New 2021 Assistant Principal in the Civil Service

My experience was similar but I there were lots of questions. I found myself answering and trying to elaborate when the board would interrupt and have the next question. They obviously were conscious of time. Overall the questions were as you would expect. Tell me about a time when… I’m a little concerned as the latter questions were more “how would you…” so I spoke to an approach rather than the traditional STAR method.

the one area they honed in on for me was decision making. My example was ok (or at least I thought it was) but there was a series of follow on questions like what exactly made that decision tough - it felt like they were trying to give me every chance to say something but I’ve no idea what exactly they were looking for.

For those still to go, I’d focus on the challenges your presentation may face. I’d also prep well for the competencies listed. There were a few questions outside the competencies. I’m an external candidate and they quizzed my motivation for the change and what challenges I thought I’d face. All fair questions.

Although I’m not sure I gave a great account of myself the process was as I expected and very fair. Best of luck all

For those in batch 1, just wondering when the last interview would be, trying to see if we'd be called before December or not.

Best of luck to those doing interviews this week and next week.

yeah would be good to know if I should be prepping for a pre xmas interview. I'm going to guess with leave etc it will be early January, nothing like writing out interview questions over christmas lol

I will say I read earlier in this thread (page 18/19) that someone said their interview was mid to late November which I took to mean as next week..?

PAS apparently responded to say that next batch of interview is not anticipated until late January/early February, not sure how accurate that statement is as PAS is known to tell you a date and send an invitation the following week. If that's correct, it means there was a huge batch that got 186 and beyond which shows how competent people are in this competition. Hopefully as many of those get through the final stage as possible and share here with us how you guys approached the two components.

I know people who are still on lists for other counties from the 2020 competitions, so will all depend on what county and how their list is progressing on whether people will be called for interview or not. I don't believe theres been any further calls for video interviews from this comp

You are part of the AP comp from 2020, there is a separate thread for them which you may find useful

yeah if you applied in 2020 then its the 2020 comp you are part of, regardless of when the interview occurred. Means you would have to be placed before anyone from this competition for Cork, unless the comp expires before you get placed

Ok, that makes sense! And is it possible my panel could expire before the new panel expires?

Does anyone know how far they have got on the order of merit for Cork?

Sorry, I might have misunderstood the whole process as it’s the first time I applied for a job in the public service! But my impression was that I was interviewing in order to be placed on a panel that would be in existence for 12-18 months, offering a greater opportunity for positions to become available. Seems like a lot of effort to take part in 4 stages of a difficult recruitment process, spanning 18months all to be placed on a panel for 4 months?

Hi I am in a similar position although i interviewed in August.

It's the 2020 competition and the panels expire on March 31st 2022.

Hopefully, there'll be movement in the New Year but so hard to know.

I'm on two regional panels and placed high but so hard to know.

Best of luck to you!