Public service lab job

P

papasmurf

Guest
Hi,
I have an interview for a lab job soon and am looking for some general info.

Firstly I am currently working in the private sector and lots of people say that it is hard to break into the public sector as so many jobs go internally.

Can anyone out there shed some light on this? I assume if they had someone internal in mind that they wouldn't waste external candidates' time by interviewing them.

Also I'm finding it quite hard to find any info online about the specific lab, it all seems to be very general stuff about county council issues as opposed to just general stuff about size of lab, number of employees etc.

I'd be grateful if anyone has any suggestions.
 
You would need to be a little more forthcoming on the laboratory if you want some help...

In terms of lining someone up internally vs externally, many posts in the public sector are now open to all. Generally, once a post is opened up, it is usually a level playing field.
 
Hi,
is this a contract post or a permanent one?
Will it be for a defined research project or is it for routine work?
Is there just the one job or will they form a "panel" to take people from as more jobs open up?
Is the interview with the people who run the lab or is it a recruitment process through the PublicJobs/Public Service Appointments service?
 
Its a permanent role for routine work. I actually don't know how many jobs are going. I asked who would be interviewing me and was told that they don't give any information on the interview beforehand. I've been dealing with the Public Service Appointments service
 
Well then it has to be a level playing field, unless you're a conspiracy theorist, because the PAS are based out of Dublin and recruit across the whole public sector - they don't care whose son or nephew or uncle you are, and there's no link between them and the people you'll be working for / with.
 
It might be someone with close knowledge about the job in the recruiting department and another expert from outside that department, and someone from PublicJobs who will just take notes.

Did this interview come from an advertisement from PublicJobs? If you are called for interview then you have done well already. What the job is will have been laid out in the competition info at the time of the advertisement. Remember to go through this and the application form you sent in to them and have the skills/experience you put down on it ready to talk about.

Best of luck!
 
Yeah I'm pleased I got called for an interview as I applied for a county council job two years ago and was told that 4/59 applicants got called for an interview so I'm pleased I got this interview.
(I feel like an actor saying "it is an honour just to be nominated for this award" when we all know awards and jobs are the goal!!!)
 
Do you know what the specific lab it is?

I am familar with the area and I can tell you it is not a case of someone has been promised the job and the interview process is a formality.
In the past when there was panels put together for jobs, some people that worked there on contract performed well at interview but there was also 'outside' people that got jobs if their experience and qualificatios were good enough.
 
papasmurf said:
Also I'm finding it quite hard to find any info online about the specific lab, it all seems to be very general stuff about county council issues as opposed to just general stuff about size of lab, number of employees etc.
Click to expand...

You should do some research on current issues facing the Council in question. A general knowledge of how this Lab works within the functions of the Council would be helpful as well as knowing pieces of relevent Legistration. This is where existing Council Staff Members will have an advantage over you.

You should also familiarise yourself with the format of a Public Sector Interview.
 
if this is a public sector/hospital lab then you should know there has been a recruitment freeze in place since 20th July AFAIK. You may get interviewed, given the job but then not actually issued with a contract. You will get a letter indicating that your recruitment cannot go ahead without a business case being presented to hospital and HSE management. Has happened to someone I know in the last couple of weeks. I presume its to do with the enormous HSE budget overrun this year.
 
Papasmurf, if you can't find any information on the lab online, I would just ring and ask to speak to a manager. I did this for my current job in the public sector. Just ask some general questions and if you're lucky the person will open up about the job. They may inadvertently give you information that will help in the interview - in my case the person talked about a new software implementation that was coming up so I was able to predict questions about my previous experience of a software implementation. I don't think that done in the right way this type of phone call could be construed as a negative. Maybe others will disagree?
 
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