How To Go About Answering Key Selection Criteria In Just 7 Steps To Help You Win That All Important Interview - A Guide That Will Serve You Throughout Your Career

Answering key selection criteria is a challenging task, even for professional resume writers, like me. They are time bandits, challenging and call for a lot of concentration to make sure the answer given does, in fact, make a strong and compelling argument that fits the question.

Although with a little practice and preparation it does become easier and the rest of this article outlines a system that you can put into practice to help to provide the best possible responses you can, in answering key selection criteria.

Step 1. Determine that there are, in fact, Key Selection Criteria that need to be responded to for your application to be viable. Download any position descriptions and skim read everything, highlighting key ideas and phrases that appear to be the key to success for this job. Are there any KRAs - Key Results Areas? Is there an importance weighting on any areas of the role? Is there a word or character count limit?

Step 2.Once you have completed step 1 pull together all the terms you have highlighted and use them to create a paragraph about the key elements for success in the role. This can act as a resource for your responses to the Key Selection Criteria. Is it necessary for you to answer each criterion briefly or in-depth?

Step 3. Now you can start to tackle the Key Selection Criteria. Highlight key words such as: Demonstrate; Experience, Knowledge of, capacity to acquire, qualifications, problem solving, team, leadership.

Step 4. To increase your confidence select the criterion you consider the easiest, this could be one about qualifications and experience, perhaps. Create a short statement that outlines your qualifications and years experience and state your qualifications in full. If your work history includes titles that are particularly relevant include them too. This forms your outline response. If a more in-depth response is needed include with an example of your experience.

Step 5. For every criterion you repeat as the above. A simple way to help you create strong examples is to use C, A, R - circumstance, action, result or S, A, O - situation, action, outcome. For each criterion create a statement following one of these formulas. For example, if you are writing about problem solving - the situation might be: There was a backlog in getting Christmas gift mailings out on time. The action would be: I researched the possibility of using express post parcels - this was still within the budget and the parcels arrived on time, with happy customers. The outcome: Without this many of the gifts would have been returned and had to be refunded due to late delivery. I have paraphrased the above and if I was answering such a criterion I would add a little more detail, but not too much.

Step 6. Now that you have created a story for each criterion, re-read and edit each one, making them only as long as they need to be. You want to make every word count. Remember also to keep your answers in the first person, action oriented - by using verbs and positive.

Step 7. Get someone else check your responses. You can even get someone to read them out loud to you, or just do it yourself. This is a proven way to check for clumsy language and any mistakes.

So now you have, 7 steps to answering key selection criteria that will keep you on track and should assist in your success, as long as you do them.

Using Well Established Personal Negotiation Skills To Increase Your Chance Of Winning Work Interviews.
How to use critical negotiation tactics to make sure that you do not miss any chances whilst interviewing for a promotion or new job opportunity.

Managers' Professional Training Is Necessary For Better Career Opportunities
Career coaching gives you an edge. Whether you want to climb up the corporate ladder or improve an expanding resume, a career coach can help you thrive in your current position and strategically poise you for any new opportunity.

Plan For Your Future Through Professional Career Coaching
Using executive career coaching tools and programs, a career counselor can recommend some feasible job paths after reviewing the results of a survey or a career coaching program.

Career Training: An Extremely Useful Way To Gaining An Edge On Your Job
Career coaches often have specialized knowledge in certain career skills that they have learned through their working lives. They have proven themselves in the business world and can help others do the same. Many coaches have flexible hours to help executives whenever they have time.

Job Interview Answers That Could Support You To Generate A Skilled Impression And Perhaps Get Hired
Are you wondering what some good job interview answers are? In this article we are going to talk about this issue so that you can make a good impression on your next interview.

Is It The Right Time To Consider Redundancy Insurance? Find Out Now!
You will find that Redundancy Protection Insurance is normally sold with loans, credit cards and mortgages and is often referred to as Redundancy Income Protection or Redundancy Payment Protection.

Free Example Cover Letters For Resumes
Using free Sample cover letters is never a good idea. Why is this?. There are a number of reasons.

More Articles

Blogroll

Home | Sitemap | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Service

Copyright © 2006 - All Rights Reserved.