Question on application form

golden_girl

Hi

I have to give examples of my things I have done, which shows I meet the criteria listed for this job I am applying for.

Many of the criteria is job skills, but there are 2 criterias I am not aure about.

1) Maintains appropiate quality standards.

2) Continues to improve skill-set through personal development.

Any ideas???

Could no. 1 be knowing exactly queries you are currently looking investigating and regularly updating the person concerned.

any advice would be greatlt appreciated

LittleVoice

What quality standards have you worked to? What service are you involved in providing?

How do you develop yourself - learn new useful things for your work?

golden_girl

Many thanks for your reply....

cazziebo

golden_girl wrote: »

Hi

I have to give examples of my things I have done, which shows I meet the criteria listed for this job I am applying for.

Many of the criteria is job skills, but there are 2 criterias I am not aure about.

1) Maintains appropiate quality standards.

2) Continues to improve skill-set through personal development.

Any ideas???

Could no. 1 be knowing exactly queries you are currently looking investigating and regularly updating the person concerned.

any advice would be greatlt appreciated

I'd say you're on the right lines with number 1. Know exactly what is expected of you by ensuring you fully understand the query, if it's a standard query check against previous responses (or whatever), If non-standard be aware of the parameters, and check with supervisor, Keep customer regularly updated.

2 - would be knowing your strengths and development areas and what you have done to build on both. So for example, you might be weak on excel so you had a colleague show you how to do pivot tables. Alternatively, you felt to do your job better you had to know about X so you made a conscious effort to update yourself on it by eg reading/ talking with someone etc etc.

These answers are so much more convincing if you are actually using real live examples.

Good luck!

HappyG1rl

golden_girl wrote: »

Hi

I have to give examples of my things I have done, which shows I meet the criteria listed for this job I am applying for.

Many of the criteria is job skills, but there are 2 criterias I am not aure about.

1) Maintains appropiate quality standards.

2) Continues to improve skill-set through personal development.

Any ideas???

Could no. 1 be knowing exactly queries you are currently looking investigating and regularly updating the person concerned.

any advice would be greatlt appreciated

Perhaps if you could tell us what job you do and what job you are going for we might be able to come up with some specific ideas but I've mentioned a couple of general things below.

For No 1 an example could be that if your objectives state that you must produce something (e.g a product or a set of accounts) free from error then your appraisal will be evidence that you are meeting the appropriate standard or a low level of re-work could be used if you are making a product.

For No 2 an example might involve going onto the company's intranet (if they have one) and either finding out more about the company's products/systems etc that help you do the job better or it could be doing computer-based training to further develop excel or word skills. It could mean studying for a qualification to aid career progress.

I'm sure we can come up with better ideas if we know what the jobs are.

Toots

golden_girl

Hi

Many thanks for your replies. This job is for a clerical officer.

I have to give example for each criteria which could be from work, home life and studies etc.

I am not sure about this criteria:

Professional: Continues to improve skill-set through personal development.

I was going to give an example when another colleague came up with a different procedure to do a task which we all have to do on a regular basis. This new procedure cut down on the amount of time the task was originally taking us. I was also going to put that through team work you are able to gain further working knowledge that would improve your daily tasks.

I have already mentioned about my evening course under another criteria.

Do you think I am way off the mark with this?????

cazziebo

What this question is looking for is proof that you are taking responsibility for your own development. You are therefore looking for evidence that suggests that you seek out opportunities for self improvement.

Your examples don't really say enough about you. You can repeat the nightclass example, stating why you thought it would be beneficial, what you are learning, and how work has benefited. Do you have any examples where you have thought that you would like to know more/do something better? Or - could it be that you would like to be able to manage meetings better, or coach others? Think about you and your job.

Remember the STAR approach to these kinds of questions -

Situation - give the context to your answer
Task -Specify what had to happen- and be careful to talk about YOU - not we or they. Also steer clear of "would" "should" - these words tell the interviewer that it's not experience.
Action - describe what YOU did
Result - what was the outcome, what did you learn.

louise1234_2

golden_girl wrote: »

Hi

Many thanks for your replies. This job is for a clerical officer.

I have to give example for each criteria which could be from work, home life and studies etc.

I am not sure about this criteria:

Professional: Continues to improve skill-set through personal development.

I was going to give an example when another colleague came up with a different procedure to do a task which we all have to do on a regular basis. This new procedure cut down on the amount of time the task was originally taking us. I was also going to put that through team work you are able to gain further working knowledge that would improve your daily tasks.

I have already mentioned about my evening course under another criteria.

Do you think I am way off the mark with this?????

You have a good example there for an interview, but I think it fits better under a question such as when have you faced change/ had your way of working challenged.

I'd suggest using an example based on skills that are 'secondary' to the role you are applying for.

Say the job advert says you need skills A, B, C & D. I would answer the question you can do D, but not as well as a colleague. You identified this area for improvement yourself, discussed with your manager and asked your colleague to mentor you / help train you.

I would answer making sure I got across that I recognise my own weakness / areas from improvement, and have some idea how to go about improving these.

Good luck with the application!