Civil service fast stream 2014/2015

Original post by naya27

do you know how many vacancies they have for this scheme? Can't find anything, since its a relatively new scheme

I don't know! I don't really care for the finance stream, I really want to get involved in the commercial bit!

Any idea if people have had their e-tray results yet? And how long it took?

Reply 543

qwertyuiop1993

16

The written part of the e-tray was the most stressful thing! The software wasn't working so I couldn't actually type anything. After about 5 minutes of panicking I worked out that I could get around this by typing my response in Word and pasting it into the notepad and then pasting it into the email (I couldn't paste directly). This made editing mistakes a massive pain.

What's more the whole thing crashed halfway through and for a moment it looked like I was going to have to do the whole e-tray again.

So glad it's over.

Reply 544

Original post by qwertyuiop1993

The written part of the e-tray was the most stressful thing! The software wasn't working so I couldn't actually type anything. After about 5 minutes of panicking I worked out that I could get around this by typing my response in Word and pasting it into the notepad and then pasting it into the email (I couldn't paste directly). This made editing mistakes a massive pain.

What's more the whole thing crashed halfway through and for a moment it looked like I was going to have to do the whole e-tray again.

So glad it's over.

Gosh!

Which OS and internet browser did you do it on?

Reply 545

qwertyuiop1993

16

Original post by madl24903

Gosh!

Which OS and internet browser did you do it on?

Did it on Chrome for Mac. I updated Silverlight beforehand just to be safe but obviously that didn't do much!

Would be interested to hear about any other people's experiences using a Mac for the e-tray...

Reply 546

Original post by qwertyuiop1993

Did it on Chrome for Mac. I updated Silverlight beforehand just to be safe but obviously that didn't do much!

Would be interested to hear about any other people's experiences using a Mac for the e-tray...

So glad, I didn't do that!

I have OS X Yosemite, but I installed Parallels and Windows 7 *just* for the e-tray lol

Well, I'm glad you finished the e-tray. Best of luck in your results! Which stream are you applying for?

Reply 547

Original post by qwertyuiop1993

The written part of the e-tray was the most stressful thing! The software wasn't working so I couldn't actually type anything. After about 5 minutes of panicking I worked out that I could get around this by typing my response in Word and pasting it into the notepad and then pasting it into the email (I couldn't paste directly). This made editing mistakes a massive pain.

What's more the whole thing crashed halfway through and for a moment it looked like I was going to have to do the whole e-tray again.

So glad it's over.

*Actually, you can only copy and paste within Microsoft Silverlight application utilised by Cubiks Online website. If you’re successful in multiple choice section of the e-tray assessment, you shall have a chance at FSAC to soot your error out in written section.

Reply 548

qwertyuiop1993

16

Original post by madl24903

So glad, I didn't do that!

I have OS X Yosemite, but I installed Parallels and Windows 7 *just* for the e-tray lol

Well, I'm glad you finished the e-tray. Best of luck in your results! Which stream are you applying for?

Cheers, not feeling too confident about it but oh well, I gave it a shot.

I applied for the GFS and the European stream. You?

Reply 549

Original post by qwertyuiop1993

Cheers, not feeling too confident about it but oh well, I gave it a shot.

I applied for the GFS and the European stream. You?

I know this was not answered to me. I am also an applicant under GFS and D&T schemes. I was having the same problem as you did! Wish you best of luck with your results.

Reply 550

GManTheGMan

1

Original post by Shahbaz Ahmad

*Actually, you can only copy and paste within Microsoft Silverlight application utilised by Cubiks Online website. If you’re successful in multiple choice section of the e-tray assessment, you shall have a chance at FSAC to soot your error out in written section.

You didn't last year.

Reply 551

Original post by qwertyuiop1993

Cheers, not feeling too confident about it but oh well, I gave it a shot.

I applied for the GFS and the European stream. You?

I'm doing the commercial and finance fast stream :smile:

Reply 552

Original post by GManTheGMan

You didn't last year.

Never! This is my first chance. Mostly, we’re new applicants and more or less would be in same situation. There isn’t an exact passing score, so depends how most of the applicants have done in all the assessment phases.

All my statements are solely individual opinions. A denial to these is welcomed.

Reply 553

GManTheGMan

1

Sorry, what I'm saying is, at the FSAC last year, there was no chance to go through your written section of the e-tray.

Reply 554

Original post by GManTheGMan

Sorry, what I'm saying is, at the FSAC last year, there was no chance to go through your written section of the e-tray.

You can’t go through e-tray’s written section again but you can cover a slipup by executing superbly in another task. Sorry, I couldn’t understand your first message properly.

Reply 555

european.son

Original post by qwertyuiop1993

Did it on Chrome for Mac. I updated Silverlight beforehand just to be safe but obviously that didn't do much!

