New 2021 Assistant Principal in the Civil Service

AP2021

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118536025#Comment_118536025

Nothing yet here either. They had indicated for this week.

FenFlynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118539417#Comment_118539417

Very best of luck! I'm sure you'll do great. Let us later ones know how you get on please. I have mine next week.

Boardsieboards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118539979#Comment_118539979

And not a sausage this week either!

AP2021

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118547047#Comment_118547047

It's very disappointing. I'm sure they'll be on soon...

crinkley

Might be a better chance after the current batch of interviews finish. Hope ye all hear soon

agnena

So, I have survived my interview. The Board was lovely, the questions were tough, as expected.

Presentation questions were appropriate for the relevant competencies. However, I did have some issues with my slides. I have prepared speaker notes in case, but couldn't see them while sharing. It did work while practicing, but not during the presentation. Not sure where the issue was. You will get a prompt at 9min and will be cut off at 10min.

Interview questions were coming like from a cannon, lots of cutting off and moving on. It's all like a blur now, but a huge weight got lifted off the shoulders at the end. I am glad it's finished and I hope I don't have to do it again any time soon. Not sure if I did enough or not, time will tell now. I think the first interview batch was waiting for results for 2 weeks after all interviews finished, so I would hope to hear in 3 weeks time...🤞

crinkley

Thanks so much, that’s really helpful. I may prepare a back up for my notes

AuroraP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118548268#Comment_118548268

I had my interview during the week and I'm in agreement with agnena. They Board and PAS representative were very nice and did their utmost to make me feel at ease. Interview is tough enough, questions are numerous and quick, but no surprises or odd questions at the same time.

I didn't have issues with my presentation, though I'm not sure I delivered what they were looking for. I wasn't great on the questions I felt but hopefully did enough to pass that section.

I wasn't too impressed with my interview performance, I feel I didn't get a lot of acheivements across as was my intention, but they certainly helped steer me along and I asked questions where I didn't quite understand what they wanted. Not too hopeful, but the whole experience was positive and I'll certainly feel more positive walking into another interview on account of it (if it was a PO interview that would be a bonus 😊 )

DublinJ1981

Hey… anyone that got on the order of merit for the AP Comms comp - https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058112361/communications-ap-comp/p3 - got a message about the upcoming interviews. Check your messages, they issued a message on Friday about the next batch of interviews. Deadline to respond to the message by email is noon Tuesday, 1st Feb 2022.

crinkley

Oh what counties are they calling?

timetime21

Hi’

just wondering did people use notes during their interview, or even just like prompts?

thanks

FenFlynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118557654#Comment_118557654

There is nothing wrong with sticking some notes on the side of your screen or on the table, but I'm not sure if you'd have time to look at anything. I haven't had mine yet, but I'm hoping I'll have remembered enough not to need notes.

Best of luck! Hope it all goes well for you.

AuroraP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118558271#Comment_118558271

I know many people who used notes in last year's competition. I feel I get distracted by notes so I personally don't use them. Interestingly, in internal competitions our organisation allows us to bring our application form into interview to use as a prompt, but I don't know how common that is.

TaurenDruid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118558403#Comment_118558403

PAS have always let you bring in your application form. IIRC you're not supposed to have any additional notes written on it, though. For Zoom interviews, no harm maybe to have some keywords on post-its.

timetime21

Thank you!

caznemoy

Boardsieboards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118547305#Comment_118547305

Got an email today with a "provisional allocation". I have til Thursday to say yay or nay to it...

crinkley

Thank god that it over, did not go as well as I would have liked. As a previous poster stated I think they may have gotten my speaker view when I was presenting because when I asked if they could see the slides they said yes but did I want to present like that, I didn't think anything of it and just said yes. Being questioned on it later I got asked about figures because the panel member couldn't see them. I only clicked afterwards maybe they didnt get the presentation view and instead saw all my notes. So that is super frustrating

Felt I didnt get my depth of experience across and wish I explained the work structure in my current place a bit better as I felt there was a mix up that Ive changed jobs a lot whilst my role actually requires me to join different projects.

