Clerical Officer Tipperary Co Council

Ireland2015

Just wondering has anybody heard anymore about next stage of this after Expression of Interest

The Lost Sheep

Ask in the work and jobs forum and you will get a better response.

Black_Ninja

I applied myself and haven't heard anything as of yet

Vizzy

If you get to the interview stage, do a bit of research on the Council -
What is the total budget ?
What do they spend it on?
Where do they get the money?
What big projects are they undertaking ?
How many on the housing list?
How much does a planning application cost?
Any contentious issues in the county, town - traveller halting site ?, windfarm application ? homeless is topical, how many are homeless in Tipp ?, etc.
Best option for info like that would be a senior council employee.
Have an opinion on anything you are asked and stick to it - it doesn't have to be "right" , but it is your opinion and you are entitled to it. (you need to be able to back it up though)

Finally, if you put stuff on your CV, make sure you can talk about it (for instance, if you put down that you worked for company X for 2 years, know what they do/make, were they a good company to work for,why did you leave)

Stay relaxed and remember, as a lecturer said to me one day, "the questions differ but the answers are always the same"

Best of luck.

Xenophile

All of the advice above is worth noting..

Familariarise yourself with the website there are 18 pages jof info on it. Maybe copmpliment them on the website is you feel it is appropriate.


http://www.tipperarycoco.ie/

Vizzy

Apparently the dates for a sycosymetric test have been posted out.
About 1,400 hundred people applied for Tipp.

If you were called, do some practice over the Christmas.

Best of luck.

Ireland2015

Ireland2015 wrote: »

Just wondering has anybody heard anymore about next stage of this after Expression of Interest

Got called up for an aptitude test on the 13 jan in Limerick for Tipp coco. Couldnt care less whether i get it to be honest

TheManFromTipp

Why go if thats how you feel?.I am sure there are others who would be happy if they got the chance

Ireland2015

Does anyone know what time frames you are given to do the tests in each section?

The Lost Sheep

Ireland2015 wrote: »

Does anyone know what time frames you are given to do the tests in each section?

It says in one of emails you will have

TheManFromTipp

TheManFromTipp wrote: »

Why go if thats how you feel?.I am sure there are others who would be happy if they got the chance

Ill go, I'll do my best as I always do but it's all familiarly futile at the end of the day. Not the end of the world if it goes no further.

I just think aptitude tests are a flawed concept but that's probably influenced by the fact I'm not that good at them

TheManFromTipp

Deleted User wrote: »

Ill go, I'll do my best as I always do but it's all familiarly futile at the end of the day. Not the end of the world if it goes no further.

I just think aptitude tests are a flawed concept but that's probably influenced by the fact I'm not that good at them

good luck with the test!

TheManFromTipp

TheManFromTipp wrote: »

good luck with the test!

Thank you

Ireland2015

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

It says in one of emails you will have

It doesn't say how much time you have on the day for each one only that it takes an hour to complete 3 exams!

The Lost Sheep

Ireland2015 wrote: »

It doesn't say how much time you have on the day for each one only that it takes an hour to complete 3 exams!

Email i got did say.
"psychometric tests (Verbal Comprehension, Numerical Reasoning and Clerical Checking). The tests are timed tests lasting 18, 15 and 7 minutes respectively and are paper and pencil based, multiple choice tests."

Churpy

Does anyone know what the dress code is for the assessment? I'd assume there is none and it's casual wear. I wonder how long the recruitment process will be and when the positions will be due to start

Churpy

Churpy wrote: »

Does anyone know what the dress code is for the assessment? I'd assume there is none and it's casual wear. I wonder how long the recruitment process will be and when the positions will be due to start

Nothing about dress code on the email and Aptitude tests are generally different as they are normally supervised by a contracted company who delivers the tests on the council/organisations behalf. I suppose to be on the safe side its better to go smart casual.

The Lost Sheep

I did tests in past few days. Smart casual is fine.
Impossible to say how long process will be and when positions due to start as it depends on your position following the tests and how many do interviews etc

road_high

Vizzy wrote: »

Apparently the dates for a sycosymetric test have been posted out.
About 1,400 hundred people applied for Tipp.

