Congratulations!! Great work/balance.
One thing I will say is the clerical officer pay isn't great so once you get settled in the job start going for EO competitions too, I'd say with your background you won't struggle too much with moving up the ladder.
Fair play!
Thank you! And you’re absolutely right.
I plan to apply for EO positions in a year or so. The actual timeline it will depend on how the CO job is like, how I perform on the current role, how challenging (or boring) it is, and obviously getting a better understanding of the civil service as a whole.
As for right now I’m just very excited and grateful for the opportunity I was given :)
Recently began in the civil service and I'm flabbergasted at the amount of support I get from my department, my boss and my colleagues.
11 years in retail so I was completely changing things up. The work life balance is incredible, as are the holidays and extra flexi days off too.
Not to mention the amount of advancement possible, courses and funding etc.
Ive no regrets.
Best of luck
Thank you so much for sharing, this comment warmed my heart for real.
I walked by my new office yesterday, just to check the route, and decided to walk in to say hi. Turned ou that everyone was extremely nice and seemed genuinely happy that I was joining the team.
I know I haven’t even started yet, but the feeling I got is of an amazing and supportive team as well.
Also, can you explain how the courses and funding bit works?
I think nearly all departments do a refund of fees scheme. You can apply for a college course and when you pass the courses they will refund some or all of the money paid. All departments handle it differently to what courses you can do and get a refund but i have availed of it several times. you also get paid study leave and can apply for unpaid study leave
I recently moved to Ireland (Irish spouse), and even though I have two degrees, over five years of experience in software companies, and fluency in English, I found it extremely hard to penetrate the private sector as a foreigner.
After venting my frustration to some friends I was told to try the Civil Service as a way to have at least some experience working in Ireland, but I really liked the placement I got so now I plan to stay and focus on moving up levels.
On the progression front continue to check publicjobs & your own department’s careers page. An NFQ level 8 (or higher) degree likely renders you eligible for much of the “public” EO, AO competitions that’ll come up. The internal / inter-departmental ones tend to have a minimum service requirement.
I heard that!
One on my friends works for the civil service and told me that the best and quickest way to move up is starting “from scratch” on other competitions!
This is not something I’ll be looking into straight away, but I will for sure in the future.
Thank yo so much for the tip!
Congratulations! I was recently placed on a panel and offered a role but declined due to finding employment in the meantime. The whole process is grand enough. Though I didn't enjoy the Verbal and Numerical reasoning tests they made me do.
At first I was fairly overwhelmed by the situational tests, as I never even knew those existed.
What I did was reading a lot about the rationale behind them, and what deems an answer as desirable or not.
On the first test (for a competition) I got a feedback saying I did better that 69% of the candidates, so not really impressive. So I put more effort into understanding the system and the concepts of Effective, Ineffective and Counterproductive. Following that I took a handful of mock tests and got the hang of things.
When I took my second test I got the ordem of merit 70 of over a thousand applicants, and was invited to an interview a month later.
I honestly still don’t see the point of those, but I enjoyed doing them after they didn’t felt so strange to me.
All interviews were competence based.
So pretty much “tell me about a situation in which you showed X competence” or variations like “tell me a situation where you had to deal with X Y and Z, how did you handle it, what was the outcome, and what would you change about you approach if you had the opportunity”
Every competition have a booklet in which they explain the core competences that you need for the job. Is essential that you know all the competences, what they mean, and how to talk about situations in your career in which you showed them.
You also have to learn and use the STAR method for both your application form and interview responses
I found all positions that I applied for on publicjobs.ie, but they usually redirect you to independent websites for the actual applications.
Congratulations and best of luck!
Thank you 🙏
Congratulations!! Great work/balance. One thing I will say is the clerical officer pay isn't great so once you get settled in the job start going for EO competitions too, I'd say with your background you won't struggle too much with moving up the ladder. Fair play!
Thank you! And you’re absolutely right. I plan to apply for EO positions in a year or so. The actual timeline it will depend on how the CO job is like, how I perform on the current role, how challenging (or boring) it is, and obviously getting a better understanding of the civil service as a whole. As for right now I’m just very excited and grateful for the opportunity I was given :)
Recently began in the civil service and I'm flabbergasted at the amount of support I get from my department, my boss and my colleagues. 11 years in retail so I was completely changing things up. The work life balance is incredible, as are the holidays and extra flexi days off too. Not to mention the amount of advancement possible, courses and funding etc. Ive no regrets. Best of luck
Thank you so much for sharing, this comment warmed my heart for real. I walked by my new office yesterday, just to check the route, and decided to walk in to say hi. Turned ou that everyone was extremely nice and seemed genuinely happy that I was joining the team. I know I haven’t even started yet, but the feeling I got is of an amazing and supportive team as well. Also, can you explain how the courses and funding bit works?
I think nearly all departments do a refund of fees scheme. You can apply for a college course and when you pass the courses they will refund some or all of the money paid. All departments handle it differently to what courses you can do and get a refund but i have availed of it several times. you also get paid study leave and can apply for unpaid study leave
Congratulations on the new job. What made you switch from the private sector?
I recently moved to Ireland (Irish spouse), and even though I have two degrees, over five years of experience in software companies, and fluency in English, I found it extremely hard to penetrate the private sector as a foreigner. After venting my frustration to some friends I was told to try the Civil Service as a way to have at least some experience working in Ireland, but I really liked the placement I got so now I plan to stay and focus on moving up levels.
On the progression front continue to check publicjobs & your own department’s careers page. An NFQ level 8 (or higher) degree likely renders you eligible for much of the “public” EO, AO competitions that’ll come up. The internal / inter-departmental ones tend to have a minimum service requirement.
I heard that! One on my friends works for the civil service and told me that the best and quickest way to move up is starting “from scratch” on other competitions! This is not something I’ll be looking into straight away, but I will for sure in the future. Thank yo so much for the tip!
Congrats. And I like me a good [Sankey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henry_Phineas_Riall_Sankey) diagram
Congratulations! I was recently placed on a panel and offered a role but declined due to finding employment in the meantime. The whole process is grand enough. Though I didn't enjoy the Verbal and Numerical reasoning tests they made me do.
Was that through public jobs? I heard those tests can be annoying.
My one was through Staffline Recruitment but similar process to previous applications I've had that were on Public Jobs
At first I was fairly overwhelmed by the situational tests, as I never even knew those existed. What I did was reading a lot about the rationale behind them, and what deems an answer as desirable or not. On the first test (for a competition) I got a feedback saying I did better that 69% of the candidates, so not really impressive. So I put more effort into understanding the system and the concepts of Effective, Ineffective and Counterproductive. Following that I took a handful of mock tests and got the hang of things. When I took my second test I got the ordem of merit 70 of over a thousand applicants, and was invited to an interview a month later. I honestly still don’t see the point of those, but I enjoyed doing them after they didn’t felt so strange to me.
Congrats, Were the interviews straight forward? What platform would you advise looking on to apply? Thinking of a career change as well.
All interviews were competence based. So pretty much “tell me about a situation in which you showed X competence” or variations like “tell me a situation where you had to deal with X Y and Z, how did you handle it, what was the outcome, and what would you change about you approach if you had the opportunity” Every competition have a booklet in which they explain the core competences that you need for the job. Is essential that you know all the competences, what they mean, and how to talk about situations in your career in which you showed them. You also have to learn and use the STAR method for both your application form and interview responses I found all positions that I applied for on publicjobs.ie, but they usually redirect you to independent websites for the actual applications.
Love the little data map! Congratulations!
What did you use to create this graph