Preparing selection criteria for tertiary applications is never fun and there are always Essential and Desirable criteria to address. I always advise clients to keep the document to a maximum of five pages – institutions do not typically stipulate word or page length limits. The less criteria to address, the less pages needed. You should always address all the selection criteria in the Desirable section; I have had clients present me with a draft where they have overlooked and not bothered addressing them – do not make this very big mistake! In addressing the criteria in the Desirable section, you do not have to prepare responses that are as detailed as those in the Essential section – a short paragraph will suffice.
This repeat business client applied for the role of Senior Recruitment Coordinator (International) in an Australian University and gained a job interview. The application required the addressing of 13 selection criteria in the Essential section, and three in the Desirable section. Needless to say this was a big job but all criteria were suitably addressed in five pages. Following are excerpts from two criteria in the Essential section, and a full example of one criterion in the Desirable section.
ESSENTIAL:
Considerable experience in operational planning.
In my role as Marketing Manager, I prepared annual operational plans for my designated markets/countries. In the process of developing these plans, I set clear objectives (target enrolment numbers) and activities to be delivered (exhibitions, events, road shows, agent visits, workshops and marketing campaigns) in order to achieve required outcomes such as increased market share and improved brand awareness. The plans included budget requirement specifications (staff/resources), timetables, and performance monitoring (quarterly number of enquiries, and quarterly number of enrolments). Implementation often involved significant cross-departmental dialogue as growing enrolments from certain markets/countries had implications for other departments.
Demonstrated initiative and drive.
In 2014 I initiated and conducted an initial review of the agent network – comprising in excess of 300 agents – and identified that existing records were not reliable. The project involved a significant amount of work and spanned one year in duration. This entailed reviewing the entire list/records and systematically filtering and verifying them in order to cull the number to approximately 100 agents. Subsequently, this decreased the amount of administrative/compliance work involved in records keeping, and it allowed the marketing team to focus on increasing student recruitment numbers. Since the review, all relevant audits passed with exemplary results. Moreover, I received formal praise from the University’s Compliance Manager for good practice in marketing compliance.
DESIRABLE:
Experience in event management.
In my roles of Marketing Manager and Business Consultant in a university and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) respectively, I gained significant experience in organising and coordinating international and domestic exhibitions, fairs, information or promotional sessions. Specifically, in registering participation and coordinating promotional and informational stands at overseas exhibitions and events organised with XXX and YYY. I have also attended numerous networking events and workshops related to the events over the past five years.
I’m here to help market you!
Cheers,
Annie Cerone
