Administrative Officer 2020 in the Civil Service

badbleep wrote: »

Omg so close! I've been talking to a few people and gotten mixed responses re. Batches. A few have said they'll definitely contact 2 or 3 batches. Others have said they'll be unlikely to contact anyone who got below 350 or so

Batch 2 could go to 350 so both parties are saying essentially the same thing.

AO is a small competition.
CO, EO and AP take huge numbers, there are far fewer AOs in the civil service and this comp lasts a year where most last 2.

It always depends on the particular year. It is likely therell be a batch 2 and maybe even another small batch or 2 after that but there's no guarantee. Numbers in the 253 -350 range have a decent shot at being called. It drops rapidly after that. At the very very upper end they might get as far as 600, but somewhere in 350-500 is the most likely end point for general.

Other streams will be different.

Gombeennation wrote: »

Does everyone get asked to Submit an Application Form? I placed 1991 in the General Stream and 470 in the Business Stream and got asked to fill in the Detailed Applucation form.

I'm ahead of you in the general stream but was not asked to fill in the form.

I'm guessing you have been called based on your OOM in the Business Stream? Did the message you get confirm it was for that one?

No. I didnt get told what stream the Detailed Application Form related to?

MaryRyan48 wrote: »

Curious about those of you who bought packages to help with the tests were ye happy with your results/OOM?

Just curious as if it was a competition I really wanted I would invest in a package if it was worth it??

I'm in Tipperary so would prefer something down here!

I was very sceptical about investing money on packages of sample tests but I decided to go for the JobTestPrep, based on what other comments here had advised. Also I couldn't find any full example tests online for this test and felt I should buy some material if I wanted to get any proper practice in. Buying the basic package for a week cost around €43 compared to a year subscription of €120 for Career Services package and I was hesitant to spend that much just in case it didn't work out.
I've been pleasantly surprised and ended up doing better than I expected. I can't comment on the Career Services package as I didn't use it but from my experience here, if you decide you are really keen on going for an AO position and are willing to commit the time to practice beforehand I think it would be worth it to invest the money into buying a package so you can practice properly. I actually wished I had had more material to practice on before the exam as I had run through all the tests in my pack already so looking back I could have even spent a bit more to access more practice material. Also for any exam it's not just the knowledge, you also need to know from the start what kind of test format you are heading into so you know what to expect and can practice accurately.
Just a note though, as far as I've read from comments here AO positions seem to mostly be in Dublin or surrounding areas so not sure if that would help you if you're looking for a position in Tipp? But EO campaigns seem to have a lot more regional positions available.

From my experience of last year’s competition, being invited to submit an application form is not a guarantee of being called in the first batch. Like this year, they invited up to about no. 250 in the general stream to submit an application form after the test results issued. I was in the 150-170 range and was not called for interview till the second batch (and ended up failing one of the competencies).

I’ve a higher OOM this year so am hopeful of being placed in the first batch. I wonder is it the case that they’ll always offer a job to everyone in each batch who passes the interview before they’ll move on to the next batch? Or might they decide to skip over some people who ranked near the bottom of the post-interview OOM despite passing?

Dublinensis wrote: »

I wonder is it the case that they’ll always offer a job to everyone in each batch who passes the interview before they’ll move on to the next batch? Or might they decide to skip over some people who ranked near the bottom of the post-interview OOM despite passing?

What would the rationale be there?

Candidates are placed based on order of merit. They move through the list methodically. Why would they skip over people who successfully passed all stages? They set a pass mark at interview for a reason, anyone over the pass mark is deemed to be a successful candidate for that position.

The info booklet does say that being placed on a panel is not a guarantee of a job offer, but that's to do with whether or not there are vacancies when they get to your number on the panel, and not whether or not a pas employee randomly decides to skip over you!

Aceandstuff wrote: »

Speeding through the questions worked out in my favour this time, and I got almost full marks for verbal reasoning.

I'm curious as to whether you quickly skipped any questions if you weren't sure about the answers, or whether you made sure to take a stab at every one? I did better on the verbals for EO where they didn't have us footer about opening and closing tabs. After the AO test I felt I'd have fared better if I just quickly skipped the harder looking questions and focused on getting as many answers in as possible.

floorpie wrote: »

Can somebody please remind me, was this the test where the information tabs covered the questions? And the one with an interactive Facebook chat-type situational?

If so then it isn't necessary to answer all questions, because I only answered 3/4 of verbal but got full marks.

It's that one yes. Full marks? 80/80? Very nice. I think I answered about two thirds of the questions and got 70/80.

Govannan wrote: »

It's that one yes. Full marks? 80/80? Very nice. I think I answered about two thirds of the questions and got 70/80.

Well although I'm pleased, it highlights for me how arbitrary these tests are and how poorly they examine you, because I got approx 50/80 in the same verbal in another competition a few weeks previous. I think they mostly test how energetic you are on the day

The_Conductor wrote: »

I answered them all- and got 59 out of 80.......

Yeah I don't know. I answered all of them in the 50/80 I mention above. I was more confident this time that my answers were correct.

Dublinensis wrote: »

No, you’re probably right. At least I hope you are!

There would be a certain logic to it though: if they think relative interview performance is a good indicator of relative competence they might have some reason to skip over, say, the bottom 10% or 20% of panellists in the hope of finding better interviewees in the next batch.

It’s a funny quirk of the system that simply by scoring highly enough in a set of aptitude tests you can win a chance at what is to all practical intents and purposes a non-competitive, pass/fail job interview, where your final ranking only determines when and where you’ll get the job, not whether. Can’t imagine that happens much in the private sector, but I’m not complaining!

Being placed on a panel does not guarantee a job. Panels lapse every year and if your number in the OOM hasn't been reached, that's it. I know people who have been on numerous, open, internal and interdepartmental panels for years before being ultimately successful.

Dublinensis wrote: »

Yes, I know that. What I mean is that if, say, you place high enough in the aptitude tests to be called in the first batch, in a competition in which more than one batch ends up being called, then on MrsBean’s account you will get a job as long as you pass the interview. There’s no prospect of being excluded simply because other people called in the first batch were markedly better interviewees.

That’s of course subject to the qualification that whether or not further batches do in fact end up being called may come down to how many people in the first batch pass the interview, so it is still competitive to that extent. But from what I gather (though I may be wrong) it seems to be pretty rare for only one batch to be called.

Yes, I totally agree. If you end up on a panel from the first batch of interviews, you have given yourself the best possible chance of getting a job and the better you do in the interview, i.e. the scores you attain for each competency, determines how you are placed in the OOM. The further up the OOM you are, the better chance you have of getting a job. For example, if there was only one batch and 15 people were successful but there's only 14 jobs, number 15 on the list doesn't get one unfortunately. Seems like a competitive process to me.

Hindutimes wrote: »

Hi All,
Can I just double check the application form is just education and employment history no competencies questions? Thx

Yeah, it appears to be that way. It's also outlined in the message on public jobs I think

I was planning on putting my competencies into the supplementary section..

Hindutimes wrote: »

Hi All,
Can I just double check the application form is just education and employment history no competencies questions? Thx

belgowho wrote: »

I was planning on putting my competencies into the supplementary section..

I've done a lot of voluntary work, and that was what I was planning to put in the supplementary section. I have plenty of experience and have proven to be a very effective manager, but only in unpaid roles I didn't have to interview for.

I've had a few paid jobs as well, but got none of them through interviews. If the interview is pass/fail, I'm still not confident about getting through.

Figured it out!