Hi all,
As the online assessments have just been released for the Third Secretary competition 2022, I thought we could use this forum to discuss the process.
It appears the format is slightly different this year? More time and questions.
I unfortunately did not achieve a score high enough for interview in stage 2 of this comp, but I am applying for the Development Specialist job now too. I see that stage 2 of this will be the same, a precis. Anyone willing to share a good example of their winning entries from last time? 😅 I knew I hadn't done the best job, but was quite surprised at how badly I scored. Could certainly benefit from getting a look at a high scoring example to understand better what they're looking for...
PM Sent
@KRedzer I would appreciate if you could PM me too. I would definitely benefrom a good working example yoo. Many thanks
Hi all. Curious if PAS will disqualify people for the DSO competition? I note it’s not a general competition. Interested to hear if anyone’s heard anything?
No DSO thread that I can see so it's good to see others also looking at this campaign. I wonder will they exclude before the initial assessments - that would seem like a lot of applications to check in short timeline?
I'm trying to figure out where to practice deductive reasoning - any thoughts would be great. I did the assessments last time but can't remember if the AO and the third sec exams were the same exam set that time round. I remember a lot of suduko shape type exercises but not which assessment it was for! I had paid €120 or so for a training package pre exam that time but it was AO and there doesn't seem to be a third sec one and it's now a lot more expensive so any pointers on training resources would be great.
It appears they have not. There is no deductive reasoning assessment thank heavens!
Does anyone have any advice for the Situational Judgement part of the assessment?
Lost a lot of marks on it during the Third Secretary application.
Thanks!
Hi, if you could PM me too that would be much appreciated! I last did a precis test for the 2017 3rd Sec, and I failed by 1 point. I have no memory of the actual test at all and it has been a few years so I'm going in blind now.
Did you hear anything?
@ShatterResistant
Yes I found out recently that I was given the wrong information by PAS. Not once but twice in 2 different recruitment campaigns. They knew I was a civil servant but both times failed to mention the 2018 circular. They're a disgrace.
What's the 2018 circular?
Nevermind... I looked back through the thread and figured it out.
Nothing yet. Waiting is the worst!
I applied for the first time to DSO, and am very nervous about the situational judgment assessment. I did an AO in 2020 and didn’t pass for 10 points. Not sure if it’s the same one, but any tips welcome for all 3 assessments.
Also, if I speak 3 languages, does it help to be shortlisted or is all based on the assessments?
Thank you :)
Language capabilities for the Third Sec comp were tested at the interview stage, and were counted as extra additional points on top of the total for the competencies.
Stiil waiting on a start date a month after being called for clearance docs. DFA extra security clearance seems to be particualrly slow.
I've just finished the DSO tests. I was never asked to show my ID. Did this happen to anyone else? The familiarisation booklet said we'd have to show it, and I had my licence ready to go.
It didn't ask me either @lucat , so hopefully we're okay.
My camera took a picture at the start, I did the situational judgement then, and only when I started the verbal did it prompt me that my camera didn't have permission to operate so I tinkered with the settings for the proctoring to operate, hoping my situational is still valid!
Overall, happy with how the situational judgement and the numerical reasoning went, think I got 35-odd done in that. The verbal reasoning was an unmitigated disaster, got awful flustered around 30, guessed about 5 of them, and know I got a good few wrong if not the majority.
Does anyone know the weighting of the situational judgement, or is it passs/fail and just numerical and verbal combined for the OOM?
Anywho, in the hands of the gods now, onwards and upwards!
If you look through the thread SR I think it's written somewhere that the numerical doesn't count, it's only pass/fail. But I could be wrong. I remember being disappointed as that would be my best section!
Christ, I'll be bate if that's the case! Thanks dory, I might fire off an email to PAS and see what the suss is.
It didn’t ask for ID this time . Only a picture and that was it . I remember in 2021 when I did my AO, was a selfie holding your ID close to your face.
Anyone know when we can expect the results from the DSO psychometric tests? I believe the tests closed two weeks ago today.
It was between two and three weeks to get the results for the third secretary position if I recall correctly.
Development Specialist competition opened today. I know it's not quite Third Sec but some people seem to apply for both and I don't know if DS merits its own thread around here.
Going on three weeks now...tick tock tick tock
I really thought we’d get the results today.
Me too. Chances are we won't get them till next Friday now, which will be going on a month since the test window closed.
Received this from publicjobs.ie after requesting info about the status of third secretary recruitment.
"The second batch of interviews for this competition are currently ongoing. To date we have called up to and including 65 on the order of merit for this competition."
Doesn't make sense as the max score after precis exercise was 50? Anyone have any insight?
I just found the link https://www.dfa.ie/about-us/working-with-us/career-opportunities/development-specialist.php At first I thought it was strange that this is being run while PAS are running a Development Specialist campaign concurrently, but I see this one is at AP level.
Anyone have any tips on how to approach the précis?
Would you mind sending this to me as well? I'd appreciate it
