What is wrong with the civil service?

Cavehill Red

Public service had summer jobs going a while back, apparently. A few tourist attraction guides, but a lot of the Dublin ones were basically holiday cover. They were taking applications from 16 yo and up, so I imagine we're talking about filing, tea-making and phone answering.
Not the most stimulating work, but people do keep whinging about the unemployed getting up off their arses and getting jobs even if the work is crap and low paid, so a mate of mine applied for Dublin.
Now, some background on him - he was laid off last year after 15 years in senior management of a firm with hundreds of employees. He has accounting qualifications, an MBA, and plenty managerial experience. He doesn't want to rot in his house. He's not got false pride, and he was prepared to go in and file paperwork for the civil service for I think it was 300 quid a week.
He told me he didn't even get called for interview.
Thankfully, he heard back this week that he's been accepted to do his doctorate in business administration in Scotland.
What sort of ridiculous criteria are they using to pick their candidates when they turn down someone like that? What is wrong with these people?

dx22

Simple- he is over qualified he wouldnt stay in the job anyway look at it from the employers perspective

Cavehill Red

dx22 wrote: »

Simple- he is over qualified he wouldnt stay in the job anyway look at it from the employers perspective

They're summer jobs - temporary positions. No one hired is staying in them.

dvpower

Maybe they thought he wouldn't be a 'fit' with the team he would be working.

Nolanger

If he was a non-national, female, with a disability he would have a better chance of a job in the CS! They don't give a sh*t about qualifications.

Cavehill Red

dvpower wrote: »

Maybe they thought he wouldn't be a 'fit' with the team he would be working.

No team in Dublin could find a use for a lad like that?
I find it hard to believe. Anyhow, surely you'd rather someone with a brain doing your filing than a 16 year old?
I strongly suspect he wasn't called for interview because they were petrified he'd show them all up.

StudentDad

I asked a family member recently why he left the civil service - this was oh 30 years ago - he responded - 'I like to think for myself.' I doubt the CS has changed all that much in that time. So long as it is a self-regulating, unaccountable clique, it will never change.

I knew a woman a few years ago she was in her 40's but had loads of experience in the civil service in the UK. She went for a job with the Irish civil service that was similar to her own experience and she was basically told get lost because she didn't have a leaving cert and no irish!

So long as it remains a haven for 'the right person.' It'll never improve.

SD

Delancey

The cynic in me says that this is Ireland and it's not what you know but who you know that counts when it comes to a job in the Public Service or Semi-States.
' Canvassing will disqualify ' should read as unsuccessful canvassing will disqualify.

dvpower

Cavehill Red wrote: »

No team in Dublin could find a use for a lad like that?
I find it hard to believe. Anyhow, surely you'd rather someone with a brain doing your filing than a 16 year old?
I strongly suspect he wasn't called for interview because they were petrified he'd show them all up.

I suspect youre right.
They were expecting young inexperienced people and didn't know what to make of someone like your mate.
In large organisations like the CS the recruiters aren't really interested at looking closely at the candidates - it's a box ticking excercise.

Cavehill Red

dvpower wrote: »

I suspect youre right.
They were expecting young inexperienced people and didn't know what to make of someone like your mate.
In large organisations like the CS the recruiters aren't really interested at looking closely at the candidates - it's a box ticking excercise.

I told him to copy the letter and a copy of his CV and send them to Brendan Howlin, since he's in charge of civil service reform.
If someone like that applies and gets knocked back, by Christ do they need reformed. And by reformed, I mean thrown out on their fat lazy jacksies.
I only heard about this today, but it's made me really annoyed.

Teyla Emmagan

Yeah, I'd say they were threatened by him. That or they thought he was a poorly disguised undercover business reporter or something..

Mrs OBumble

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I told him to copy the letter and a copy of his CV and send them to Brendan Howlin, since he's in charge of civil service reform.
If someone like that applies and gets knocked back, by Christ do they need reformed. And by reformed, I mean thrown out on their fat lazy jacksies.
I only heard about this today, but it's made me really annoyed.

There's an extensive thread which discusses the tools and process used in the public service TCO round.

No letters or CVs were involved. The selection process would not have known about his qualifications or experience, because they're not relevant to how well he can file and carry out simple clerical processes. Actually, someone with a lot of management experience may be at a disadvantage if they answered the questions honestly, because they'd not actually be better at filing/photocopying/etc than the average person.

TBH, I suspect your friend would have found it difficult to stick three months of opening, sorting and scanning incoming mail, and other similar duties.

Cavehill Red

JustMary wrote: »

There's an extensive thread which discusses the tools and process used in the public service TCO round.

No letters or CVs were involved. The selection process would not have known about his qualifications or experience, because they're not relevant to how well he can file and carry out simple clerical processes. Actually, someone with a lot of management experience may be at a disadvantage if they answered the questions honestly, because they'd not actually be better at filing/photocopying/etc than the average person.

TBH, I suspect your friend would have found it difficult to stick three months of opening, sorting and scanning incoming mail, and other similar duties.

If the selection process weeds out the best people, then it's fundamentally flawed and needs a radical overhaul. And it's beyond spurious to suggest that someone who ran complex and large businesses would be worse at filing than the average person.
I've no doubt he'd have stuck it out, just to be out of the house and busy would have fulfilled him. He's a very positive guy. It's our collective loss, as he's off to Britain now.