NEW 2022 Assistant Principal Competition - Open and Interdepartmental

Hi all, just sharing an update - PAS have confirmed there are about 17 people ahead of me to be called for clearance. I'm 10th on the open, batch 4.3.

@Foxy1987

Including below the task that I had as part of the interview process.

Your Task
You are to assume the role of a recently appointed Assistant Principal Officer,
working in a Government Department in the Civil Service and giving a presentation to
a group of senior managers in the Civil Service. You are required to research a
particular topic/objective from the Programme for Government. Your task is to identify
the relevant issues, summarising and evaluating existing strategy, policy or initiatives
in this area and setting out 2 key actions that the Civil Service could take in furthering
this objective.

We were given a list of 4 topics and to choose 1. It was very vague but left opportunity to focus in an an area that you might have experience of or have an interest in. It says don't take more than 3 hours. It took me that length of time just to understand the ask.

Hope that helps.

That is really helpful thanks for this I really appreciate it!

Better get to work on my competencies before I get the topics!

Thanks again @PWDUB

@Ritournelle are you an open candidate for Dublin? I’m batch 3.3 and was told last week there were 8 ahead of me still for the open and I should be toward the end of that batch!

Hi all,

I have recently received my position first time in civil service.

I have my contract and it states 35 hours net or 41 hours 15 gross, can someone explain this as even with including lunch breaks it doesn't add up.

I am not on the clock and want to make sure I am doing all that is expected of me, I keep record of my times daily incase it was ever queried. Currently I am working approx 7 hours a day to get my 35 a week.

This is no doubt a stupid question.

A lot of the departments have remote working now, depending on which department you get into and your role some have more remote work than others. Whats the worst that could happen by just going for it ? You will lose nothing but your time and the effort. The open competition is for everywhere but you can choose at the start what county you want to be considered for (If I remember correctly you get 2 options). Traditionally and still today a lot of applicants choose Dublin as 1 option because there is a higher chance of being placed as more department offices located in Dublin. But then you can apply for mobility to a department back in the county that you would prefer to be. You can apply for mobility straight away but cannot move department until you have completed 2 years in the role. Mobility can be very slow in some counties where fewer departments are located. I hope that makes sense 🤔. My advice is to just go for it and worry about the rest of the stuff after you might be surprised how things fall into place. But you'll never know it you don't try ……

3 hours to do a 2 page report and presenation on your area you are not working in……🙄 Fair play to anyone who managed that!.

I have no idea if I completed the exercise correctly or not!! But.. when I was drafting the report I did some research first & made brief notes. Then I expanded further on these for the draft. After that it took a lot of editing to get down to 2 pages. For me the editing was the most time-consuming part. I ended up with a report containing a very brief synopsis of each point researched. I expanded a little more on these when I was delivering the presentation, however time flies by quickly. Afterwards, in the questions posed by the panel, I found that they generally took a line or two from my report/presentation each time & asked me questions around it. That gave me further opportunity to provide additional info & (hopefully!) demonstrated I had done more research on the topic outside of what I had presented. . Also have some examples ready on juristictions outside of Ireland where they may experience similar issues, scenarios etc. Be able to compare & contrast between both. Best of Luck to everyone!!

Hi all, I am nearing the completion of my strategic analysis and I am panicked I have completely gone off track. Can anyone advice me if you took your strategic analysis objective and related it back to your current workplace? For example a topic around lifelong learning? TIA

Hi. I chose a topic which related to a different area from which I work so I was not in a position to relate it back.

I am also not really in a position to advise you on this as this is my first comp & I do not have enough of knowledge regarding the correct procedures to follow... However I just wanted to mention that the assignment booklet advises taking an impartial approach & therefore suggests not to personalise the activity. Just be careful & ensure you are still abiding by this so that you do not present one-sided personal views in the presentation as I think you could be marked down for that. Just something to be aware of! I hope someone else on here can offer you better & more constructive advice! Best of Luck!

Hi folks,

I finally got my log in sorted I've been following this thread for a while now, I was advised last week that there are 5 ahead of me for the Open Panel Dublin and I'm batch 4. Does anyone know if there has been any more movement? This thread is so handy 😊

Hi All,

I had my interview on 29/06/2024 and I believe they were interviewing up to Friday 05/06/2024 I hope everyone did well.

Do you know is there interviews this week or will the results be out by 21/07/24

TIA

Fwiw, with the previous batch of interviews, the last interviews were scheduled for 13 May and I received my results on 21 May so hopefully you will hear in the week or two

No. This 2022 competiton was launched in November 2022 while the 2021 competition panel didn't expire until 31 July 2023 so over 6 months before the panel expired. They will likely launch a new competition before the end of the year. The 2022 panel expires on 31 October 2024.

I'm not the best person to answer that question, they didn't extend the last two AP panels by the looks of it so my guess is unlikely.