Executive Officer in the Civil Service 2026

Hi all, I am in the process of applying for this role and would be so grateful if anyone has any advice.

From reading posts here and on Reddit, my understanding is that in the initial stages, it is more for confirming eligibility, rather than providing more details about experience/skills? For example, in the Employment section, under the 'outline your main duties' section, would it be acceptable to just list your job role in bullet points, as on a CV, as there will be more opportunity to further discussion provided during the online testing/assessment stages?

I am currently unemployed found the Current/Most Recent Employment part a bit strange. In my opinion I it would have been a lot clearer if there was an option to tick unemployed and a 'To Date' box would pop up. I'm thinking I might just note my end date of my last job in the 'outline your main duties' section. I'm not sure if that's the correct option but it doesn't feel right to not address the fact that I'm not currently working there anymore. Or maybe its ok to leave out the end date at this initial stage, because it does say Most Recent? Would love any more thoughts on this.

Also another aspect which I am a bit unsure of, I am wondering how to fill in Previous Employment Experience, as there appears to only be options to add multiple employers, however, I had a few different roles within the one company/employer. So I was wondering what the best approach would be here, just add a 'New Employer' for each role worked in the same job?

Would appreciate any thoughts/advice on this :)

also you just put one employee. They can check your roles with one phone number then perfect. List your roles instead

Brilliant, thank you both so much for the detailed answers. There are so many aspects to the application overall so I just want to make sure I can at least get the first part right, I don't doubt the process will continue to have its challenges. Best of luck to you both!

Deleted

Yes! That’s how the format is and how it has been according to these threads. It confused me at first when reading the EO 2023 and 2024 threads! 

So make sure you assess the sample test in your head in terms of what answer is excellent, best, adequate, weak, and bad. Some of the examples are very hard to rank. 

In the sample test for SJ, you’re just selecting the best answer but in the real one, you’ve to rank the answers. 

It’s explained here (along with the other 3 assessments) in the 2023 booklet, I assume we’ll be sent a booklet in due course. 

https://www.publicjobs.ie/restapi/documents/Executive_Officer_2023_Stage_1_Information_Booklet_Final.pdf

Did you do the 2024 EO aptitudes? I’m sure I read about the ranking in all of the EO threads but maybe I’m mistaken in relation to the 2024 one.

I’m thinking very far ahead….

I have my internship all over my submitted application for employer.. and will be using it for the bulk of my interview STAR capabilities if I make it to that stage… 

I assumed I could have used my former manager as a reference who has now moved on and working in a different company, but it has to come directly from the employer. 

Unfortunately, I fell out with another employee outside of work, who was a close friend, over a non-work matter, therefore burning bridges with HR as this employee was best friends with HR. HR also didn’t like me for jealously of our friendship and certainly won’t provide a reference for me… 

I’ll get a new job in the meantime but wondering will the lack of reference from the internship be a problem if it’s in STAR…

I'm currently a grade 5 in a local authority, but want to move to the civil service. Would they match my current salary (or close to it) on the EO pay scale?

In a past competition it was required to bring proof of my qualification to the public jobs office on the day of an interview. Surely no one expects to be successful while bluffing the qualifications, integrity and honesty is one of the core values after all !

Of course, yes I have my qualification here and I’ve scanned it into the my application forum.

Is it correct that numerical reasoning result is irrelevant when determining the room, only need a pass

Yes, only need I believe 9 to pass. Only verbal and SJ count to OOM. These are tough though, definitely do need to practice them as they require careful reading.

The numerical test is tough if you lack basic maths skills like myself and can’t work out figures in your head as the timer is going the whole time.

I will definitely need to purchase support packages online to get more practice as I struggle with question recognition.

ChatGPT also provides short cuts to workout some of the heavier worded questions from the sample test. But the exact same questions won’t be asked on the day so if you don’t understand the likes of percentages etc you’ll find it tough.

You should always answer the more simple/less text heavy maths questions first. And make a note of what ones you’ve done as the test doesn’t mark the completed ones like the sample test online.

From those who completed the past competitions here on Boards, they’ve said the maths is much tougher than the practice test. But because of the low pass number and the availablity of paid practice packages like JobTestPrep, most get over the line.

I could be wrong but I’m sure they are equally weighted. I asked my EO father and he has said the same. There’s never been anything online/published by the CS to suggest otherwise for EO. 

I know is there is no negative marking, so if running out of time on the more text heavy maths ones, hazard a guess rather than leaving a blank. 

Someone said above that the 300-500 written piece is graded as part of our interview in relation to 2 of the capabilities. But doesn’t count towards OOM. 

Damn I didn't integrate anything from the capabilities framework into my duties, just left it over from the AO application (everyone over there said it's not necessary to integrate the buzzwords in the duties for the AO). Hope that doesn't count against me.

If only it were that easy. You must assign a grade to each of the responses independently of each other response.

So rather than having to be a 1,2,3,4 ranking it could have been a 1,3,3,1 answer.

I can't remember what the rankings were exactly but it was something like poor, adequate, good, excellent responses