Executive Officer within the DCEDIY 2023 (Staffline Comp)

pygmaliondreams

Hi,

Creating a separate thread for this as it is a separate open comp from the general CS wide one running at this moment. This will let us discuss the competition in a tidier fashion.

Applications closed yesterday but I haven't yet received any emails, same for everyone else?

turbodiesel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058319739/executive-officer-within-the-dcediy-2023-staffline-comp

Hiya, I'm currently a civil servant and don't recall seeing this mentioned in my dept. Was it an internal comp for DCEDIY?

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121289612#Comment_121289612

It was an open competition done through Staffline, rather than PAS.

It would have been easy to miss I only knew about it because it was mentioned on another discussion here.

pygmaliondreams

Emails went out for the assessment this evening.

Best of luck to anybody taking part.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121308334#Comment_121308334

Thank god for that - good luck to all, would really love to get placed in this department

IIRC invitations to go forward were after filtering out those who would not qualify?

Shar!

Has anyone yet did the assessments? Just wondering how they are. I absolutely hate numerical reasoning 🙈

hoping it isn't too difficult

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121312127#Comment_121312127

Just done the numerical - first 12ish were easy (or so I thought) - last 6ish were trickier and guesstimated a couple as running out of time

Got 100% in the sample test but those questions were very easy

The graphs and stuff in the questions is hard to read (or it could be just my old eyes) - had to get close to the screen for some to be able read them clearly

Shar!

I probably will be guessing most of them with my eyes closed 😂

I hate graphs, pie charts and percentages guess them all the time - but I am a till hopeful to be called on the open comp .

pygmaliondreams

Found the numerical fairly easy, the verbal I might've fumbled a little because I am tired however.

No biggie anyways because I'm on the open panel!

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121312748#Comment_121312748

The last 2 (or 3) questions I found difficult (crap nights sleep last night didn't help) but my brain was struggling to know how to calculate the percentage difference or something based on the cost and whatever it was

Will do the verbal reasoning one tomorrow which can be tricky questions (if I get a good nights sleep tonight)

Since they seem to be moving fast hoping to hear the results a week after it closes and maybe on to interviews quick and placement before Xmas - would be a nice present from Santa!

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121312892#Comment_121312892

Yes staffline comps move incredibly quickly from my experience, I had applied for one as a CO (but didn't take it in the end) and it was about 3 months from application to start date. Anyone in the private sector would probably find that incredibly long though LOL.

channelsurfer2

Why do staffline run them? Can they not get any from PAS?

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121313161#Comment_121313161

More urgent need maybe? I'm assuming all of these positions will end up being involved with accommodation and they probably don't want to wait to get to them when there's a lot of other EO vacancies around that will be filled by PAS

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121313225#Comment_121313225

You mean Ukranian rehoming? Hope there's more variety to it than that

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121313250#Comment_121313250

IPAS is a large part of dcediy as far as I'm aware.

I'm sure there are other positions but that's where the focus likely is at this time.

Sunshine_and _rainbows

Is anyone familiar with the roles in IPAS? Would they have work from home and is it a call centre?

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121313776#Comment_121313776

DCEDIY have up to 3 days WFH as far as I know, also says that on the document put out when applying for this comp.

If you're working with accommodation you'll almost definitely have to make calls to accommodation providers like hotels etc but it isn't like there'll be hundreds of asylum applicants calling your phone.

rosknight

Are you on camera completing these tests?

Sunshine_and _rainbows

Thanks for that, I must have missed the WFH mention in the documentation. I don’t mind making or receiving some calls but I’ve previously worked for a call centre and it’s not something I’d like to do again.

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314314#Comment_121314314

No

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314336#Comment_121314336

Understandable, I'm under the impression that a call centre would just be full of COs though? I know there's a lot of crossover but surely EOs wouldn't be sat waiting for calls all day when they're needed for decision making.

Sunshine_and _rainbows

My old call centre in DSP was mostly COs but some EOs also. The EOs didn’t usually answer the calls but they did deal with the worst of the callers when things escalated, so they handled a lot of hostile callers.

I

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314479#Comment_121314479

Yeah makes sense, same here where EOs will deal with the difficult ones, except we don't take phone calls where i am at all thankfully.

fritzelly

Anyone done the verbal yet? How does it compare to the PAS ones?

