Clerical Officer 2020

Icbaby

Well done to everyone, it’s a waiting game. I applied in 2016, got called for interview in April 18(panel ended 2 people before I got called in sept 18 - ended at 23 and I was 25) I was devastated. Had applied in 2018 also (before my expiry and swearing I was never putting myself through it again), and I started in 2020. It’s such a long process and a hard choice (I had a great job with €10k plus on salary) but I’m glad I did it. People are lovely, Work is work and the work/life balance is easily the best part.
Like others said use the STAR technique for interviews, be prepared and relate questions to yourself and not what you think they want to hear. As you can imagine they interview a lot of people they know what they want so be honest and always have a question for them when they ask at the end, any question you would like to ask?
And just remember you wonder why your OOM is really high etc, this process is different to other times so maybe the interview process will grade different too, who knows! Buts be prepared, and as someone else said put the job to the back of your mind till called because it takes so long.
Best of luck to ye all x

Stheno

Banana Republic 1 wrote: »

No lad Ive been a TCO for a number of years now and Im just disillusioned with the scratch card process especially when I see incompetent full timers that would have gone through the same processes.

Posting personal abuse and editing it is still subject to mod action

Dont post in this thread again

Guffy

Does anyone know if the interview actually changes the OOM or is it just pass/fail?

SB1982

I was top 5 for both my choices in the last campaign and it still took 10 months from application date to actually starting my job...(and one of my choices is a very swift moving county). it’s a very long process. Your oom will change again after interview (at least that’s how it happened last time).

SB1982

Guffy wrote: »

Does anyone know if the interview actually changes the OOM or is it just pass/fail?

In the last campaign your OOM changed after interview. You were graded for each of the 4 competencies. Your received OOM after online exam, that changed after exam in chapter house and changed again after interview.

The Wandering Man

Guffy wrote: »

Does anyone know if the interview actually changes the OOM or is it just pass/fail?

Both. You have to achieve pass standard in all four competencies and those who pass are then placed on an OOM for placement.

ge_ch

Banana Republic 1 wrote: »

I’ve gotten many signatures on my going away cards but the fact that I’ve proven myself across many different departments means nothing when met be this process.

Agree. A friend of mine is in her TCO contract since sept 2018, excellent at her job, got a few extensions and her OOM in this competition is over 700. Know lot of other people like that and they’re OOM is even worse 800-1000. Worked with some that were useless at their job, never worked in the department but placed in the top 20.

beppygal

I applied for the 2018 permanent CO competition. My OOM was 147 for Co. Roscommon, then after the interview (which I didn't get until December 2019) I was number 4. Now bear in mind we also had the in house aptitude tests (November 2019) which probably eliminated a lot. I started my permanent contract on the 24th of February this year. Just to give some sort of a timeframe.

Will be interesting to see if the lack of in house aptitude tests will speed up or slow down the progression on OOM.
Good luck everyone!

mayo londoner

But can your OOM go down? So say I'm 50th at the moment, could I go down to 100th after interview?

beppygal

beppygal wrote: »

I applied for the 2018 permanent CO competition. My OOM was 147 for Co. Roscommon, then after the interview (which I didn't get until December 2019) I was number 4. Now bear in mind we also had the in house aptitude tests (November 2019) which probably eliminated a lot. I started my permanent contract on the 24th of February this year. Just to give some sort of a timeframe.

Will be interesting to see if the lack of in house aptitude tests will speed up or slow down the progression on OOM.
Good luck everyone!

Just looked back on my Publicjobs messages and my OOM after stage 1 (online tests) was 147 and after the in house aptitude tests went down to 4. So it'll be interesting to see if no in house aptitude tests if the OOM will go down after interview instead, I'd say so.

CivilCybil

mayo londoner wrote: »

But can your OOM go down? So say I'm 50th at the moment, could I go down to 100th after interview?

Yes it can.
I went from top 5 after online tests to top 10 after interview. Only dropped a few places but yeah it happens

murphy15

Rubenski wrote: »

Hi guys. I got early 60s for Kerry. First time doing this so am not too sure if I should be optimistic or not, especially since the panel is only until May 2021 this time.

