[DFB] Temporary Emergency Services Controller

donkey balls · 14-08-2013 07:45PM

Just did the verbal reasoning test and when I went back in to try it again a message pops up saying that I have completed all tests and to log out, Do you only get one chance to complete the practice tests?

spygirl · 14-08-2013 08:21PM

D Trent wrote: »

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

had to lower all my security settings to do it in the end. Wouldn't let me use adobe and kept blocking the website, but got there. thought we had three practice shots though, did it once and now it seems to be blocked, tried with the 2nd login ID as well. Anybody else having this issue?

GoProGaming · 14-08-2013 08:27PM

i cant wait to get stage one out of the way. its always the biggest hurdle to jump, does anyone have an idea when stage two is due to take place?

donkey balls · 14-08-2013 08:41PM

spygirl wrote: »

had to lower all my security settings to do it in the end. Wouldn't let me use adobe and kept blocking the website, but got there. thought we had three practice shots though, did it once and now it seems to be blocked, tried with the 2nd login ID as well. Anybody else having this issue?

Same here keep getting a message that I completed all sections and it won't allow me to try them again unlike the call center one which you can do as many times as you like.

GoProGaming · 14-08-2013 09:00PM

donkey balls wrote: »

Same here keep getting a message that I completed all sections and it won't allow me to try them again unlike the call center one which you can do as many times as you like.

the call taker assessment is the one id practice the most myself

spygirl · 14-08-2013 09:08PM

I think you need to give it a little time to reset, it's letting me back on now. I would agree though that the call taker assessment might be the one to concentrate on.I would imagine there are other versions of the verbal reasoning exams available online you could also use to practice with if you wished

GoProGaming · 14-08-2013 09:19PM

yeah there are tonnes of them online, the behavioural ones are really up to yourself and what your opnions are.

for the call taker assessment id get your typing speed up to a good speed and get used to listening to various accents and typing the info down fast. watch youtube videos and type what you hear into ms word or the likes to get extra practice

smokie32 · 14-08-2013 10:32PM

Hi guys,
I'm also struggling with the call taker practice tests. Hoping the real thing is a bit easier

ArtyBoy · 14-08-2013 10:55PM

In fairness, it's a bit of a joke expecting Irish people to know how to spell foreign place names that they are in no way familiar with.
It makes the whole thing 10 times harder and causes hesitation and confusion. How many people from Gloucestershire are going to be calling Dublin fire brigade?

Also using foreign surnames is ridiculous too, it all demonstrates poor planning and preparation on behalf of the recruiters.
They couldn't be arsed providing relevant test material so opt for a foreign test instead, what a bloody joke!

D Trent · 14-08-2013 11:10PM

ArtyBoy wrote: »

In fairness, it's a bit of a joke expecting Irish people to know how to spell foreign place names that they are in no way familiar with.
It makes the whole thing 10 times harder and causes hesitation and confusion. How many people from Gloucestershire are going to be calling Dublin fire brigade?

Also using foreign surnames is ridiculous too, it all demonstrates poor planning and preparation on behalf of the recruiters.
They couldn't be arsed providing relevant test material so opt for a foreign test instead, what a bloody joke!

So that's how you spell Glo......Glou......glosss.....glostershure

donkey balls · 14-08-2013 11:18PM

ArtyBoy wrote: »

In fairness, it's a bit of a joke expecting Irish people to know how to spell foreign place names that they are in no way familiar with.
It makes the whole thing 10 times harder and causes hesitation and confusion. How many people from Gloucestershire are going to be calling Dublin fire brigade?

Also using foreign surnames is ridiculous too, it all demonstrates poor planning and preparation on behalf of the recruiters.
They couldn't be arsed providing relevant test material so opt for a foreign test instead, what a bloody joke!

I'm sure there is a few Irish places that even myself would find hard spelling as for the foreign names with the amount of people living here from all over the world, You would be certain to get a surname with nearly all the alphabet in it.:eek:

ArtyBoy · 15-08-2013 09:08AM

donkey balls wrote: »

I'm sure there is a few Irish places that even myself would find hard spelling as for the foreign names with the amount of people living here from all over the world, You would be certain to get a surname with nearly all the alphabet in it.:eek:

Both scenarios you describe would be the exception rather than the rule.
The test should be relevant to normal circumstances in Ireland.
Most Irish people would be familiar with Irish place names and sounds, accent and pronunciation is very important too.

