Addressing the Focus Capabilities

Strong applications provide evidence of a person's work experience through relevant examples. Support your claims with actual, specific examples of what you have done and how well you did it.

Here’s a guide:

Step 1 – Understanding the Focus Capabilities

It is important that you clearly understand what is meant by each capability before putting pen to paper. Read each Focus Capability outlined in the role description and the associated behavioural indicators.

Step 2 – Brainstorm ideas for each capability

For each Focus Capability, brainstorm ideas from your recent work life. Ideally, confine your examples to the last two or three years of employment, or other relevant examples (e.g. study, community participation).

Step 3 – Opening sentence

Begin each Focus Capability response with an opening sentence that clearly states your claim to this capability.

For example: I possess strong written communication skills, which I have developed over the course of my career.

Support the statement with detailed examples of where you demonstrated these skills.

Step 4 – Expand on your brainstorming ideas and provide the evidence

Expand on these points from step three. Go back to each capability and choose which examples to use, by matching them against the wording of the capability. Then demonstrate how those examples meet the different aspects of the capability. Be specific and describe exactly what you did, including the outcome, to demonstrate convincingly that you have met the requirements of each capability. You can structure this draft using the STAR method described earlier. Remember to try and quantify the result with numbers, or tangible evidence.

Once this has been achieved, you can then write the draft paragraph in full, using one or two of your strongest examples.  

Step 5 – Checking work

At this stage, you should read through your application, and check the following points:

  • Have I been honest? Your responses should reflect an accurate picture of your role and achievements.
  • Have I used positive and specific language? Avoid ambiguous or unclear expressions such as ‘involved in’ or ‘assisted’ as it makes it difficult to understand exactly what you did. Words and phrases which could reduce credibility should also be avoided (e.g. some, a little, limited, somewhat).
  • Have I used strong action (doing) words? Avoid using passive language. For example, ‘I consistently received excellent feedback in relation to this newsletter from internal clients and my own manager’, is better than simply stating, ‘Feedback in relation to this newsletter was consistently excellent’.
  • Have I avoided unsupported claims about my capabilities? For example, rather than simply saying, ‘The newsletter was received well by others’, this assertion is substantiated in the following way: ‘I received a divisional achievement award from management for the quality of this newsletter’.
  • Have I paid attention to the language of the Focus Capabilities? For example, writing a response to the capability ‘well developed written communication skills’ requires you to focus your response on actual experiences and the degree of your skill in this area. However, if the capability is phrased ‘knowledge of effective written communication skills and techniques’, this would require you to provide different examples which demonstrate your understanding of the capability itself.