Principal Officer 2025

I'm non-Dublin based too so I'm not overly optimistic about my prospects even if I was pleased with my placing of 61st.

I like these tests but I was quite tired doing this one late at night and I didn't think I applied myself with the appropriate level of concentration so with that in mind, I was pleased with the result.

May I ask what you mean when you refer to "hoping this will be different as it's a pilot and they haven't asked for location preferences……" - as candidates interested in filling regional positions should they be/become available and should we be successful in the course of the campaign to make the panel, I would have thought the circumstances will be no different to previous campaigns in that our prospects will directly correlate to the number of regional vacancies that may or may not arise in our preferred regional locations. In other words, our options will be limited to put it mildly.

I think that is all really sound advice on how to approach from TaurenDruid and Groovechik. Personally, I very much went with first instinct on all of the options based on my experience of similar situations. I finished job simulation with 15-20 mins to spare and submitted without going over it a second time. Worked out well, in the first 100. That said I thought I applied the same approach in 2022 but I was outside the top 1000 so, as others have mentioned here, these tests can be really unpredictable. Maybe I was more relaxed or my experience came through, I couldn't tell you exactly why.

Wonder if March 2026 end date is because they're trialing the new approach and matching more based on experience in chosen categories or for other reasons. Maybe EU Presidency is a factor but that impacts departments and divisions within departments in very different ways.

I think I may have scored ok in the Critical Analysis Test (roughly 200 above qualifying score), but didn’t pass the Job Simulation Exercise. I’m gutted now as I thought I may have done enough. I can’t help but wonder whether going back through the answers and changing some may have been a bad decision. I guess I’ll never know.

Or will I? Can you ask for any feedback?

in 2022- 243 were called in first stage- any predictions on how many this time?

Was it just two stages last time? I remember they called until mid 500s on OOM- trying to figure out my chances

I am between 250-300

They review applications once they've reached your OOM. So if up to OOM 100 is called for Batch 1, they'll review those 100 only.

Is it a bit unusual they've given results but not indicated how many will be in the first batch? Clearly they haven't decided that yet but wanted to get results out. Could be a sign that batch 1 might be a while away

That’s probably me just clutching at straws at this stage. In previous campaigns I have been given results at this stage for my locations. I then watch while the interviews take place for Dublin and they can be on batch 4 and my county hasn’t even called batch 1. Always feel the hard part for us ‘culchies’ is getting into the interview room. I’m hoping if they interview by OOM, and find the right people for the positions, then location may be ‘negotiable’ (remote working options) but that could be a mistake of expecting some common sense being used by those making decisions in government departments 🧐🧐

I was successful but between 600-700. How does the current oom impact the final oom list? I.e what is the importance of the interview as compared to the critical analysis test? Also, what are my chances of being called for interview. I feel I have submitted a strong application form .

i was 600-700 last time around and didn't get called - and that oom lasted for a couple of years but this time around it is only 1 year i believe.

Can you remember much about the interview?

That's a nightmare for you, sorry to hear that. Do you know if there are many left on that batch? Hard to imagine why they've launched this new campaign if they weren't able to full use a batch which has been in place over 18 months. It seems most Departments are relying on directly hiring and internal panels over this PublicJobs process

It's hard to believe that is the actual process. If they trawl through the first 100 for example and find no-one with Irish ticked they then have no-one to put on an "Irish" panel. What happens then when an "Irish" vacancy arises - do they have to keep trawling until they get a number of candidates who have selected Irish roles and interview them?

There's no clear data on it but in 2023 15 people were hired via the PublicJobs panel and in 2022 63 were appointed through other channels as per PQ 41240/24

To be fair that 2022 figure may have been bloated as there was no active PO panel to pull from. Anecdotally however, several Departments have had PO comps recently while the 2022 PublicJobs batches were waiting

I am also on the 2022 panel. We were interviewed in November 2023 and, as of the last time I checked with PAS in April, they had not drawn anyone from our panel. At the time they created that panel in Nov 2023 there were only about 5 or 6 left on the previous panel. The debt to the panels is not being monitored. I understand that approx 30 of us are in that position where we have to go through the whole process again. It is very unfair considering the panel ratios are supposed to be strictly followed and if they were we wd all have had an offer by now. The ratio for PO is 2/3 external 1/3 internal. There is no interdepartmental at PO.

To be clear I absolutely think the lack of movement on that panel was very unfair to ye all, 15 appointments in a whole year was bananas.

There is data in the CPSA Annual Reports. The sequencing ratios were effectively reversed, essentially the PAS panel was the last source of recruitment. There is also a lot of recruitment by agencies etc on license. Not sure I follow how people are waiting, there is always a PAS panel, when the new one comes in to force the old one ceases. It just is not seen as a priority by Departments and by implication DPER. As this 2025 panel expires next March the stats would suggest only a handful of appointments. Also given the virtual ignoring of the 2022 panel for the last year there may well be some sort of challenge to the approach adopted there.