How to Write and Talk to Selection Criteria (7th ed. Updated) updates developments since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as alerting you to application pitfalls and providing knowledge and language to survive and surmount them.

A change of federal government has resulted in several policy shifts that impact the Australian Public Service. Issues that applicants may need to consider include:

• An increased focus on integrity.
• Achieving net zero emissions in the APS by 2030.
• Technological developments (e.g. artificial intelligence (AI)) that increase the need to be tech savvy.
• Geopolitical tensions, including strengthening relationships in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Challenges facing democracies, including misinformation and disinformation.
• The interrelatedness of skills and importance of social skills, regardless of role.

Subjects and skills that are significant for applicants to consider, regardless of role and jurisdiction, are:

• Integrity and trust in governments.
• Evidence-informed advice and decision making.
• Countering false information and fostering social cohesion.
• Monitoring, measurement, and evaluation.
• Inter-team/agency/jurisdiction collaboration.
• Social skills such as communication, consultation, engagement, diplomacy and stakeholder management.
• Data and digital reforms.

What’s new in this edition?

• A new chapter on social skills (communication, interpersonal and emotional skills), which explains why they’re important, what they mean, how they’re interrelated, and how they’re demonstrated in applications.
• Three vital aspects of roles to consider: how they are technical, meaning they apply specialised skills, methods, and knowledge related to a specific field of activity; what technology they use; and how skills are interrelated.
• Additional material on integrity and ethical issues.
• The list of explained skills increases from 75 to 81, of which at least 35 are social skills.
•  Responding to challenging skills now includes digital, data and cyber security capabilities, exploring relevant capability frameworks, ethical and human rights issues, and the use of social skills.

Role descriptions are not always clear about what applicants are expected to write in applications. This ebook provides detailed guidance on what information to look for and how to prepare an application.

Based on a sense making framework called Mental Nutrition, and a career management perspective, this ebook shows you how to write evidence-based, results-focused, job-matched resumes, pitches, statements of claims, and selection criteria and capability-based responses, plus how to present a convincing case at a job interview.

People interested in working in the public sector can potentially fall into many traps. This ebook provides know-how on how to avoid these traps. The focus is on:

• explaining how to manage your career by gaining some self-knowledge and keeping records.
•  understanding public sector selection processes.
• knowing how to conduct contextual analyses of public sector roles.
• knowing how to structure an application and choose relevant content.
• knowing how to write clearly and succinctly to meet page and word limits.
•  understanding results and value.
•  knowing how to tailor a resume to a role.
•  knowing how to strategically prepare for an interview.

Contextual analysis continues to be the basis of a strong application with particular attention to four work characteristics: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. This ebook helps you understand the nature of complexity and how it applies to judging seniority level, leadership and example choice.

Resources include:

• 20 informal role terms and 550 action verbs to use in applications.
• 5 tools to help with knowing what you offer employers.
• 50 ideas to help build your career through continuous learning.
• 81 definitions of skills and qualities used in job descriptions.
•  8 questions to aid interpreting a job context.
• 5 ways to research a job.
• 7 questions to ask contact officers.
• 13 ways to edit applications to remove unnecessary, irrelevant, or redundant words.
• 10 mistakes in resumes and how to avoid them.
• 10 ways to undersell yourself at interview.
•  7 steps that form an effective interview strategy.
• 10 language practices to use during a job interview so you sound succinct, clear and coherent.

You can read the Table of Contents and purchase this ebook.