How much to put in application form?

jonnygee2

I'm applying for a civil service role, and the form asks me for a personal statement of up to 1200 words. The personal statement is meant to give my reasons for wanting the job, my most relevant skills and any transferable skills I have.

Firstly, you have to understand that civil service applications are very different to non-public sector applications. Their recruitment process is a more of a tick-box exercise. They will go through the form, tick off parts of the job description where you say they have met them, and decisions will be based on that.

The process has changed a bit this year, but right now the competency framework (the civil service's Kafkaesque approach to recruitment) is still in use. I suggest you read up on it here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/436073/cscf_fulla4potrait_2013-2017_v2d.pdf

This process is deliberately highly unfavourable to anyone applying from outside of the civil service.

So basically, repeat write everything you need to in the application form. Don't worry about it being 'too long' - that's not on the matrix :-)

Yazmina

Thanks for all your replies. I've covered all the essential and desirable criteria with the 750 plus the other 500 words. I think I'll take the advice to re-use anything I need to in a more reflective tone rather than just repeating the statement.

pink_pirlie

The civil service like you to use the STAR approach (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Showing how you meet the points in the job spec using competency-based examples. Just saying "I can do X", "I have done Y", isn't enough. You really have to show, with clear and concise examples, how you meet the points in the person spec.
Break down with headings if the system allows these days.

CliffHanger

Some of the advice on here will ensure you don't get an interview.

Whatever the instructions are, 750 words, 1200 words or whatever for the personal statement is your limit.

Use those words to sell yourself but keep it structured. There is a website called 'interview gold' (no I'm not associated with it at all) that has some good advice about following a STAR type system that will present your case to its best.

If you don't have enough to use up all the words, make sure you expand and elaborate on what you already have but keep it relevant and informative.



If you go over the words, forget your chances as you clearly can't follow instructions and won't make it past the initial sift. All of your hard work completing the later sections will have been wasted and won't even get looked at.

Andy_L

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Personally I would say why stop at 1200 words

1. the online application system won't let you go over the word count

2. Demonstrating an inability to follow a simple instruction doesn't bode well

ToxicWomble

Short listing will ditch any that doesn’t fit the set criteria.
The personal statement may be used to differentiate between candidates if the interview scores are very close.
Sometimes with interviews there will be “statements” that you want to make, but you either forget or don’t get the right opportunity to raise them. Use the personal statement for things like this.
Compare it with the job description and person specification and address most/all the requirements and how you fulfill them.
Keep it concise and don’t waffle

eamon

To the OP..


The free text sections are for you to demonstrate how you meet/exceed the person spec and any other information that they have offered.

Use it wisely and don't forget that this is your opportunity to be better than all the other candidates. The STAR approach is very good and excellent at illustrating you competencies. Also if you don't have a particular skill/talent/expertise in your work history then thats were your personal life can be beneficial. For example you may be a scout/guide leader, volunteer organiser, Sunday league amateur footie organiser. All these activities have things that you can bring into selling yourself and getting that interview.

If you have word processing on your machine then use that for your free text (all afaik will do word count), formatting (bullet points?) etc then cut/copy and paste into the application form.