Local Government Selection Criteria
If you are seeking a position in local government, you will notice that most local councils place a strong emphasis on the use of selection criteria in their recruitment and selection process. In almost all cases, the response to selection criteria for a local government application will be required to be submitted along with a resume and cover letter at the initial application stage.
Only if your written application is deemed suitable will you be invited to an interview for a position with the council. This makes the application process difficult for people who know that they would be able to do the job well, but are not able to ‘sell themselves’ well on paper. Our selection criteria writers are skilled at drawing out all of that information that you would want a selection panel to know – then writing selection criteria responses that give you the best chance of being invited to the all-important interview.
In many cases, councils have adopted ‘capability frameworks’ similar to the Australian Public Service’s “Integrated Leadership System” – a collection of behavioural descriptors that are expected to be demonstrated at particular levels of employment. Other local councils have developed their own frameworks around which they design selection criteria. If you are not familiar with the language of these systems, it can be difficult to know how best to respond to the selection criteria questions that use them. Applicants who are not currently working within the local council can find it particularly difficult to secure an interview because they are not sure how to describe their skills and experiences in a way that fits with the selection criteria.
When they set selection criteria as part of an application process, there is a specific format of response that local councils are seeking. Many people make the mistake of being too vague in their responses, and not providing examples that satisfactorily demonstrate their skills, competencies and abilities. Our selection criteria writers are experienced in writing responses using the ‘STAR’ method that a local government selection panel will expect to see – we will convey the Situation, Task, Action and Result that demonstrate your competencies by using the experiences that you tell us about. Getting the selection criteria responses right in your application for a local government position is so important – because only if you do will you have a chance to meet the selection panel to ‘sell yourself’ in person.