Open First Secretary DFA 2021

It's Open and Interdepartmental.

Think I read somewhere that the DFA is the 'oldest' department in terms of average age; probably a lot of retirements coming up with current 1st secs being bumped up. It's also the point in people's careers where after a few postings the job has lost its luster and people with families either move to other departments or leave the civil service altogether.

Definitely not EO, judging by pay and responsibilities it looks like it's equivalent to AP.

You're right though it doesn't appear to outline any qualification requirements, but I'm guessing significant experience is needed.

It's a bit opaque, but I'd imagine a few years managing people and projects would be what they are looking for. Specialist experience and knowledge in international relations / legal would be huge boost for an 'outsider.' A lot of third secs that fail to get promoted internally go this route and would have a natural advantage, as would folks from other departments who know the civil service patter and the way to play the game in these competitions. Hiring at this grade is still a relatively new phenomenon for the DFA, it would be interesting to know the profile of those who came from the private sector with no civil service background and the percentage makeup of same from the open intakes.

I haven’t heard anything yet either. It might be a bit early for feedback.

Results are out. The next step for those shortlisted, is a video interview.

Thanks :)

I have no idea, sorry! I'm used to the AP competitions, where they usually go further down the list. But I'm not used to the First Sec competitions.

How do u know ur score/placing if u passed? Do they rate each competency?

How the hell can I prepare for this? I’ve never done one before! To get all my background in in 1 minute 30 seconds and then to pick an example of leadership. Any ideas how to approach it? What level of leadership example are they looking for?

Not a problem to use the same example, as far as I know.

Hope we get the results soon!

You could call PAS to ask but I'd say it's unlikely.

They usually take about three weeks to process the video interviews. I'd expect two weeks' notice of the final interview after that.

Likely to be just the video interview and the full final interview if recent external DFA comps are anything to go by.

All interviews via video (Zoom) seems to be standard practice now

looks like results are out.

my score was 183 - qualifying standard but not enough to be called to the next round this time.

Anyone got any insight on numbers or the chances of further callups?

I'm at a real loss of my score of 156, is there any way to appeal or request feedback?

It was my first time doing a DFA competition, as I'm very much finance based. I have started to work with EU material over the past few years however and said I'd try my hand at this as I'm very interested in Diplomacy and International affairs in General. Was happy to have hit the pass mark for each Question/Competency but overall only scored 179......So a bit off the 225. I'm guessing that it might be the end of the line unless they only called a very small batch initially.

Saying that I said I'd throw it out here first before emailing PAS. Does anyone reading this thread know anything about the following:

-Total no. of applicants for competition?

-Total no. called for video interview?

-No. of candidates who reached qualifying standard?

-No. of candidates who scored over 225?

-What is the next stage of the process?

-What other stages are after this in the process?

-No. of forecast available posts?

PAS don't seem to have any phone lines for general enquiries because of Covid which seems a bit daft. I work in Public Service, and for the past 2 years all my work calls just come through my laptop. I know I can send an email too, but just want to talk to a human being I guess.

Thanks for any information

I don’t think PAS release information of competitions ongoing. Not very transparent, I know, and by the time it is released we will have forgotten about it or not bother contesting! Most other countries even publish the names of the successful candidates at this stage! It would make it easier to call out anything that may be going on if so.

I heard there were interviews last week and this week. Anyone here get called to them?

Results are out! I’m almost at 20 on the panel. How did others get on?

well done! I have also placed- also interested in likelihood/ pace of appointments as I have another job offer on the table and am wondering what to do!

It is 1:1:1 ratio between internal/interdepartmental/open so neither will be prioritised.

Interested to know what backgrounds others on the Open have come from? I’m from the civil service myself, but not in Ireland

Not to be the bearer of bad news but just in case anyone was wondering about future interview rounds, when I tried to reschedule my interview due to covid they told me that they couldn’t reschedule and they could only add me to the list if they did another round of interviews later, however, “it is not envisaged at present that we will be calling further batches to interview for this competition.”