Coaching for Irish local authority competitions, from application form to interview

Most grades in Irish county and city councils: Clerical Officer (Grade III), Assistant Staff Officer (Grade IV), Staff Officer (Grade V), Senior Staff Officer (Grade VI), Administrative Officer (Grade VII), Senior Executive Officer (Grade VIII), and senior management posts including Director of Services. Technical and professional competitions that use the same competency-based interview format are covered too. If you're applying for something else, ask, the process is usually similar.

Yes. The coaching covers competency and capability interviews across the wider public sector: the HSE, semi-state bodies, universities and academic institutions, and regulators. The frameworks differ in name but not much in substance, and the preparation method is the same. The two exceptions are An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces, whose entry and promotion processes are different enough that you are better served by a specialist.

It depends on the grade. Senior posts, including Director of Services and Chief Executive, are run by the Public Appointments Service through publicjobs.ie on behalf of individual councils. Most other grades are run directly by each council's own HR department. Some competitions are open to all applicants and some are confined to serving local authority staff, so check the candidate information booklet for your competition.

Successful candidates are placed on a panel from which vacancies are filled as they arise, usually for 18 to 24 months. Placement on a panel is not a guarantee of appointment, so your ranking matters: the work is aimed at the strongest possible performance, not just getting over the line.

On the written application alone. A board examines your form against criteria based on the requirements of the post, and the standard of the writing itself is assessed. This is why the application review comes first: a strong candidate with a weak form does not reach interview.

Each service is priced on its own, and all prices include VAT. Example-building sessions and interview preparation are from €175 for 1.5 hours, each with a written guidance note; the application form review is from €150 for a line-by-line written review with a 1-hour session to talk the feedback through. Multi-session packages are available and agreed at the first call, so the work fits your closing date.

No. Sessions are booked one at a time. Packages exist because some people want support across the whole competition, but most clients start with a single session and decide from there.

Situation, Task, Action, Result. A structured way to answer competency-based interview questions that boards are trained to listen for. The task is where you tell the board what your own role was and what you had to achieve. There's a guide to it on the blog.

Online, over video call, wherever in the country your council is. Mocks can be recorded for your own review where you'd like.

Probably not. Most short-window prep is one focused application review and one or two mock interviews, with written feedback in between. Email and we'll tell you honestly if there's time to make a difference.

Yes. The first call is where we say if the gap between where you are and what the competition needs is something coaching can close. There's no point taking your money to confirm an outcome that was already clear.