Selection criteria can often be confusing and overwhelming, but from an employer’s perspective responses to selection criteria allow them to gauge each applicant’s suitability against a set of defined parameters.
Responses to selection criteria also allow an employer to quickly weed out applicants from what could be a pile of hundreds, simply by disregarding those that don’t meet all the stated criteria. So, it’s important that you understand exactly what is being asked.
Selection criteria can be broken up into two categories: Skills and experience relevant to the role, and organisational fit.
These selection criteria are designed to ensure that candidates can be ranked against each other. Examples of this category might be:
In this case the selection criteria are designed to gain an insight into the candidate’s soft skills (e.g. communication skills or mentoring capabilities). Examples of this category might be:
Each of the selection criteria will start off with a number of familiar key phrases or expressions that indicate the type of skill or ability required for the role. Some of the more commonly used terms are:
The following expressions indicate you will need to provide examples of your experience or capability:
Selection criteria will often be divided into “Essential” or “Desirable” criteria. You must meet all the “Essential” criteria in order to be considered for the role. If you don’t satisfy all the “Desirable” criteria it is still worth applying for the role. These criteria are not essential to do the job, however the candidate that meets these criteria is likely to be viewed more favourably.
For more information see our article on How to answer selection criteria.
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