I'm not expecting to hear good things but it was an experience that I can certainly draw on, felt I didnt prep correctly and spent a lot of time working on examples and learning them off and the structure of the interview didn't allow for that. If I was to do ti again I'd focus on the competencies more

Best of luck to everyone left I'm going to bed I'm knackered lol

Palante

Oh that's great, glad they've started moving. Thanks for posting. Good luck with it!!

sheepgobahhh

Just got my allocation and I've already accepted it!

Boardsieboards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566139#Comment_118566139

I got somewhere a bit off the beaten track so I'm having a think...

TaurenDruid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566285#Comment_118566285

Bear in mind, the mobility scheme now includes APs, so after two years in an organisation, you can apply for a move.

FenFlynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565851#Comment_118565851

Well done for finishing it. I'm sure you've done better than you think, and fingers crossed that's the case for you.

sheepgobahhh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566285#Comment_118566285

I got a straightforward dept, but in an area I have no experience with, but I think that's the point of an open competition. We're expected to be generalists who can be placed anywhere. I'm sure we all have our dream departments and we can start moving around after 2 years, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel if you got something a bit different than what you were expecting.

timetime21

AuroraP

Curious to know if the results are marked on a curve ie. relative to the other candidates in the batch?

TaurenDruid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118569333#Comment_118569333

They are not - everyone is marked on their own merits based on their interview/presentation.

irumudikkilli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118569418#Comment_118569418

If that is the case, what happens in a hypothetical scenario when there is only one job and two candidates have been equally marked, one earlier in the week and one later in the week?

crinkley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118571571#Comment_118571571

That doesn't happen, after sitting on interview boards if people get the same mark you go back over the scoring and award someone an additional mark so that there is a clear OOM

irumudikkilli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118571586#Comment_118571586

So there is no objective playoff? 😀 One person scores something on Monday morning. Another scores the same Friday afternoon. Late Friday afternoon, the referees have to "remember" something from Monday morning to increase or decrease by 1 as you suggest. Sounds like subjective relative grading to me as AuroraP asked.

crinkley

Well no because all 3 won’t have scored the candidate the exact same and there will be agreed scores so you go back and see where people were marked down if that would have made the difference. How it worked for me, I’m not saying that’s how it works in this comp but it’s not on a curve because you mark on the interview and presentation not compared to other candidates

irumudikkilli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118572291#Comment_118572291

You are suggesting a valid point that there is no curve at the outset. I suggest the possibility of a curve within that larger set based on what you said (if valid). When there are 4 scores that are equal in total (sure one person could be superior to another in some competency and vice versa, but the total for each of them could be the same) at the end of the week, unless there is a playoff, there must a curve re-grading amongst those 4.

My point is that once you have played the game and scored, it should be set and should not be altered later in the week. You seem to suggest it is being done as a practice by referees revisiting the game when total scores at the end of the week are the same for a bunch of candidates.

crinkley

no I still can’t agree there’s a curve and I’m only talking from my experience of being on a panel and having to rank all the interviewees it is always done in isolation you simply not compare to other candidates, which curve marking is. The hr rep would never allow that to happen

You look back at the original scores before an agreed score was given so that would give someone more marks or if some competency was weighted higher which ever candidate scored highest. These were always looked at in isolation.

I think that process is better than inviting people back for another interview because you don’t think the original individual scores shouldn’t be looked at again in order to separate close candidates. Personally I’d rather I was ranked one merit position lower than do it all over again

OscarBluth

For those who have done the report:mine is due shortly and I've had a terrible week with sick children, isolation and no sleep. All my plans to work on it were out the window so it will be a rush job.

