Interdepartmental HEO

It was a technical issue, things like this happen every day in every office/Dept across the country. While it wasn't ideal, PAS responded in what I would say was the best way they could have by offering the resit to everyone. It was a way of offering those who were really affected by the issue a fair chance at the test. I would imagine those who weren't affected by the issue would have stayed with their original test. If I hadn't been affected I wouldn't have resat the test regardless of how I felt it went. Due to the issue I didn't get to ans many questions.

Advancing everyone would mean another test for everyone to complete, which means more commitment from all involved. I don't think I'd have wanted another stage. If I didn't pass I'd just move on. If I'm out after the next stage so be it, I didn't make the cut. That's how these competitions work.

Do you mean 2019? If so, yes and we waited ages for the results of the shortlisting. Last year there was another comp and shortlisting was done on an asynchronous video interview

Got an update this evening re shortlisting

At present we have shortlisted candidates up to and including order of merit 422 from stage 1 for Dublin and up to and including order of merit 55 from Stage 1 for Galway. 

Shortlisting on forms as I suspected. They haven't reached my OOM yet so be interesting to see when that happens! Best of luck everyone

So sorry to hear this. I have been in the same position previously. Do you mind telling me if the influence is on "Leadership" like previous competitions?

Hard luck. Leadership is such a tough one to pass. It's not so much about having staff as being able to show you have the ability to lead. Maybe get involved in a working group or training? I think they like that kind of thing. It's very disappointing

Well I failed Team Leadership and Analysis & Decision making. Got good scores in managing projects etc. and communications. Like others on here I have no one reporting to me, but I gave examples of teams I have led on projects including decision making and quite big judgement calls. I guess they didn't like the examples. I suppose there are key words / phrases they are looking for. I wasn't surprised not to be shortlisted to be honest so not too disappointed.

Are people expecting interviews/presentations to be held in person?

Mine didn't mention that. I passed leadership and communication but didn't get the other two.

It all seems very strange to me. 95% of EOs in my organization have no staff reporting to them and most HEOs are internal promotions. Most of the HEOs are not leading teams. Now the purpose of this competition must be to find people to lead teams but why? Clearly many HEO positions are not about that either.

I can understand the disappointment and frustration of someone who is highly ranked on the OOM and then fails to make the cut on the basis of something that is outside their control. I spend maybe two or three good hours a day doing my actual job according to my job description, another hour on other projects. The rest of the time I spend living up to private sector stereotypes of the public sector (chatting, drinking tea etc). The reason for this is because I am very good at my job, I can manage my workload and my time. I often spend hours helping colleagues with their more difficult and complicated cases, advising them what to do and so forth. With no internal competitions on the horizon I seem condemned to stay in my current position and my managers, to their credit, see this and have confirmed my suspicions. The service is a monolith though and it has its ways, it will not change for those of us here who are clearly competent and have ability. It does not encourage others in my organization, I have colleagues who basically laugh at me and point out that there is no reward for being efficient. One of my colleagues who's best at her job, knows the role better than anyone, makes no effort to go beyond the basic because as she says she learned many years ago that if she breaks her back it is of no benefit to her personally.

You should be disappointed though and frustrated, if you have the ability, and from your post it looks as if you do, then you should be given more challenging roles and receive commensurate compensation.

Zoom interviews/presentation.

Does anyone know when the interviews start?

I’m towards the end of the first batch so later in the month.

Also, the application form was different than the one normally used, it only questioned 4 competencies and the leadership one was an overview rather than the usual STAR answer. I assume for the interview it will follow the usual format and we’ll need an example for all competencies?