Civil Service Job Simulation Test

miss.s said:

Hi
Can anyone tell me where to apply for a civil servent position ,is it advertised just on public jobs .ie .I would love to seek employment as a civil servent esp in the current economic climite i dont have any third level education so ideally would be applying for a clerical officer position
thank you for any replies

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Register with publicjobs.ie and you will receive notification of competitions coming up. As far as I am aware, it is the only way into the civil service but maybe public bodies (local authorities etc.) recruit differently.

Rovers1901 said:

You're usually given a document on some issue (a country's political , economic and social background for example) and asked to prepare a briefing note based on that for a Minister/Ass. Sec/Someone more important than you basically.

It's just reading and summarising a topic, they give you a word limit for your note. There's not a lot you can do by means of preperation I would have thought

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Thanks for that. The info they give is not that clear and it doesn't say that you will be given anything to summarize, just that you have to produce a briefing note on a specific issue.

Rovers1901 said:

You're usually given a document on some issue (a country's political , economic and social background for example) and asked to prepare a briefing note based on that for a Minister/Ass. Sec/Someone more important than you basically.

It's just reading and summarising a topic, they give you a word limit for your note. There's not a lot you can do by means of preperation I would have thought

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I did an exercise similar to this for an Executive Officer competition. For the 3rd Secretary, I thought that you have to display some knowledge about the issue... Agree with above poster that information note from PAS isn't very clear.

lightup said:

I'm not sure about AO but they are calling the first 190 for the Third Sec role.

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From what I heard, they are looking for people to go to Limerick with Irish Aid - they had to advertise again after only a year (instead of the normal 2 years) as they are having trouble convincing people to move down.

Regarding stage 2, the group exercise is totally dependent on the group you get. I've done it twice, first time had a group who all wanted to stand out and we didn't get the task done as nobody would agree. 2nd time it worked like a dream.

The written exercise is tougher than it sounds. They keep stressing that you should use language other than those used in the information you've been given so first time I messed up in focusing on paraphrasing rather than summarising.

Didn't get past stage 2 the first time, made it to interview the 2nd and had the worst interview of my life! Decided not to apply this time as the process is lengthy and eats up annual leave and I really didn't want/need the stress this time.

Did get called for the AO interview and presentation day earlier this year (from last year's selection tests that were at the same time as the 3rd sec) but didn't score highly enough in the structured interview. Was devastated as I thought I'd done a great interview but due to the structure and example based interview, apparently I did not demonstrate a strong enough level of problem solving - grrrrrr!!!

Have given up on the civil service now, was willing to take a pay cut to get in but the whole recruitment process is a shambles IMO.

roseofskye said:

No seriously. If they had a box for the option of mortgaging your first born I'd tick that too.

I'd I moved to Ireland only four years ago, but I've been studying for this kind of job for nearly 8 or 9 years now. I've an undergrad degree in foreign affairs and an LLM in international law. This is the one and only job in Ireland I am truly interested in as a career job for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, none of this appears relevant to the type of recruitment process the PAC runs. Last year they didn't even appear interested in any foreign languages you spoke (despite this being very important to diplomats)!

But whatever happens, I intend on applying until they get tired of turning me away.

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Hi roseofskye,
I've just been invited to Stage 3 of this years 3rd Sec recruitment, do you have any insight on what's required and what would be good prep for the preliminary and final interview rounds from your experience?
Thanks!

AdelCD said:

Hi roseofskye,
I've just been invited to Stage 3 of this years 3rd Sec recruitment, do you have any insight on what's required and what would be good prep for the preliminary and final interview rounds from your experience?
Thanks!

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The 3rd stage interview will be primarily based on a competency form you have to fill in before the interview. So, pick good examples and have a few back-ups in case the Board aren't happy with the initial one you provide.

As previous poster has said the interview will be based on competencies which you will have to prepare examples for, always best to have two as they sometimes ask for one other than the example you have written down on the form.

However unlike some CS interviews the second half then goes into a general discussion on foreign affairs issues, AO interviews also have a general topical section but the 3rd Sec is focused on foreign policy (obviously)

Probable starter question could be "what do you think are Ireland's priority areas in foreign affairs at the moment"...or something like that and then you just have to roll with it from there. You need to know your stuff !.

Good luck

Rovers1901 said:

As previous poster has said the interview will be based on competencies which you will have to prepare examples for, always best to have two as they sometimes ask for one other than the example you have written down on the form.

However unlike some CS interviews the second half then goes into a general discussion on foreign affairs issues, AO interviews also have a general topical section but the 3rd Sec is focused on foreign policy (obviously)

Probable starter question could be "what do you think are Ireland's priority areas in foreign affairs at the moment"...or something like that and then you just have to roll with it from there. You need to know your stuff !.

Good luck

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Great, thanks both.
In the second part do you know if it's appropriate to express opinions as to solutions or courses of action in response to foreign affairs issues or is it smarter to be neutral and just display a knowledge of the issues? I.e. is being opinionated good or bad!?

I can't help you with that q.. but I can recommend this practice test that you might find useful. It's a practice verbal reasoning test and a practice numerical reasoning test. Goodluck!

Bradfield, I wonder could you, or any other AO's out there give me some idea of what the job entails? I'd be interested in the AO ICT job specifically.

Awesome, that's sweet!

Well, that's good discussion. Your posts are great and informative.

thanks