I definitely won't have the time to read around the topic as much as I wanted - I suppose what I'm wondering is, will a report that shows I can approach the issues in the 'right' way be enough? i.e. are they mostly looking for how you demonstrate how you would research it, rather than you actually giving as comprehensive an overview of the topic as you would expect to in the role?

Jaeger_Jen

I thought interviews were only running til tomorrow? (4th) 🤔

Hope you're all better now... as long as you can show how you conducted your research and outline how you ended up where you did you should be fine.

Jmc25

I interviewed this week and found it fair but challenging as others have said.

There's a lot more questions within each compentcy than for EO or HEO. The board won't let you talk in dept about one example for the entire time allotted to each compentcy so having multiple short and to the point examples covering the different aspects is a must. I had prepared for this type of interview and they still had to hurry me along a couple of times.

I think it's inevitable that most people will be asked at least one question they haven't prepared for which can can definitely throw you off. It's a challenge because obviously we all have some examples we like more than others but the board may choose to cover different aspects of that compentcy which your example doesn't cover, or throw you a question at the end inviting you to use your 5 star preprepared example but you'll find there's only a minute and a half left and they're rushing you along so it's hard to get the info out.

I guess my advice is to prepare a short and longer version of each example you've got and let the board guide toy in terms of which one is appropriate to use.

FenFlynn

I thought it was very tough! Definitely the toughest interview I've ever had. Not confident that my examples were high level enough. I was constantly asked to refer to AP position, and leadership in a department context, which really threw me and I just felt it was a really bad start. Anyway, it's done now, I can relax for the weekend finally.

Best of luck to those yet to do it.

Jaeger_Jen

Has anyone any idea as to when the current batch of interviews end? My zoom link indicated the 4th Feb, however the comment above suggests otherwise.

FenFlynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575213#Comment_118575213

Mine also said batch 1.2 till 04/02, unless there is a batch 1.3 afterward?

Conqueror

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575213#Comment_118575213

Post 785 (which I presume is the comment you're referring to) didn't give a date; the fact that the commenter's report is due "shortly" could imply today, meaning their interview would be tomorrow. I haven't seen any comments about interviews next week, though I don't recall too many comments about interviews last week either.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575235#Comment_118575235

PAS wouldn't run two batches or sub-batches at the same time. They would need to know how many passed/failed from 1.2 before they could determine the number of people to be called in 1.3 (if there is one), and batch 1 would need to be finished before they started on batch 2.

Jaeger_Jen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575235#Comment_118575235

I wonder will they announce results of our interviews next week so 🤔 I was interviewed last week...

FenFlynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575286#Comment_118575286

I do know someone doing it next week, so I think there could be two different boards doing it.

Hope it goes well for everyone. The stress is finally lifted for me.

Jaeger_Jen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575286#Comment_118575286

Yes thats the one I was referring to indeed... just odd to me they were submitting their report just 1 day prior.... circumstances probably allowed in their case though. I was interviewed last week though so was just wondering about the wait for results I suppose 😊

FenFlynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575295#Comment_118575295

It will be nice to hear next week, but could be too optimistic to expect it that soon. You never know though.

crinkley

I wonder if the ones next week would be for those who had their video interviews reviewed, so technically wouldn't be in our batch

BigElmo

What type of people are on the interview boards for this comp? Is it POs or HR people?

OscarBluth

I definitely have an interview next week, and didn't have my video interview reviewed. When I click on my zoom link I get 'batch 1.2 8th to 11th Feb' - so its possible there are different panels, or just different zoom links being used?

crinkley

Thanks Oscar, end of the month so for results I imagine

AuroraP

Perhaps there'll be another round of batch 1.2 after 11th February?

Jaeger_Jen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118576384#Comment_118576384

I'm wondering what the reason was for the indication of a batch running for 2 weeks ending 4th Feb. But here we see that's not the case. I wonder will results be provided to those who underwent interview this week and last? (Wishful thinking probably) but I'm so intrigued by the process