Can I ask if my chances look good (somewhat!!)?? Pretty nervous about this whole thing.

Thanks.

Yes that's a great score well done to you ! lots of county town like Portlaoise Castlebar Killarney have big government departments.. so there should be a lot of jobs coming up

Guffy

The Wandering Man wrote: »

Both. You have to achieve pass standard in all four competencies and those who pass are then placed on an OOM for placement.

And is that new oom placement restricted within the batch in which your interviewed. Eg, if the initially interview a 100 in galway and you start at 1, pass the interview and 30 fail. Is the lowest number you can then be 70 or can you drop further when the second batch are interviewed further down the line?

aoifedu

Is anyone here from any Laois departments that could have an insight into whether TCO’s are likely to be taken on this summer or not?

CivilCybil

Guffy wrote: »

And is that new oom placement restricted within the batch in which your interviewed. Eg, if the initially interview a 100 in galway and you start at 1, pass the interview and 30 fail. Is the lowest number you can then be 70 or can you drop further when the second batch are interviewed further down the line?

From previous campaigns if you are first called for interview and pass you're in batch 1.1
Your OOM is for this batch and everyone in this batch has to be placed before anyone from other batches is placed.
So nobody from subsequent interviews can "overtake" you in the OOM no matter how highly their score in the interview

ge_ch

CivilCybil wrote: »

From previous campaigns if you are first called for interview and pass you're in batch 1.1
Your OOM is for this batch and everyone in this batch has to be placed before anyone from other batches is placed.
So nobody from subsequent interviews can "overtake" you in the OOM no matter how highly their score in the interview

How many is in a batch?

CivilCybil

ge_ch wrote: »

How many is in a batch?

No idea sorry
I'd imagine it depends on the number of vacancies they expect/that arise

Conall Cernach

Linking123! wrote: »

Well I hope you get something on co 2018 what counties do you have? I was 300+ in co 2018 Louth/ Meath and waiting 2 years and a very slim chance getting it lol. Meath panel haven't moved for at least 2 months. So placed 120+ this time could potentially be placed in 1 year based on panel 2018?!

I got this message this morning:
"Please be advised that the Clerical Officer in the Civil Service 2018 (Competition ID: 18119606) has now closed.


No further appointments will be made from this panel from 31st May 2020, therefore, no further Stage 2 - Supervised Tests or Stage 3 - Interviews will be taking place."


It's very disheartening. I only did the test in Chapter House in November and was ranked 1 in OOM for batch 2. What was the point?

Green farmer

CivilCybil wrote: »

No idea sorry
I'd imagine it depends on the number of vacancies they expect/that arise

Wonder would they do it in thirds ?or are the numbers too big

Sandoe1989

Hi everyone
first time applying I finished with a pretty good score in top category for Dublin but my order of merit is still around 1100 , could someone explain if this is good or bad for Dublin ? I’ve heard some depts here like revenue alone hire hundreds each year but not so sure on how true that is ! Sorry if this has been asked previously just looking for info as I’ve never applied for anything like this before.

Samuel T. Cogley

Sandoe1989 wrote: »

Hi everyone
first time applying I finished with a pretty good score in top category for Dublin but my order of merit is still around 1100 , could someone explain if this is good or bad for Dublin ? I’ve heard some depts here like revenue alone hire hundreds each year but not so sure on how true that is ! Sorry if this has been asked previously just looking for info as I’ve never applied for anything like this before.

Discussed above. Last few competitions got beyond 1100 easily. This competition is a complete unknown with the current economic uncertainty. It's also only a year long for reasons best known to PAS.

Sandoe1989

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Discussed above. Last few competitions got beyond 1100 easily. This competition is a complete unknown with the current economic uncertainty. It's also only a year long for reasons best known to PAS.

Thanks a million , suppose it’s just a waiting game now but hopefully with it only being a year they speed up the process but again that’s gonna be difficult with everything going on at the moment !

