RTB Executive Officer 2026: The EO Route That Starts With a CV

There is a permanent Executive Officer job in Dublin city with no aptitude test standing in front of it. Full EO pay scale, and the first cut is made by a person reading your CV and one page of cover letter. Applications close at 5pm on Saturday 5 September 2026.

The employer is the Residential Tenancies Board. The competition sits on the publicjobs.ie job board, but that listing states publicjobs has no involvement in the recruitment and selection process. Lex Consultancy runs the recruitment for the RTB, and you apply at lexconsultancy.ie/clients/rtb.

That difference matters. The publicjobs Executive Officer open competition puts online aptitude tests between you and any human judgement, and panel waits can run long. This is the same grade and the same money by a different road: get shortlisted on paper, then sit a competency interview.

What an EO at the RTB actually does

Executive Officers work across business units such as Customer Experience and Registrations. Day to day that means customer contact by phone, email and web, investigating cases in tools like ServiceNow and RTB365, running quality checks, and liaising with internal teams including Legal, Dispute Resolution and Communications.

One line in the booklet is worth reading twice: officers may be moved between business units for operational reasons. You are applying to a grade in an organisation, not to one desk.

The essential skills tell you what the interview will probe. Strong digital skills, named as Excel, Word and Outlook. Written and verbal communication. Experience managing stakeholders, including members of the public. Task management with several priorities running against deadlines. Attention to detail. Comfort writing and working with technical reports. Analytical skill, meaning you can take complicated information and produce a practical recommendation. And a commitment to public service.

The money

The role sits on the Executive Officer PPC scale. Rates effective 1 June 2026 start at €38,803 and rise by increments to €57,289 and then €58,624. Two long-service increments sit above that, at €60,527 and €63,227. The separate non-PPC scale starts at €37,211.

The increments are the point. Bottom of the scale to the top long-service increment is a gap of just over €24,000.

Who can apply

The qualifying door has two hinges and you only need one. Either education at Level 6 on the National Framework of Qualifications or equivalent, or above. Or at least two years of relevant experience in a similar role. That second route is real, not a courtesy line.

On top of that you need the essential skills for the role, and health such as to give a reasonable prospect of regular and efficient service.

Two exclusions are worth checking before you spend an evening on this. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, section 169(4), a councillor or member of a local authority cannot become a member of RTB staff. Standard public service redundancy and voluntary early retirement scheme restrictions also apply, set out in Appendix 2 of the booklet.

How selection works

Four steps, as the booklet sets them out.

Application, in the format below, before the deadline.

Shortlisting. An expert board selects a group for interview who, on pre-determined criteria, appear from their CV and cover letter to be the most suitable. The booklet is careful here and so should you be: not being shortlisted does not mean you are unsuitable, only that others matched the criteria more closely on paper. Lex Consultancy emails all applicants at the end of shortlisting, so you hear either way.

Interview, expected during the fortnight commencing 21 September 2026, in person at the RTB’s offices in O’Connell Bridge House, D’Olier Street, Dublin 2. The format is semi-structured, and you are asked to provide examples of the competencies for the role. Those competencies are in Appendix 1 of the booklet, and they are what to prepare from.

References, taken after a successful interview.

The booklet also reserves the option of a second-round interview, technical tests or psychometric testing. It is written as a “may”, so treat it that way. Prepare for the competency interview and hold the rest as possible rather than scheduled.

The panel

Everyone who succeeds is placed on a panel in order of merit. It stands for twelve months from the date it is established, and appointments are made from it as EO vacancies arise. The RTB may choose not to use the panel where a post requires specific skills. How many appointments come out of it inside the twelve months is not published, and nobody can tell you in advance.

What you actually submit

One MS Word document, containing two things.

A cover letter of one page, explaining how you meet the requirements of the role.

A CV of no more than three A4 pages, carrying your name and contact details, career history with responsibilities, achievements and any staff or budget responsibility, education and training history, professional memberships, and your current salary and Civil or Public Service grade if you have one.

Every application is acknowledged. If nothing arrives within 48 hours, email rtb@lexconsultancy.ie rather than assuming it landed.

Why the format rules are the first filter

Late applications, incomplete applications, and applications not in the correct format will not be considered for shortlisting. Correct format means the cover letter and CV together in one Word document.

That filter runs before a board reads a word about your experience. A four-page CV, a PDF, two separate attachments, an upload at 5.04pm on the Saturday: each of those ends the application on its own, with no judgement of your suitability involved.

So the boring pass earns its time. Page count. File type. File count. Whether the salary and grade line is there. Whether the cover letter answers the requirements instead of narrating your career. Whether the acknowledgement came back.

Three A4 pages also forces a choice. Keep the responsibilities and achievements that map onto the essential skills above, and let the rest go.

Questions people ask

Do I need a degree? No. You need either education at Level 6 on the National Framework of Qualifications or equivalent, or above, or at least two years of relevant experience in a similar role.

Is there an aptitude test? Not as a stated stage. Shortlisting works from your CV and cover letter, and the next stage is an in-person interview. The booklet does reserve the option of technical tests or psychometric testing, so it cannot be ruled out.

When are interviews? Expected during the fortnight commencing 21 September 2026, in person at O’Connell Bridge House, D’Olier Street, Dublin 2.

Is this a publicjobs competition? No. It is advertised on the publicjobs.ie job board, but that listing states publicjobs has no involvement in the recruitment and selection process. Lex Consultancy runs it for the RTB.

Where to start

If you are shortlisted, the whole thing rests on one interview in D’Olier Street, answering with examples of the competencies in Appendix 1. That is the surface worth preparing, and it is a craft rather than a memory test.

The RTB is not publicjobs and this is not a PAS competition. A semi-structured competency interview still asks for the same thing: a specific situation, your part in it, what you did, and what came of it. The STAR method is how to shape an example so a board can score it. How many examples to bring works out how big a bank you need to cover every competency without using the same project four times. The competency interview walkthrough covers how boards mark what they hear, which most people leave until last.

If you would rather rehearse out loud than read about it, the Prep tier at €19 a month carries the interview side: the STAR coach, an interview plan and three full mock interviews a month. Pricing is here. And because the booklet keeps psychometric testing on the table, the free taster covers the general publicjobs-format base in about ten minutes. Neither is RTB material, and neither is part of this competition as stated.

Facts here were checked against the official candidate information booklet, issued 17 August 2026, and rtb.ie on 25 August 2026. Details can change. Always check the current official material before you apply.

PublicServicePathway is an independent practice resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to publicjobs.ie, the Public Appointments Service, the Residential Tenancies Board, or Lex Consultancy.