048926#Comment_121048926

Yes , doing well in the interview changes a lot .

jessshel

Has anyone got their interview date?

vatsie76

Hi folks, any tips on scoring well in these test. I managed to pass but keen to improve the score. Any tips will be appreciated!

jessshel

With the maths I try to answer as many as possible correctly and if I’m not sure of an answer I will skip as there is no negative marking and it’s really hard to get them all answered anyway.

Guffy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121073740#Comment_121073740

Would it not make sense to just throw a guess in rather than skip

vatsie76

my concern is more on verbal reasoning. Any tips to up the score pls 😂

EduKate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121071843#Comment_121071843

Apply for any position that has similar tests on publicjobs.ie, regardless of whether you want the position or not - use it as practice, particularly for the situational tests.

For verbal questions, pay attention to whether the words used are 'absolutes' or not - like 'must', 'should', 'always', 'all', 'every', 'never' etc when deciding if something is true or false - they're easy to overlook. If you're running out of time, guess and go with your gut on whether an answer sounds like it could be true or false - honestly, you'd be surprised, particularly if there's a passage about something like pollution or traffic that you might have a tiny bit of knowledge about.

Here's examples from the familiarisation material:

Q.7 Some of the key reasons for the recent growth in sporting activity are related to each other.

Q.46 The Department has guidelines on procurement practice.

Q.51 Better inter-connectivity with public transport is expected to help increase the number of people commuting by cycle.

Q.52 The quality of individual managers has no real impact on the productivity of the businesses they manage

Even without reading the passages those questions refer to, you can probably guess the answers if you were struggling for time based on whether they sound plausible (correct answers are True, True, True, False).

For numerical, there will always be a text heavy set of questions. I skip those and leave them to last because (for me at least) they take up a disproportionate amount of time. Google the 'unitary method'. Once you get the hang of that and percentages, passing shouldn't be a problem.

For situational stuff, pay attention to whether the passage mentions doing 2 tasks. If it does, a good answer should cover how you handle both tasks, not just one.

For example, if the passage says you have two tasks - to answer a bunch of emails and do a briefing for a minister when you're struggling for time, one of the options might be to delegate emails to a clerical officer.

That might seem like a good answer, but if that's all you do, and the answer doesn't mention anything about the ministers briefing, then it's actually weak. If you check the other answers, you'd notice there would probably be one that covers both of the tasks. A good/excellent answer should always cover every part of the task with the task being completed on time.

With regards to getting someone above you involved, like a HEO or AP - contacting a 'higher up' might seem like a good idea, but the passage will often mention that they're in a meeting or doing something that would prevent them from being available before the deadline. They use this a lot for the 'delivery of results' on time competency SJT questions. If the passage involves a deadline, and an answer involves contacting/waiting for someone else, it's usually not a great option.

Try to think of 'why is this specific detail in the passage', what competency are they examining, does the answer address everything or only part of the task, and does this address the issue now or does it involve waiting on other people (with a deadline). Just because an answer sounds good in isolation when you read it doesn't mean it's the answer they want if it overlooks something in the passage - one part of two tasks or overlooking one of the small details in the passage.

Added: I failed the SJT the first time I took it. I applied for other positions purely for practice, trying different things - my scores have gradually increased. Got 600's this time. It's a skill that can be learned.

Practice questions can be found at https://www.quickstart360.co.uk/runtesteo.aspx

I input the competencies into ChatGPT, then ran those questions through it, and asked ChatGPT to give me its logic/reasoning - it pointed out things I missed that I now look for. Gradually got the scores up in that practice test too.

Turtyturd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121074168#Comment_121074168

I haven’t done them in a while but when I first started applying I used to struggle with them but a couple of things that worked for me are;

approaching them with the same mindset as the numerical ones and looking at them logically. If it says ‘A’ it can’t be ‘B’ or ‘C’…whereas if you’re just reading it as the paragraph you think it could be ‘A’ or it could also be ‘C’.

All the information is in the paragraph and you don’t need to think about ‘what if this, or what if that happens’ which is another thing that seems to catch people out.

Buy practice books, I downloaded a few books with these types of assessment questions in them but the difficulty was much higher than the ones used by the CS, I went through them and by the time it can to doing the CS ones they seemed much easier and the answer jumped out.