Who are staff line?

raheny red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121317997#Comment_121317997

I had a brief look on their site earlier. Think they are a northern Irish recruitment crowd? Pretty sure I did an assessment test through them before for Fingal.

turbodiesel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121317997#Comment_121317997

Big enough company. they bought Grafton Recruitment back in 2018 - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-44906127

Overview of the company here - https://www.staffline.co.uk/about-us/the-company/introduction

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121319110#Comment_121319110

Thanks. Never heard of them until last night

raheny red

Maybe I'm rusty but I found the numerical practise test quite tough :/ and that's usually my strong point.

Sunshine_and _rainbows

I agree, I found it harder than the recent EO tests I’ve done with PAS. The quality of the graphs was also tough to read and threw me a little.

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121320067#Comment_121320067

the numerical wasnt too bad but the verbal i struggled a little with being so tired, i should've left it to the day after but i felt excited to get it done!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121320348#Comment_121320348

the graphs were not fantastic, i had 2 minutes left when i answered all the questions. I don't think you were able to go backwards either? I had a question I wasn't happy with my answer for but couldn't figure that out.

fritzelly

Just done the verbal reasoning one now - 30 questions, think I did alright but you never know with the wording of some of them if you are reading it correctly per the answers available.

defiantdancer

@pygmaliondreams thank you for creating this thread.

defiantdancer

@pygmaliondreams i have yet to do the aptitude tests as maths really isn’t my forte🥲may I ask u was there a facility to skip a question & come back to it at the end rather than wasting time? Wishing everybody the best of luck in their application😊

Sunshine_and _rainbows

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325245#Comment_121325245

Unfortunately that wasn’t an option with this test, you can’t go back to previous questions.

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325245#Comment_121325245

As said above, sadly not no. I messed up one and I couldn't return to it, really bothered me!

defiantdancer

@Sunshine_and _rainbows thank u for the heads up.I really struggle with maths-it’s as if my brain shuts down when it sees a pie chart. I like pie but not pie charts 😔

defiantdancer

@pygmaliondreams -there is a thing called negativity bias where we focus on the things we got wrong rather than the things we got right. So hopefully it was just that one for you😊

PmMeUrDogs

Only seeing this thread now, applied for this as the OOM isn't moving for the open eo comp.

Tests were okay. I found the maths a little more difficult than the open eo comp one, but I think I did fine, a few guesses and the aforementioned difficulty reading the graphs.

Verbal reasoning, I absolutely SCRAPED a pass on the open comp, think I did better on this one but who knows. Starting to think being autistic is making this particular section difficult for me as I'm probably taking what's written and the way the questions are worded too literally at times. 😅

We'll see. I'd imagine I passed but feck knows what OOM would be

Grateful4

Does anyone know how it works if you are an existing EO (in a different Department) and are successful in this competition? I applied as I would like a move (also applied for recent AO comp).

I have yet to do the assessment but I’ll get them done tomorrow hopefully!

Missy95

Was there a general competition recently for Executive Officers?

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121329640#Comment_121329640

Yeah, about 4 months back

PmMeUrDogs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121329518#Comment_121329518

No clue how it works unfortunately but best of luck with the assessments!

helpagirlout22

Done the tests tonight yesterday. I found the maths harder than the open competition so I'm not confident after finishing it. I found the verbal reasoning ok.

Watermelonsugar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121329516#Comment_121329516

I think it works the same but you enter at start of scale and then have to apply for incremental credit for any time spent in the grade already

PmMeUrDogs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121330780#Comment_121330780

Oh I'm not in the CS, I just meant I hope my OOM is better than in the open comp so I get a call sooner 😅

nooneworker

When do you think we will get the OOMs from Talent Central?

Shar!

hi I recently applied for 1 open CO and 1 interdepartmental comp ‘ both with a nice shift allowance but would mean returning to 5 days in office. I confirmed that I would retain my service and incremental status etc so it would be same for EO.

just go for anything possible and make decisions after 👍 best of luck

pygmaliondreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121333275#Comment_121333275

Wouldn't imagine it'd be any sooner than next week.

EduKate

The inability to use the 'back' button in SHL's tests is annoying.

SHL's tests also have half as many questions as PAS did. Not sure how the OOM works if more people get the same scores as a result of there being fewer questions.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121334004#Comment_121334004

Was half the amount of time as well so...

raheny red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121320067#Comment_121320067

Scrap that. I did their numerical practise test on their normal site, not the one right before our actual assessment. I got 100%. Will do the assessment proper tomorrow evening. Feeling alot better now :)

I did the verbal reasoning earlier on. Happy enough with that too but I never do amazing on them.