This campaign just demonstrates the incompetence of the HR department of Dublin city council.

djor88 · 15-08-2013 05:25PM

Just did the verbal reasoning test there, jesus it's tough to finish all 18 questions in the 6 minutes allocated, a bit much in fairness! Alot of the answers you'd imagine and CANNOT SAY could be FALSE and vice versa

Mycroft H · 15-08-2013 08:24PM

Crap that listening test was hard. Me frantically trying to spell worcestershire (which I couldn't spell for toffee). Got 7 of them done before the timer went. Need more practice....

lonfire1 · 15-08-2013 10:02PM

I m the same as yourself BX 19 ..... i can just get on number 8 then i run out. Thats the disadvantage of bad computing skills, well for me anyway.
I know that this a culling process to get numbers down, but do they get the right people for the job at the end of the day? Especially if the control room positions open up to fire fighter positions.What's going to happen in stage 2? And i wonder how many will be going through this stage?
Thats enough ranting :-)

ArtyBoy · 16-08-2013 01:09PM

Lazy recruitment processes from the HR department of Dublin City Council, not surprising but nonetheless disappointing.

Bang Bang · 16-08-2013 01:15PM

ArtyBoy wrote: »

Also using foreign surnames is ridiculous too, it all demonstrates poor planning and preparation on behalf of the recruiters.
They couldn't be arsed providing relevant test material so opt for a foreign test instead, what a bloody joke!

Ireland is now a multi national state so the use of foreign family names is very common and Controllers will deal with foreign names on a daily basis.

ArtyBoy · 16-08-2013 01:19PM

Eh, No bang bang, Ireland is not a multi national state (whatever that is)
And foreign names are not very common. If in a realistic scenario an emergency call controller has to take a foreign name the likelihood is that he or she will ask the person to spell the name. This is not practical in a test situation.
This is Ireland, and Irish surnames and place names are in the vast majority, therefore any test should be based on this fact.

Bang Bang · 16-08-2013 01:28PM

ArtyBoy wrote: »

Eh, No bang bang, Ireland is not a multi national state (whatever that is)
And foreign names are not very common. If in a realistic scenario an emergency call controller has to take a foreign name the likelihood is that he or she will ask the person to spell the name. This is not practical in a test situation.
This is Ireland, and Irish surnames and place names are in the vast majority, therefore any test should be based on this fact.

Have you actually researched the role? Or maybe heard or spoke to a controller who has managed calls where foreign visitors or residents make that frantic emergency call?

For your information why not check out the CSO and recent Census to see how many resident nationalities we have here in Ireland, it is quite interesting.

This is Ireland, we have many Irish people, we also have many foreign nationals with foreign surnames.

GoProGaming · 16-08-2013 02:01PM

ArtyBoy wrote: »

Eh, No bang bang, Ireland is not a multi national state (whatever that is)
And foreign names are not very common. If in a realistic scenario an emergency call controller has to take a foreign name the likelihood is that he or she will ask the person to spell the name. This is not practical in a test situation.
This is Ireland, and Irish surnames and place names are in the vast majority, therefore any test should be based on this fact.

You must not live in Dublin? It's a huge multi-cultural city.
My advice to you is just play the game and go along with it and worry about doing good, instead of complaining with the tests structure etc etc...

If that turns out to be the actual test on the day, well then, so be it! We all will have to get along with it or not get the job.

ArtyBoy · 16-08-2013 11:07PM

GoProGaming wrote: »

You must not live in Dublin? It's a huge multi-cultural city.
My advice to you is just play the game and go along with it and worry about doing good, instead of complaining with the tests structure etc etc...

If that turns out to be the actual test on the day, well then, so be it! We all will have to get along with it or not get the job.

Dublin is not multi cultural, it is estimated that 20% of the population in Ireland is non Irish.

As for the test, the point is that giving Irish people tests based on a foreign countries specific place names and and surnames is bloody ridiculous, the attitude of 'ah just do it' is the reason why these plebs get away with lazy recruitment processes.

I have no choice but to do it and go along with the hair brained recruitment process but that doesn't mean we shouldn't raise objections.

Sure why don't we have the test based on the US or Australia, Canada or even Africa?

It's a farce that the test is not relevant to Ireland and many people would agree.

ArtyBoy · 16-08-2013 11:12PM

Bang Bang wrote: »

Have you actually researched the role? Or maybe heard or spoke to a controller who has managed calls where foreign visitors or residents make that frantic emergency call?

For your information why not check out the CSO and recent Census to see how many resident nationalities we have here in Ireland, it is quite interesting.