If you were called, do some practice over the Christmas.

Best of luck.

Am I right in asking that 1400 applied for one job?
Isn't clerical officer very poorly paid and takes forever to earn anything decent?
I'd think anyone would be better off making a go of any job in the private sector in an office without the hassle of tests etc.

The Lost Sheep

road_high wrote: »

Am I right in asking that 1400 applied for one job?
Isn't clerical officer very poorly paid and takes forever to earn anything decent?
I'd think anyone would be better off making a go of any job in the private sector in an office without the hassle of tests etc.

No its not for just one job.
Clerical Officer has advantages of promotion and bit more security than private sector so bit hard to say you'd be better off with any old job in an office in private sector...

Jakey Rolling

Attended yesterday (Jan 13th) for the tests.

What surprised me somewhat was the age profile of the applicants - seemed to be average at least 40+
I had imagined it would be loaded more towards 20 somethings looking for a first post.
The selection for the day was random and couldn't have been based on age, as they only had email addresses from the expression of interest.

To me it shows just how depressed the economy still is when there are so many in their 40's and 50's scrabbling to apply for these relativley low paid (but secure) positions. Myself, I'm qualified as a secondary science teacher, but it's virtually impossible to find permanent pensionable employment in this area.

Best of luck to all who applied.

notharrypotter

To be upfront I did not apply.

I had imagined it would be loaded more towards 20 somethings looking for a first post.

20/30 years ago this would be true.
Today career progression would be limited.

MOST (note word is most not all) future manager/decision makers will be based on graduate entry recruitment candidates.

To me it shows just how depressed the economy still is when there are so many in their 40's and 50's scrabbling to apply for these relativley low paid (but secure) positions.

I would disagree with your hypothesis.

I would take a good hard look at the applicant demographic over all.

Many of these would be people whose circumstances are such that this is an ideal career path for them.


From your own admission

I'm qualified as a secondary science teacher, but it's virtually impossible to find permanent pensionable employment in this area.

I would expect you to score very well in the aptitude tests over all and would probably make it to the final round.
So should you be successful you are only looking at a placeholder until your permanent teaching post arises?
So they will have to rerun the process again to replace you.

Probably going to be lambasted but you are not the ideal candidate for this role.

Jakey Rolling

Jakey Rolling wrote: »

Attended yesterday (Jan 13th) for the tests.

What surprised me somewhat was the age profile of the applicants - seemed to be average at least 40+
I had imagined it would be loaded more towards 20 somethings looking for a first post.
The selection for the day was random and couldn't have been based on age, as they only had email addresses from the expression of interest.

To me it shows just how depressed the economy still is when there are so many in their 40's and 50's scrabbling to apply for these relativley low paid (but secure) positions. Myself, I'm qualified as a secondary science teacher, but it's virtually impossible to find permanent pensionable employment in this area.

Best of luck to all who applied.

Was in the Clayton myself there yesterday. 4000 applicants for the 3 councils and im assuming that they only need a few hundred at most between the three councils over the next two or so years.

Fair to say that steady employment is as rare as oil wells in this country today unless you are willing to move to an overpopulated urban sprawl and add to the increasing rents problem by adding to the demand. At that rate you are working to barely survive. The days of zero hour and short term contracts are seemingly here to stay which is quite sad really. Organisations used to be about its people (or so we were told).

Quite frankly i find the whole idea of an aptitude test as a filtering process is absurd. Talk about Russian roulette. Hundreds of the best candidates with outstanding qualifications and/or experience as well as terrific work ethic could potentially be ruled out for the sake of a fraction of a second. I don't mind aptitude tests being part of a whole application to give a further indication of the candidates strengths and weaknesses but as a deal breaker?... Insanity

I share your sentiments in wishing everyone the best of luck.

Jakey Rolling

notharrypotter wrote:

I would expect you to score very well in the aptitude tests over all and would probably make it to the final round. So should you be successful you are only looking at a placeholder until your permanent teaching post arises? So they will have to rerun the process again to replace you.

Nah, actually would suit me at this stage to work away at this until retirement - would add a useful top up to my UK teacher's pension. The more I see of the train crash that is the education system here, the less I want to have any involvement with it.