Principal Officer 2025

tea and coffee · 13-05-2025 06:32AM #1

A new competition!

Closing date 3rd June 3pm

FunkyChicken24 · 13-05-2025 06:36AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058409861/principal-officer-2025

Links?

tea and coffee · 13-05-2025 06:40AM

It's on Public Jobs.

https://publicjobs.ie/en/?option=com_jobsearch&view=jobdetails&Itemid=263&cid=198957&campaignId=2522800

dory · 13-05-2025 07:34AM

Good to see this change come in:

The Principal Officer (PO) 2025 competition will pilot a new approach to assigning successful candidates to the available vacancies. There is an increasing demand for candidates with specific skills and experience, particularly at this senior level. In an effort to maximise each applicant’s specific skillset and background, this new approach seeks to match candidates to the available vacancies, with the expectation of improving the experience for both the candidate and the hiring Organisation/Department.

Hopefully they bring that in at lower grades as well.

beau20 · 13-05-2025 12:25PM

Do you think this means AP open competition will come on stream soon? Also do they typically hire people from the private sector into a Principal post does anyone know or do you need to have some level of civil service experience first? Thanks

Chappiec81 · 13-05-2025 01:59PM

Anyone know what the online assessment is? Is that the etrays?

APapplicant2021 · 13-05-2025 05:13PM

Just reviewed the thread on the 2022 panel and not feeling very hopeful about prospects here! I'll apply anyway and see where it takes me. Realistically I can't make Dublin work for me either which is where the majority of vacancies will arise.

Ahshurlookit · 13-05-2025 08:27PM

A return to the in-person interview for those lucky enough to make it that far!

agoodusername · 14-05-2025 02:58PM

Oh this new approach to allocating posts will be interesting to follow.

I've nowhere near the experience to even apply for PO, but I imagine this will be used in other competitions in the future, so will be monitoring this thread for the next while.

Best of luck to you all, I'm fascinated to see how it works!

juggernaut2 · 15-05-2025 03:08PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123445422#Comment_123445422

worried about a bot the other side of the screen?

2021_AP · 16-05-2025 06:17PM

Going to give this a whack I think, would imagine I am not experienced enough yet but given how long the last panel remained in existence it would seem mad not to give it a go

doc22 · 18-05-2025 11:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123442776#Comment_123442776

I imagine they do that in the sense that they work in batches at lower levels and have multiple jobs and candidates to use at the same time while with PO there's a limited amount of posts overall to work with.

If one was to pass a PO interview there'd be an expectation that one would have the skills and experience for the role. Next in order of merit is a simple fair approche, if the role doesn't suit a candidate they can decline and if a department wanted to keep a staff member they can requested. If a specialist is required run a specialist comp……

mrsdewinter · 19-05-2025 06:36AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123455553#Comment_123455553

Right? By the time the interviews are taking place, I might have a few competencies to showcase

APapplicant2021 · 19-05-2025 09:46AM

Any recommendations on a provider for prep for the aptitude testing?

M-Type Star · 19-05-2025 01:37PM

Are they doing the aptitude testing this time?

badboyblast · 19-05-2025 08:45PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123444718#Comment_123444718

Could you share a link to this thread please, searched but did`nt see a 2022 thread. thank you

APapplicant2021 · 21-05-2025 09:23AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123466103#Comment_123466103

It's here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058233607/principal-officer-competition-2022/p1

davidoyyy · 21-05-2025 11:18PM

I think based on other comments will apply. No chance but if your not in you can't win and worse case get experience of the various stages u get past

mrsdewinter · 24-05-2025 04:04AM

I just looked at the competition booklet and I see that it is not 'envisaged' that appointments will be made from this panel after 27 March 2026 (p4). Is that an early expiry date for a competition like this?

tea and coffee · 24-05-2025 05:43AM

I wonder is that a typo. By the time the panel is formed it will be August or September. That would be a real waste of effort on their part

saturdaymorn · 24-05-2025 08:42AM

Can anyone indicate the number of years’ experience that would be typical for PO level ? I know the nature of the experience is more important , but usually years of experience offers a good gauge of level expected too.

tea and coffee · 24-05-2025 09:17AM

7 to 10 with 5 at (Mid) Senior Management

myk · 24-05-2025 02:34PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123479759#Comment_123479759

There was also a very early expiry date for the recent open AP competition- that makes me think it isn't a typo.

Perhaps government departments wish to scale up in advance of the EU presidency and then let numbers tale off afterwards.

Panels can always be extended, the last one (2022) was extended multiple times.

saturdaymorn · 24-05-2025 06:50PM

thanks @tea and coffee . Seems like a high salary for someone in the private sector with 7-10 yrs, let alone public sector . I guess the likelihood is that most people with 5 yrs senior management experience actually have 15-20 yrs overall experience.

Barbara WW · 24-05-2025 07:34PM

Overall 7-10.

At AP, 3 years. That's what's getting through these days with regularity to PO panels. It often shows too unfortunately.

saturdaymorn · 24-05-2025 08:34PM

Thanks @Barbara WW - I’m in the private sector so thanks for the info . at the risk of sounding agist , I wasn’t thinkn a PO might be around the 30 yr old mark from the JD.

APapplicant2021 · 27-05-2025 03:49PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123481855#Comment_123481855

It definitely wouldn't be my expectation you'd see many 30 year olds but 40 year olds would be reasonable.

TaurenDruid · 28-05-2025 10:29AM

Trying to fill in the application form right now.

They've moved on, finally (!), from the horrible PDF, to an online form. Yay!

The online form is currently blocking me with a firewall message when I try to save the form. Boo! Bring back the PDFs! (Seriously, though - I am very glad I did not leave this until the last day to find this out!)

tea and coffee · 03-06-2025 01:13AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123480845#Comment_123480845

I still think it's a bit mental. Just take people from the existing (extended ) panel if that's the case.

If shortlisting is only being done in August, interviews will not be until September. That gives a bare 6 months to take from the panel.

Unless they have a stack of vacancies ready to go, it just doesn't seem efficient to me for the effort expended. We saw how slow the 2022 panel moved.

And what then? Another 2026 PO ? (Well at least that gives hope for another bite of the cherry!)