NICS Staff Officer and Deputy Principal recruitment 2022 2023

Original post by gaynor_scraggins

If you are replying to @Aliehs, I'm assuming they got a letter saying that they won't be progressed to sift, as the pass mark is 80 on all 3 of the tests. Which means that even if you get 100% on the other tests, if you score under the pass mark on just one, you don't get progressed. It seems very unfair, especially if you've only just missed out on 1 of the tests.

You are spot on, candidates are required to achieve the pass mark (or higher) in each of the 3 tests in order to progress onto the test score merit list.
What was the maximum achievable score in each test (ie the pass mark was 80 out of what?).

HR will already know how many posts they hope to fill from the first round of interviews in June/July so they will sift down the merit list until they have about 2.5 times that number available to invite to interview (eg: if they aim to fill 200 posts, they will sift through applications in merit order until they have at least 500 people who have passed the sift). Given that the sift out rate in previous competitions has been around a third, they may have to sift the top 700 or 800 applications to achieve 500 for interview.

Reply 44

Rosie661

8

I’m 508 In merit hopefully they won’t take too long doing sift and putting us out of our misery 🙈

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 45

davfir99

8

Original post by Murph2022

Did the candidate booklet say a 7 minute presentation 😳 . That should be fun if it gets to that stage. What did you do your presentation on do you remember. Do they give you a topic?

It wasn’t really a presentation, they gave you the info and then you had to talk about what you would do, it was the scenario that an external consultant had made recommendations and what recs you would implement and what you wouldn’t and why

Reply 46

Murph2022

6

Original post by davfir99

It wasn’t really a presentation, they gave you the info and then you had to talk about what you would do, it was the scenario that an external consultant had made recommendations and what recs you would implement and what you wouldn’t and why

Cheers 👍

Reply 47

Original post by drew Walcott

Thats the results in for the staff officer comp tests, hope you guys got through! I'm around 800 on the merit list so imagine ill be waiting a bit before I hear anything (management decisions killed me lol)

How many went for the test?

Reply 48

Does anyone know how many applicants there were for the DP Board?

Reply 49

One more question - does anyone know of someone who transferred early into their probation period?

I'm 3 months in and I hate my post and I'm trying my hardest to see the best in it, but going my job spec I meet none of the requirements apart from Microsoft Office skills and taking calls. I have been given hardly any work to do and I'm struggling mentally now 😫

Reply 50

Cptripper

4

Original post by Leelu26

One more question - does anyone know of someone who transferred early into their probation period?

I'm 3 months in and I hate my post and I'm trying my hardest to see the best in it, but going my job spec I meet none of the requirements apart from Microsoft Office skills and taking calls. I have been given hardly any work to do and I'm struggling mentally now 😫

Thats the civil service for ya, there isn't a big amount of work

Reply 51

username4983018

6

Original post by davfir99

I was and you’re right, I totally missed that part, oops.

But yeah, it seems unfair but it’s not really, I failed the interview last time by 1 mark but did really well in the presentation so had a higher overall score than some and passed all the clusters but because I failed the interview I didn’t get it, it’s the way the cookie crumbles, you need to pass all the parts even if it’s just scraping through.

Yeah unfortunately we may not like the way they work it out, but they are all designed to sift people out of the process.
I did the 2019 interview passed all the individual elements but as only just passed interview, missed out by one in a cluster. Used same sift examples this time and could easily be sifted out no guarantees. Always be people who just miss out unfortunately

Reply 52

Original post by Cptripper

Thats the civil service for ya, there isn't a big amount of work

There's time where I can deal with work being quiet but my god I feel like I don't exist in my team! And it's not down to WFH, I'm hoping to get somewhere else either in the sane Dept or another one... I'll even take Health lol

Reply 53

OP

Original post by Leelu26

There's time where I can deal with work being quiet but my god I feel like I don't exist in my team! And it's not down to WFH, I'm hoping to get somewhere else either in the sane Dept or another one... I'll even take Health lol

Hi Leelu

Sorry to hear that you've still not settled in, and hopefully you'll get something more suitable when you ace the DP comp 😁.

In the meantime, try and make it work for you. It sounds like you've got some spare capacity, so I'd use that the time now to develop any skills you think will be handy. Also, as it's PPA/PDP time, make sure you include some training and development on it that will be useful - try and push for some decent management training if that's what you think will help.

Also, try making the job your own - while also developing your competencies.

Don't worry about switching before your probation's up - it might just reset it. And you never know - you might even end up enjoying it 😉

Reply 54

OP

For those who have applied for the DP comp, the email with the link to tests should be issued today, so remember to check your email/junk mail.

Reply 55

OP

Original post by gaynor_scraggins

For those who have applied for the DP comp, the email with the link to tests should be issued today, so remember to check your email/junk mail.

DP invites to tests issued today. I'm assuming they'll all be sent around the same time, so if you've applied to the DP comp, but not received the email invite yet, you should be getting it fairly soon.

Reply 56

Brummel

Original post by gaynor_scraggins

DP invites to tests issued today. I'm assuming they'll all be sent around the same time, so if you've applied to the DP comp, but not received the email invite yet, you should be getting it fairly soon.

Good to hear they're sticking to the timetable. Have they allowed 2 weeks to complete the DP tests?
I thought 1 week to complete the SO tests was a bit tight.

Reply 57

OP