Open First Secretary DFA 2021

Is the final interview likely to mirror the same sorts of questions in the video interview do you think? Trying to work out how duplicative it will be and whether I’ll need additional examples for the competencies already covered at video interview - to avoid giving them the same examples twice.

My message said I’d be invited to final interview but no indication of when and I’ve a holiday coming up, so hoping they don’t conflict 😫

You can request feedback in other Civil Service competitions, so I presume the same goes for this competition. And while it's great to get that feedback (speaking from experience), the feedback will not be very detailed.

If its any consolation to anyone I am at a real loss of my score as well. Especially as I opened with the fact that I have been assigned an AP role since last year… The standard must be unreal. ‘I’d love to hear from those that got through - if its luck, how you present yourself or career experience. Id say there’s little hope for anyone who didn’t make the cut as I hear vacancies r very limited this time as they also ran an internal competition last year. Personally I think the selection panel should be made of PAS officials and maybe an external examiner rather than staff from a small department like DFA. It was mentioned on the Tonight Show recently given the Champagne scandal that there’s a lot of family and connections in there. I think Shane Ross mentioned that but I must check.

In what way is DFA a small department?

It has more employees (over 1,300) than the Departments of Health and Transport put together.

Yes I interviewed last week. Anyone else? Not holding out much hope - wasn’t a disaster but was definitely a challenging interview. Panel were all extremely nice though.

Yes, I’ve placed too. I wonder how many are on the panel and how many appointments will be made right away?

I see there is also an interdepartmental panel created. I wonder which panel will be prioritised?

I’ve placed too! I’m so delighted as I had Covid during the interview so was not my finest performance 😅😅 I heard rumours they appointed in lots last time eg 5 off internal, then 5 off open etc, but not sure if there’s any merit in that. But like everyone else, really curious to know how likely it is to actually secure an appointment off this merit list!

Not necessarily the case - for example, if a lot of candidates have been placed recently from an internal DFA competition, there may be a debt owed to the "external" two compenents, so all the next appointments will take place from these sources. Previous experience would suggest that they may take a batch of people from the external panel at the start. Congrats to all who got through.

Hi all, did anyone get on the panel get called? I haven’t heard anything.

First 10 have now been called for vetting I think

Hi everyone. I threw my hat in the ring for the new 1st sec comp. I'm an existing civil servant but in a different department. I think that makes me eligible for both inter-departmental and open (but not internal).

A few questions:

1. Is there an internal comp happening in tandem with this one?

2. Do many people from within the DFA apply via the external route?

3. How many people are new entrants to the civil service at this level?

Any other info (or wild speculation) 😁

Thanks for finding the PQ - very interesting!

From my read of this thread, I don't think there will be any aptitude tests. More like:

Shortlisting → video interviews → final interview.

Of course, I could be very wrong.