This is Ireland, we have many Irish people, we also have many foreign nationals with foreign surnames.

I know all about the CSO and can off the top of my head give you several % of non Irish born in various wards in Dublin.

I also know full well what the role involves, I have several friends who are employed in DFB.

The fact is, this is IRELAND, as such we as Irish people have become accustomed to Irish place names and surnames which are by far in a massive majority.

As such the test should be based on this fact. Unless you're claiming that all call takers should know every surname and place name in Africa, Poland, France, Spain or wherever other nationality might happen to be in Ireland. You're point is senseless and irrelevant. The test is for Irish emergency call takers, therefore should be based on common Irish place names and surnames.

Bang Bang · 16-08-2013 11:44PM

ArtyBoy wrote: »

As such the test should be based on this fact. Unless you're claiming that all call takers should know every surname and place name in Africa, Poland, France, Spain or wherever other nationality might happen to be in Ireland. You're point is senseless and irrelevant. The test is for Irish emergency call takers, therefore should be based on common Irish place names and surnames.

Really? in the years I've been involved in the emergency services I must be imagining the number of foreign nationals with foreign surnames I've dealt with!

The test is not for Irish emergency call takers, the test is for the role of call taker regardless of nationality.

Fact, emergency service workers in Ireland, including call takers, deal with resident and non resident foreign nationals on a daily basis throughout their working shift. It may come as a surprise to you but many of these actually have foreign surnames!
Therefore any tests, specifically a call takers test in this case, should reflect the actual work that the pending employee will be undertaking throughout their normal working shift.

The section of your text that I've underlined made me laugh, perhaps you're not cut out for this job as you may expect all your callers to be named Murphy or O' Sullivan or 'add common Irish name here'!

david-d · 17-08-2013 09:51PM

Bang Bang wrote: »

Really? in the years I've been involved in the emergency services I must be imagining the number of foreign nationals with foreign surnames I've dealt with!

The test is not for Irish emergency call takers, the test is for the role of call taker regardless of nationality.

Fact, emergency service workers in Ireland, including call takers, deal with resident and non resident foreign nationals on a daily basis throughout their working shift. It may come as a surprise to you but many of these actually have foreign surnames!
Therefore any tests, specifically a call takers test in this case, should reflect the actual work that the pending employee will be undertaking throughout their normal working shift.

The section of your text that I've underlined made me laugh, perhaps you're not cut out for this job as you may expect all your callers to be named Murphy or O' Sullivan or 'add common Irish name here'!

Here here bang bang, I agree with everything you've said in this and previous post on this subject

Arruabarrena · 17-08-2013 10:09PM

ArtyBoy wrote: »

Lazy recruitment processes from the HR department of Dublin City Council, not surprising but nonetheless disappointing.

In case you didn't realise, it's the PAS who run the recruitment process. Direct your pointless issues at them.

ArtyBoy · 18-08-2013 02:52AM

Bang Bang wrote: »

Really? in the years I've been involved in the emergency services I must be imagining the number of foreign nationals with foreign surnames I've dealt with!

The test is not for Irish emergency call takers, the test is for the role of call taker regardless of nationality.

Fact, emergency service workers in Ireland, including call takers, deal with resident and non resident foreign nationals on a daily basis throughout their working shift. It may come as a surprise to you but many of these actually have foreign surnames!
Therefore any tests, specifically a call takers test in this case, should reflect the actual work that the pending employee will be undertaking throughout their normal working shift.

The section of your text that I've underlined made me laugh, perhaps you're not cut out for this job as you may expect all your callers to be named Murphy or O' Sullivan or 'add common Irish name here'!

OKAY Mr. Pedantic, you just carry on there failing to see the logical point being put forward. You come across as the type of chap who would argue over rain drops rolling down a window.

ArtyBoy · 18-08-2013 02:53AM

Arruabarrena wrote: »

In case you didn't realise, it's the PAS who run the recruitment process. Direct your pointless issues at them.

Hardly pointless....your post however....

lonfire1 · 18-08-2013 09:31AM

The online assessment s are what they are and we have to do them the best way we can. Even though we mightn't agree with them ..... What can we do ?
Is anyone thinking of doing the test tomorrow ?

Mycroft H · 18-08-2013 10:19AM

Whenever I get a chance lol. I'm working all week so it will be an evening job anyways.

lonfire1 · 18-08-2013 10:36AM

Same as ... I'm nearly afraid to open the test incase I s.... Myself ðŸ˜„

[DFB] Temporary Emergency Services Controller

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