Dublintigger

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Discussed above. Last few competitions got beyond 1100 easily. This competition is a complete unknown with the current economic uncertainty. It's also only a year long for reasons best known to PAS.

I wonder why only a year?

DarkJ

Does anyone have any idea how the competencies are graded? As in, how can you fail one if everybody's answer/experience is different? I've mostly been self employed and worked abroad for a number of years (interviews were not competency based) and I'm not sure how to even come up with answers regarding the competencies. Thanks for any guidance. Good luck to everyone.

xxsammyxx085

OOM 35 for my chosen County and even I'm nervous of not being called within the year for interview

tinofapples

beppygal wrote: »

I applied for the 2018 permanent CO competition. My OOM was 147 for Co. Roscommon, then after the interview (which I didn't get until December 2019) I was number 4. Now bear in mind we also had the in house aptitude tests (November 2019) which probably eliminated a lot. I started my permanent contract on the 24th of February this year. Just to give some sort of a timeframe.

Will be interesting to see if the lack of in house aptitude tests will speed up or slow down the progression on OOM.
Good luck everyone!

4th is pretty much all they placed of the Ros 18 panel ? Might as well forget about my 10th place so !! Especially given this panel seems to have a shorter lifespan.

claregal1

DarkJ wrote: »

Does anyone have any idea how the competencies are graded? As in, how can you fail one if everybody's answer/experience is different? I've mostly been self employed and worked abroad for a number of years (interviews were not competency based) and I'm not sure how to even come up with answers regarding the competencies. Thanks for any guidance. Good luck to everyone.

Hi- in the info booklet in the email with your results three is a list of competencies they will ask on during the interview . Think its 4 or 5 . Have an example or two for each of those . Answer using the Star technique. Situation , task , Action, and result.
Not sure how these interviews will be graded , but the last one I did was each compencies was marked out of 100 with 40 needed in each one to pass. Hope this helps .

thenightman

The fact that they are interviewing now based on the at home competency test alone, and you don't have to repeat it in person to prove it was you that actually did the test is a bit of a crock. The CO's we've been assigned since that change have been noticeably of a poorer standard. We got one person who could barely log on to their own computer for example, no way in hell they did their own competency exam.

Takes far longer for other staff to train staff like these, which has a knock on effect for busy offices as you end up spending more time explaining a simple concept to them repeatedly, and then eventually just fixing their mistakes altogether when it's clear they don't want to or won't be able to work autonomously. Typical civil service though, ends up costing more time in the long run than it would to run in person competencies at the start.

Mrs OBumble

thenightman wrote: »

The fact that they are interviewing now based on the at home competency test alone, and you don't have to repeat it in person to prove it was you that actually did the test is a bit of a crock. The CO's we've been assigned since that change have been noticeably of a poorer standard. We got one person who could barely log on to their own computer for example, no way in hell they did their own competency exam.

The COs you've been getting up till now have all been interviewed in person, and sat tests in Chapter House. The panel like that closed today. But it was two years old, so they've been the worst of the good-enough from the last campaign.

Testing and interviews have only changed from this campaign onwards. No one has been appointed from it yet.

furrybones

thenightman wrote: »

The fact that they are interviewing now based on the at home competency test alone, and you don't have to repeat it in person to prove it was you that actually did the test is a bit of a crock. The CO's we've been assigned since that change have been noticeably of a poorer standard. We got one person who could barely log on to their own computer for example, no way in hell they did their own competency exam.

Takes far longer for other staff to train staff like these, which has a knock on effect for busy offices as you end up spending more time explaining a simple concept to them repeatedly, and then eventually just fixing their mistakes altogether when it's clear they don't want to or won't be able to work autonomously. Typical civil service though, ends up costing more time in the long run than it would to run in person competencies at the start.

From experience, a low standard of competency is expected from permanent staff. In my first TCO position I was constantly asked questions such as "Can you type?", "Do you know how to send an email?", "Do you know how to save that to the drive?" Having previously worked (for almost 2 years) as admin assistant I found it very frustrating that I wasn't given more to do, due to the assumption was that i knew nothing.