How to Write and Talk to Selection Criteria 7th edition

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Revised and updated, this current digital edition (PDF) prepares a public sector applicant to handle two significant changes in job application processes.

The first is the shift to primarily asking for pitches and statements of claims. This shift means applicants accustomed to writing responses to selection criteria or capabilities must learn a new way of writing. A job application is now more a marketing exercise, explaining how what you have to offer will make a difference in a particular role and organisation.

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

The second change relates to shifts in employee skill demands and working arrangements. Public sector employees are increasingly needing skills and knowledge relating to digital literacy, risk management, leadership capabilities, social interaction and cross-boundary collaboration. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on Australia’s economy and workforce, changing how people work.

Based on a sense making framework called Mental Nutrition, and a career management perspective, this edition 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. The seventh edition helps you understand the nature of complexity and how it applies to judging seniority level, leadership and example choice.

234 pages. Available in PDF format. Still only $25.00.

 What’s new?

• Updated explanation of the range of terminology used in job descriptions.
• What you need to know about work health and safety responsibilities, including mental health.
• The scope of risk management and the need to identify potential risks.
• The need to consider ethical issues and challenges to professionalism.
• Writing tips from the new Australian Government Style Manual.
• How to edit applications to meet page and word limits.
• The range of short form applications and how to prepare your response.
• Examples of short form, selection criteria and capability-based applications.
• Tips on preparing for online interviews.

Still covered are chapters on:

• Being skilled in contextual analysis so you can make a case for ‘Why you’?
• How to read a job description accurately so you don’t miss vital details.
• What to consider when preparing responses on strategic thinking, policy work, leadership, management, and conflict.

Tools include 120 informal role terms and 550 action verbs to use in applications.

Read the Table of Contents to see the breadth of this new edition.

Author: Dr Ann Villiers is Australia’s only Mental Nutritionist specialising in the sense-making process. Ann is a career coach, writer and author. She has interviewed hundreds of applicants and coached numerous people to greater application and interview confidence. Dr Villiers is a Fellow Member of the Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA). In 2019 Ann was awarded Life Membership of the Association, and in 2015 was awarded the CDAA President’s Award for Professional Leadership.

Awards: How to Write and Talk to Selection Criteria, Fifth edition, received Highly Commended in the 2012 Non-Fiction section of the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards.

“Judges’ comments: The book is a slick, highly readable, professionally designed and competently edited guide to the complicated process of applying for public sector jobs. If there is a better, more helpful, tool around for first time and seasoned applicants, the judges were not aware of it.”

How to Write and Talk to Selection Criteria, Fourth edition, received Highly Commended, in the 2006 Non-Fiction section of the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards.