Executive Officer in the Civil Service 2026

Unless they change it due to the easiness of this year’s, it should be this. I’ve not done this process before, but a family member informed me it’s been said in office by AP’s offering assistance to CO’s with the maths. They were practicing during work.

It’s been thrown around on the 2021-2022-2023 threads as well.

I'm out atm I'll have look later or tomorrow, CO was handy for sure, EO could have been rough because I wasn't properly prepared.

I had to log in to reply to this comment. Before having children I would have thought the same as you but honestly you don’t have children so you have no idea how long a 1 minute upload takes. I left it until this morning to complete all assessments and found it quite straight forward.
I actually use to work in the civil service and you would be surprised and shocked by some of the EO’s that are coming in off these competitions. Some are extremely incompetent and would do well to make an adequate CO and are well above the grade they should be.
These competitions aren’t as black and white as you think they would be and just because a person aces a set of questions they have been studying or practicing examples doesn’t mean they will be good in the real world.
This isn’t targeted at you, I’m just finding some of the comments a bit odd. ‘If you find some of the questions hard EO isn’t for you’, someone else commented this and it actually made me laugh. If you get into the civil service you’ll understand what I mean.
So if anyone is reading this and thinks they have to practice sample questions over and over, or think they haven’t got in because they left it late to do the assessments please take these comments with a pinch of salt. I actually think these forums turn off a lot of good candidates.

Ive worked as CO in the CS in DSP and I have a child, I’ve seen how hard it is to be an EO in that department, customer facing, reviewing claims, staff issues etc
I’ve said it before you can absolutely wing it the whole competition, I’ve seen it with COs who have been employed they are completely useless.
Your comment comes off as bitter and is directed at certain individuals , plenty of people here are applying for the first time and there’s been great advice, people want to pass and get a good OOM. So what’s the issue with doing practice questions over and over? That’s literally how you study.. of course in the real world they might not be any good.
But there’s plenty of people in the CS at higher grades than EO that are pathetic too, when people get into the CS they’ll realise it. And if you do find reading the familiarisation and the written assessment difficult, being an EO definitely won’t be for you, that’s the point of that comment.
Your final sentence is hilarious and couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve used boards to prepare for TCO, CO and EO applications and interviews, the advice given by others has been fantastic, my last EO interview someone from the 2024 thread PM me everything to prepare for, which I passed and was offered a position.

The point that I’m making is just because a person can pass these tests doesn’t make them cabaple in the real world. Your previous comment basically says if you can’t familiarise yourself and do a written exam then an EO isn’t for you. But these people do end up as EO’s and even go to AP’s. You’ve worked in the civil service so you know what I’m talking about. I just don’t think you should pigeonhole people based off these tests, it’s just a way of bringing down numbers. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing practice questions over and over, I think it’s wrong to say just because you’re finding certain aspects hard that you won’t make a good EO. Lastly, I didn’t say boards isn’t fantastic, I’m just pointing out that it does turn people off. Regarding your last sentence, maybe people are getting too much help from boards and then find the job difficult. As a previous poster said maybe there is too much hand holding. Anyways, I didn’t comment to go into a back and forth with anyone, I just wanted to give a different perspective.

My point is if you’re struggling with the assessment you won’t fare any better in the real world. Not hard to understand.
Your last point about “ hand holding “ I agree with, too many people looking for the answers, which i personally am totally against.

Capyberna I wasn’t trying to be harsh, or bitter as Glitteringstar said earlier. I know so many people, friends, family, old colleagues, that read these threads but never comment. My husband is the same, so many people that are put off. I’ve often said ‘apply to that competition, give it a go’ and it would be met with ‘oh god no I have no time to be doing that, I’ve seen those posts I wouldn’t be able for that’, so on. When I seen the comments about ‘well if they can’t do this they wouldn’t be able for it’ it annoys me because sometimes these are such capable people out there who read things like that and think straight away ‘nope’. You might think that’s on them but I was just giving a different view.

As I said in my post I wasn’t targeting it to anyone, I used your comment and Glitteringstar as an example, which may seem like I was targeting ye in particular but I was just giving a different perspective.

Also, I’m not sure what your background is but if you have a level 8 degree a lot of accounting firms take on graduates for training contracts. The application can be a bit long but the interview is normally a panel, 3/4 people, sometimes involving a presentation, great practice for interviewing. A lot of them will offer internships during the Summer. Insurance firms also are a great industry to go up the ladder. You can start in a call centre and within a few months progress.
Apologies, I know you didn’t ask for career guidance but I’ve been there, most people out of college feel the exact same way and are extremely lost. Best of luck you’ll get something.

Glitteringstar no it’s not hard to understand and I completely agree, the point I was just making was that you can do well with the assessments but badly in the real world. Anyway, we’ll agree to disagree and who knows, maybe we’ll get to have these disagreements in the real world if we place well :)

ye it’s a pity now because I’ve passed VR in the last competition and in the practice exams but I have deffo failed this as the noise was extreme and we are not allowed to leave the chair to stop it

Disagree, 2 COs in my old dept failed the 2024 EO assessment and they are fantastic in their jobs, better than I was, some people are cut out for tests better than others.

Only person with a pet in this thread was me I think, my cat was just in the room with me and she was on the room scan, I didn't get up to feed her. I was worried about her noise, I didn't leave my chair. Just want to be clear on that.

@AdmiralHip this person. * Correction it was to let their pet out rather than feed it.

Bribery! Cat cuteness bribery I say!