The PSC Hiring Process: A bitter sweet love affair on a roller coaster!

By Lyne Des Roberts | Published: February 5, 2010

Once again, I have been too busy lately to write a post… requests for training and preparing people to take the SLE tests are pouring in endlessly… and I had to run last minute marathons with the ones who woke up a bit too late in the process… useless to mention that they are devastated even before starting training!

Yet, in this absurd process, great news keep coming in… for instance Stefan, who had been in the SLE testing process for more than five months, finally got the results of his oral interaction test last Friday. He got his B!… he is now relieved although he will have to wait probably a long time before he knows whether he got the position he applied for or not…

Congratulations Stefan!

Aaaah… the hiring process in the Public Service of Canada!… I really do not know if I could sustain such pressure myself… probably not, merely because I have no patience for red tape administration and I have zero tolerance when it comes to stupidity. I know I would be the worse civil servant ever!… Indeed, either I would quit the job after five minutes or they would fire me after my first day!… But I know my limitations and I would never apply for any government job positions!… I do believe it takes lots of nerves to work there… and, in many ways, I do admire those who can do it and adapt…

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La chasse aux anglicismes!

By Lyne Des Roberts | Published: January 26, 2010

Once again, I was too busy to write a line on my blog… January brought a flood of new requests for training! It seems there are no more breaks in the PSC SLE testing… in other words, it is the peak season all year around!

And now, I have more and more requests for preparing people to their oral interaction test in English. Therefore, the trainer/coach who was working for me occasionally is now busier than ever taking on the students who need help with their English.

In the news department, three of my students took their oral interaction tests early last week. Two of them got their results: Mia and Tamara…

Mia, who was almost in tears the day before her exam due to her anxiety and fear of failing her C, wrote me an email early Friday morning… she got an E… What an achievement!

Congratulations Mia!

As for Tamara (who was also very nervous the day before her test), she obtained the B she needs to comply with the requirements of her job position… Now she wants to move on with her training so that soon she can target a C!

Congratulations Tamara!

Since I have little time to write a post, I decided to give you my first quizz of 2010… Of course, I chose my favourite topic: les anglicismes!… In this test, you will have to find the sentence in which the word is used incorrectly (with its meaning in English). I gave it a try myself and I got 50/50… yet I had to ponder upon a couple of them before making my final choice… Let me know how it went for you!

Weather is weird… it’s March in January here… very mild temperature and rain…

I always whine about bad French… but bad English also exists!

While trying to figure that one out, click here to play my game…

Have fun!…

;-)

 

Photo credit by Philip Lean, Canberra, Australia

 

 

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Back in town and ready to tackle 2010 demands!…

By Lyne Des Roberts | Published: January 9, 2010

I have been away from my blog for almost one month!…  Hopefully everyone had a great Holiday Season and forgot about the PSC SLE testing for a couple of weeks… Did I? Not really… because I knew that three of my trainees had to work on preparing their oral interaction exams that will be held in the week of January 18… I saw them this week and they are quite anxious!… Yet I know that they will perform just fine when time will come!

When I got back from my trip, I had very good news!… Though unexpected, Sam had been called in for his oral interaction interview just a few days before Christmas and he thought that he would not get his C since he felt that he needed more preparation time… Well, he got an E and he was thrilled!

Congratulations Sam!

 

And Kelly, who had missed her appointment in late September, finally went for her oral interaction test in Victoria and she also got an E… Back in the summer of 2009, her examiner had given her a mere B… At the time, I could not believe it since, in my book, this young woman was bilingual!… I believe that people who take this exam without knowing what it is really about perform poorly because of the nature of the questions… In Kelly’s case, all it took was a few hours of good preparation to polish her speech and adopt useful strategies…

Congratulations Kelly!

 

Of course, such great news certainly lifted my spirits in order to tackle 2010 with optimism…  In spite of the numerous flaws in the SLE testing process, my students manage to meet the language requirements of government’s job positions…

Except for Corey, who still has not been invited to take the oral interaction test, there are no pending cases… Next week will be hectic for me with three people to train and comfort until they take their tests on January 18, 19 and 20… I am expecting to be quite stressed!…  Also, new requests came in while I was away… I would not be surprised if there were a flood of testing until the end of March 2010… It will be the end of fiscal year in the PSC and, from experience, all departments try to exhaust their budgets and finish their projects before April.

This month should also bring back at least three of my former trainees who need to get higher levels so that they will meet the language requirements of their new positions… But, almost three weeks away from work gave me the opportunity to refill my energy tank and I am now ready to face the music… Now I only have to get rid of that head cold and accept that I am back under our harsh Canadian climate!…

All I need is to picture this in my head until Spring comes back…

Happy 2010 to everyone!…

;)

 

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