civil service interviews

I've to do an interview for the AO on Monday, looks really comprehensive and I've no clue. Plus I offered to do Irish, is that tough? Any suggestions appreciated

Regarding the irish section of the interview, I wouldn't class it as tough (did one or two myself for various panels).

Mine consisted of reading a passage aloud in Irish, then translating what the passage said (not specifically word for word, but a close approximation at the least), then a general conversation similar to your LC irish oral exam - general chitchat, if you head off on a particular topic (say for example you mention you like travelling when asked about what you like to do for fun) the examiner will usually follow your lead and ask you where you've been, how you found it etc.

Hope this helps a little.

snuffle said:

if you head off on a particular topic (say for example you mention you like travelling when asked about what you like to do for fun) the examiner will usually follow your lead

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Does that include

"It was a lovely summers day. The sun was splitting the stones. I got out of bed, ate my breakfast and off I went down the road. ...."?

ClubMan said:

Does that include

"It was a lovely summers day. The sun was splitting the stones. I got out of bed, ate my breakfast and off I went down the road. ...."?

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Absolutely No harm to have a spiel prepared a la LC oral exam!

What was with that trend with ordinary level irish oral exam to have a big speech prepared on how to make a cup of tea - "fill the kettle with water, place it on the boil, get a teapot from the cupboard, place 2 teabags in it...."

I remember being taken by surprise when classmates who were doing the ordinary syllabus were reciting this spiel off

Sorry, back on topic - OP if you have any conversational Irish at all you'll fly it, I managed to get stuck trying to think of the Irish word for "uncle" (which is uncail, duh!) for what seemed like an eternity, and the examiner laughed it off and I got good marks overall even with the various uuming and aahing.

bluefinu said:

I've to do an interview for the AO on Monday, looks really comprehensive and I've no clue.

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Have a good look at the guidance given on

I did an AO interview last year. It involved two parts:

Firstly, there was a presentation exercise. In my case, I was told I had E50million to spend on disadvantaged areas and had to justify how you would spend it (e.g tourism, agriculture etc). They give you about an hour to analysis all the briefings provided(letters from lobby groups, industry experts etc) and then you had to go away for lunch, come back and give a presentation on your recommendations followed by questions from the panel. It is not something you can really prepare for

The second part was an interview based on the AO competencies, I'd guess it last around 40 minutes.

Hope this helps & good luck.