Career Articles for the Public Service Sector / Selection Criteria

Selection Criteria - 7 steps for writing winning selection criteria

Step One – Stick to the basic rules (or face elimination)

Before you get started addressing selection criteria, you need to adhere to some basic rules. These include:

You must address ALL the selection criteria
You must follow the agency’s directions, relating to page limits, word counts, layout and presentation
You must address ALL parts of the criterion

Step Two – Develop a Framework

Before you start diligently writing your application, it is important to plan an outline, of what you are going to write under each criterion. By providing this framework at the very beginning, you will not only save time, but you will ensure that you provide the most relevant examples and information for each criterion.

Step Three – Use a Selection Criteria Model

The key to addressing selection criteria is to provide an evidence-based response to each of the selection criteria. Although it is evident to you that you possess these relevant skills and knowledge, you need to convince panel members that you actually possess them

It is vital you avoid writing statements that claim you meet the selection criteria, without providing any evidence.

There are a number of way to address selection criteria, but the easiest way is to base your response is to use some sort of selection criteria methodology. These selection criteria methodologies include STAR, CAR, and SAR and PAR.

STAR
S = Outline the Situation
T = Task
A = Activities
R = Result

CAR
C = Circumstances
A = Activities
R = Results

PAR
P = Problem
A = Activities
R – Results

SAR
S = Situation
A = Activities
R = Results

Step Four – Incorporate Your Understanding of the Position and Agency in the Selection Criteria
To ensure you incorporate your understanding of the position and agency in the selection criteria, you need to:

Write your application to the appropriate level
Make sure you interpret the fit between the role and the selection criteria
Try to keep your examples current
Incorporate policy relevant to the position, (depending on the position and classification level)

Step Five – Use Selection Criteria Speak

The key elements to selection criteria speak are the liberal use of key words, action verbs or power words, writing in the first person, taking ownership of activities, and eliminating technical language, acronyms and abbreviations, which selection panel members may not be familiar with.

Step Six- Make it easy to read with a well laid-out document

Selection panel members need to read dozens, if not hundreds of applications, so it is important to make the document clear, easy to read and visually appealing. It never ceases to amaze me, that candidates will spend hours creating a visually appealing and easy to read résumé, yet will produce a document addressing selection criteria, that is drab, untidy, difficult to read and unprofessional.

Step Seven - Proofread your application

Proofreading your application is critical to your success. Your application is a representation of your best work to the selection panel and one of the biggest gripes of panel members are of documents littered with errors

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