Interview in County Council

fitzytour

Hi,

I have an interview for a legal secretary position in a County Council. Does anyone have any experience at all of County Council interviews particularly legal department? Any help greatly appreciated

Zipppy

fitzytour wrote:

I have an interview for a legal secretary position in a County Council. Does anyone have any experience at all of County Council interviews particularly legal department? Any help greatly appreciated

Hmmm..never heard of legal secretary position in County council...what council may I ask?

fitzytour

Zipppy wrote: »

Hmmm..never heard of legal secretary position in County council...what council may I ask?

Cork County Council, they're one of the only Councils that have their own legal department...that's why I'm finding it difficult to get any tips on the interview!

Darkglasses

fitzytour wrote: »

Cork County Council, they're one of the only Councils that have their own legal department...that's why I'm finding it difficult to get any tips on the interview!

Probably very obvious, but make yourself very aware of the sections of the County Council that would use legal services a lot (i.e. Planning and Housing). Particularly everything to do with Housing capital acquisitions. Also would be no harm to become familiar with important figures in the County Council, the members, how often they meet, etc. Things like Part 5 of the Planning act are real hot topics with local authorities at the moment.

fitzytour

Darkglasses wrote: »

Probably very obvious, but make yourself very aware of the sections of the County Council that would use legal services a lot (i.e. Planning and Housing). Particularly everything to do with Housing capital acquisitions. Also would be no harm to become familiar with important figures in the County Council, the members, how often they meet, etc. Things like Part 5 of the Planning act are real hot topics with local authorities at the moment.

Thanks for the advice, my problem when preparing for an interview is I find it hard to cut down on irrelavant information and then lose time to prepare on what is actually relevant!

Darkglasses

I was surprised in my interview how much of the interview was focused on the running and general business of local authorities, there wasn't many questions about my previous experience at all. I would focus on learning the various different areas of the Co. Co. that would use legal services and why, as well as knowing just generally about how the Councils run from the members to the admin staff.

Another type of question that surprised me a bit was they asked my opinion (very generally) on the Housing crisis. Might not come up for a more specialized role like legal secretary, but might not hurt to have something in mind if they ask you a topical kind of question like that.

Zipppy

All local authority interviews are competency based interviews...if youre not sure of his these interviews work get googling .. you'll need examples from previous work experience of how you successfully tackled an issue.
Know whats happening locally...transport, housing, infrastructure, city development plan.
Role of council...their powers..powers of council executive (management)
Services provided by council...what services were lost recently (eg water waste etc) New services?
Health and safety at work act 2005... responsibility of employees and employees
Role of law department...public procurement guidelines and legislation ... Claims against council.