Would be interested to hear about any other people's experiences using a Mac for the e-tray...

I did the e-tray on a Mac this Friday (using Safari on OS X Yosemite) and had no problems at all.

I also found it weirdly enjoyable! Treating it like you’re managing a real inbox on an ordinary day at work is definitely a good idea - much better than being conscious of the fact that it’s being assessed, and trying to second-guess the best-scoring responses.

In terms of timing, I didn’t read all of the documents within the initial 20 minutes, so used up some of the 1 hour in which you must reply to the emails to finish getting through them. I still managed to send replies to all the emails with 10-15 minutes left remaining, so definitely don’t rush reading the background documents if you don’t think you’ll read them all within the reading time. The documents are full of clues about which multiple choice response is most/least suitable, so my advice is to read through all of the documents quite thoroughly before moving on to the emails.

The written exercise didn’t seem too bad; it describes exactly what you need to do very clearly. One thing which did occur to me is that, among all the different schemes requiring you to do an e-tray, there is presumably only one e-tray scenario. So, it might be worth considering if you can show off some of the skills particular to your chosen stream(s) in your written response. If you’re applying for the HR stream, for example, have a think about whether there’s anything HR-related that you could include in your response. Don’t shoehorn anything in for the sake of it of course, but I reckon it’s worth seeing if you can slightly tailor your response to the streams that you’ve applied for.

Anyway, for anyone’s who’s doing it, the description of it is probably more daunting than the reality. It’s supposed to simulate the work of a real Fast Streamer, so just buy into the scenario and try not to think about the fact that you’re being assessed.

Also, I had a look through some of last year’s discussion about all of this, and the first e-tray marks were set in the last week of October, with a third band narrowing of the selection tests in the first week of November. It could be different this year of course, but it seems reasonable to expect that we might get the first e-tray successes/failures on w/c 27/10, and a band narrowing for the selection tests on w/c 3/11. Who knows though.

Reply 556

Original post by european.son

I did the e-tray on a Mac this Friday (using Safari on OS X Yosemite) and had no problems at all.

I also found it weirdly enjoyable! Treating it like you’re managing a real inbox on an ordinary day at work is definitely a good idea - much better than being conscious of the fact that it’s being assessed, and trying to second-guess the best-scoring responses.

In terms of timing, I didn’t read all of the documents within the initial 20 minutes, so used up some of the 1 hour in which you must reply to the emails to finish getting through them. I still managed to send replies to all the emails with 10-15 minutes left remaining, so definitely don’t rush reading the background documents if you don’t think you’ll read them all within the reading time. The documents are full of clues about which multiple choice response is most/least suitable, so my advice is to read through all of the documents quite thoroughly before moving on to the emails.

The written exercise didn’t seem too bad; it describes exactly what you need to do very clearly. One thing which did occur to me is that, among all the different schemes requiring you to do an e-tray, there is presumably only one e-tray scenario. So, it might be worth considering if you can show off some of the skills particular to your chosen stream(s) in your written response. If you’re applying for the HR stream, for example, have a think about whether there’s anything HR-related that you could include in your response. Don’t shoehorn anything in for the sake of it of course, but I reckon it’s worth seeing if you can slightly tailor your response to the streams that you’ve applied for.

Anyway, for anyone’s who’s doing it, the description of it is probably more daunting than the reality. It’s supposed to simulate the work of a real Fast Streamer, so just buy into the scenario and try not to think about the fact that you’re being assessed.

Also, I had a look through some of last year’s discussion about all of this, and the first e-tray marks were set in the last week of October, with a third band narrowing of the selection tests in the first week of November. It could be different this year of course, but it seems reasonable to expect that we might get the first e-tray successes/failures on w/c 27/10, and a band narrowing for the selection tests on w/c 3/11. Who knows though.

Thanks for a decent exposition of your experience for the e-tray selection exercise which is the main focus of the early selection stages. While doing e-tray exercise, a candidate must have paid abundant attention to the background material, as you did; especially organisation chart, the role description and the main goal. What’s your scheme?

Reply 557

european.son

Original post by Shahbaz Ahmad

Thanks for a decent exposition of your experience for the e-tray selection exercise which is the main focus of the early selection stages. While doing e-tray exercise, a candidate must have paid abundant attention to the background material, as you did; especially organisation chart, the role description and the main goal. What’s your scheme?

Generalist and D&T. I'm still at the 'awaiting results' stage for the selection tests on the Generalist scheme though (#middling), so I guess I could potentially be invited to an assessment centre for DAT before knowing if I've passed the first stage for the Generalist scheme.

Like I say though, none of us really know how well we did, or when we'll find out how well we did, so my recommendation is to try your hardest at each stage, and then sit back and relax while waiting (potentially for quite some time) before getting your results back. Once it's out of your hands there is literally no benefit from stressing over it.

Reply 558