Public Service Resumes talented team of writers are Key Selection Criteria writing experts! Key Selection Criteria; the three words that can make even a highly experienced CEO quiver in their seat. Responding to selection criteria for jobs in the Australian Public Service (APS), State Government or local Council can be daunting, frustrating and extremely time consuming. While this is particularly the case if you have not applied for public sector roles before, even experienced public sector managers and professionals find it a taxing exercise. Every job in the federal, state and local public sectors, which includes all government departments, authorities and agencies, government-owned business enterprises, police services, emergency service organisations, universities, TAFE institutes, local and shire councils and publicly funded schools, has a set of Key Selection Criteria that a person meets to be considered suitable for that job.
Can you simply use your resume to complete these? The answer to that is, “Definitely not”! Many professionals find it challenging and difficult to respond to Key Selection Criteria. Our team of Key Selection Criteria writing experts at Public Service Resumes make it easy and provide people with confidence that their applications will address the Key Selection Criteria to fully reflect their capabilities. When you apply for a position in the APS, State Government or local Council, you will need to submit a response to each individual selection criteria listed for that position. Your response must provide evidence of your experience, skills, expertise, qualifications and achievements that demonstrate that you meet the criteria for the position to the extent necessary to perform the job to the standard expected by the organisation. Responses to Key Selection Criteria provide the information against which you will be assessed by the selection panel for the vacant position.
Responses to selection criteria require more detail about your experience and achievements than you would typically provide in a resume or cover letter. In many cases, you will need three to five paragraphs (half to one page) for each criterion to provide sufficient detail. Responses to selection criteria, therefore, provide information at a much more detailed level than you would normally provide in your resume. Many departments impose word, character or page limits to restrict the length of the documents submitted by applicants. This is probably because many candidates used to submit 15 or 20-page documents, which are much too detailed and time-consuming for the selection panel to read. Therefore, it is important to take careful consideration to determine whether the department has imposed such limits prior to tackling your responses to the criteria.
Public Service Resumes » Your Key Selection Criteria Writing Experts
When you work with Public Service Resumes Key Selection Criteria writing experts, you can be rest assured that you will have an effective response to the Key Selection Criteria by ensuring that the nature and extent of your experience are noted, your responsibilities relevant to each criterion is outlined, and that your accomplishments demonstrate your capacity to perform in the role. This is achieved by providing concrete examples. Specific examples enable you to demonstrate that you meet the requirements of the position. If a job requires a person to have the ability to negotiate, then we provide the reader with two or more specific examples of successful negotiations in which you have played a significant role. This extends to describing the context, your goal or intention, your strategy or approach, the reason or rationale for the strategy and the outcome of the negotiation. In short, this is what we refer to as the STAR approach.
The letters STAR stand for are Situation, Task, Action and Result. Here at Public Service Resumes, we always use the STAR framework to provide structure to your responses to each criterion as this is the framework that almost every public sector organisation in Australia requires or expects people to use. Applicants who use the STAR framework tend to get interviews, provided they actually meet the criteria to the extent needed for the job. However, those who do not use the STAR framework tend not to get interviews. Although using this framework does not guarantee you an interview, not using it almost certainly guarantees that you will not.
There is no need to retain the words Situation, Task, Action and Result in your response. However, your writer will guide you to use the words to guide your thinking and provide you with a structure that will ensure the elements of your response clearly meet the requirements. For example;
SITUATION » Briefly describe a situation or set of circumstances or issue or problem you encountered, which is relevant to the criterion
TASK » Indicate what you thought needed to be done to address the issue or problem or situation, why it was important to address the issue or problem or situation and what your role was
ACTION » Describe what you actually did, how you did it and the level or extent of your involvement in resolving the issue or problem or dealing with the situation
RESULT » Indicate the outcome or impact or result or benefit of what you did
Each applicant is rated on how well or closely they meet each of the criteria and then ranked against the other applicants, and you must meet the essential criteria to be considered for a position. Without having the relevant qualifications, knowledge, skills or experience, you would not be able to do the job. Therefore, if you are unable to show a specific example from your own experience to show that you meet the essential criteria, you may not be shortlisted for interview. When you work with your writer at Public Service Resumes, preparation is key. We all know how hard it is to provide an answer to something on the spot, and providing a clear STAR example for your Key Selection Criteria is not different. So when you enlist the services of our Key Selection Criteria writing experts, we urge you to do some brainstorming prior to your consultation with your writer so you can both keep a clear train of thought. During the consultation, your writer will leverage their expert skills to ask the right questions that will enable them to gather just the right amount of details to provide a clear STAR response. Remember that the onus is on you to demonstrate your value against the Key Selection Criteria – it is not up to the selection panel (who may have anywhere from dozens to hundreds of applications to read through) to work this out from your resume.
Once your writer has gathered the right amount of information during your consultation, they will get to work writing your Key Selection Criteria. We structure each response to include an introduction, body and conclusion, which then ties everything neatly in a readable and understandable manner. In writing out each response, we believe it is important to be truthful and positive, not exaggerating or downplaying your skills, capabilities or experience. Our Key Selection Criteria writing experts will ensure that for every Key Selection Criteria that we write it is personalised and tailored based upon your own experience. We will also tie your experience back to the responsibilities of the position. This is achieved by using appropriate keywords and concrete answers that accurately respond to the question and help to demonstrate your suitability in performing the role. Moreover, we conduct extensive research by going through the position description and deciphering what the employer is looking for, as well as what is involved in the role. We try to incorporate keywords used in the job description and include it where appropriate when writing up each response. As you can see, the team at Public Service Resumes really know our stuff, thus confirming that we are the Key Selection Criteria writing experts!