Resume Writer Canberra

APS work is classified. Trainee and graduate programs sit at the bottom of the structure. Ongoing and non-ongoing roles are then advertised at APS1, APS2, APS3, APS4, APS5 and APS6, then Executive Level 1 and Executive Level 2, then Senior Executive Service Band 1, Band 2 and Band 3. Work Level Standards describe the work expected at each classification. An APS4 application that reads like an EL2 policy lead, or an EL1 application that reads like an APS6 officer waiting for instruction, is easy for a panel to set aside.

The Integrated Leadership System is the capability language panels still recognise. The five clusters are shapes strategic thinking, achieves results, cultivates productive working relationships, exemplifies personal drive and integrity, and communicates with influence. Higher classifications are expected to show a wider span: a team, a program, a portfolio, or a relationship with ministers and other jurisdictions. Naming a cluster in a heading does not show the capability. The example has to show the work at that classification.

APS6 is often the last classification before a formal leadership role. The examples usually need to show judgement on a piece of work the officer owned, advice that changed a decision, and stakeholders who were not in the same team. EL1 applications are read for leadership of people or of a function, for risk, and for how the work connected to the branch. EL2 applications are read for a wider program, for resources, and for relationships outside the agency. SES applications are a different exercise again: they are short, and they are read for judgement at scale. Write to the classification on the advertisement.

Specialist classifications sit beside the general APS scale. Legal, medical, and some technical roles use their own work level standards. A lawyer at a specialist classification is not an APS6 policy officer with a law degree added to the profile. Read the work level standard the advertisement points to, and use examples from that kind of work.

Central agencies and policy departments advertise constantly in Canberra. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recruit policy, corporate and specialist staff. The Department of Defence and the Department of Home Affairs are among the largest employers in the city, and their civilian vacancies are APS vacancies even when the subject matter is operational. Services Australia and the Australian Taxation Office recruit large cohorts into service delivery, compliance, and corporate roles. The Australian Bureau of Statistics recruits statistical and corporate staff. CSIRO at Black Mountain is a Commonwealth research employer on its own enterprise arrangements, so an APS pitch is the wrong template for a CSIRO application unless the advertisement asks for one.

Canberra Health Services is an ACT Government health service, not an APS agency. Canberra Hospital in Garran and North Canberra Hospital in Bruce sit in that service. North Canberra Hospital is the former Calvary Public Hospital Bruce. Write the current operator. Clinical roles ask for registration, scope of practice and clinical examples. Administrative and corporate roles inside the health service still follow the ACT health recruitment pack, which is a different form from an APSJobs pitch.

The ACT Public Service is the other large local employer. Directorates advertise on jobs.act.gov.au. Their classifications and capability language are the ACT's, and an APS EL1 résumé does not automatically translate. If you are applying for both an APS role and an ACT directorate role in the same month, they are two applications. Universities hire as well: the Australian National University and the University of Canberra run academic and professional staff rounds with their own criteria.

Federal vacancies are listed on APSJobs at apsjobs.gov.au. The advertisement states the classification, whether the role is ongoing or non-ongoing, the location, and the application method. Some ads ask for a résumé and a one-page pitch. Some ask for a résumé and a statement of claims against named criteria, with a word limit on each. Some add a pitch and still keep one or two targeted questions. The attachment rules, the file type and the closing time are in that advertisement. A strong draft that ignores the length is marked as non-compliant before anyone discusses the examples.

Create the application against that vacancy. A pitch written for Services Australia last year is not a Treasury EL1 pitch. The résumé can carry over more of the employment history, but the first page and the profile still have to face the role. Panels look for the classification, the function, and evidence that you have done similar work. They also look for gaps you leave unexplained, and for claims that the referee will not recognise.

Many large Canberra agencies have moved the bulk of their vacancies to a one-page pitch, sometimes called a statement of claims. Services Australia, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Defence and the Department of Home Affairs have commonly used that shorter form. The pitch is one statement, usually about a page or a set word count, written to the role. It weaves a small number of examples through the capabilities the ad emphasises. It has a point of view about why this classification, in this team.

Selection criteria are a different product. Each criterion gets its own response, often 400 to 600 words, with a situation, the action you took, and the result. That shape is right when the advertisement lists criteria and sets a limit for each. Pasting five of those blocks under a one-page pitch heading blows the limit and reads as if the instruction was missed. Shrinking a criterion response to a sentence inside a pitch, with no example, leaves the panel nothing to score.

The practical split is the advertisement. Read the application kit before choosing the shape. If both a pitch and criteria appear, both are required, and they should not repeat the same story five times. The résumé then carries the career history so the pitch can spend its words on judgement. Cover letters appear on some vacancies and are absent on others. Write the item the ad names.