How to write an APS pitch, from APS4 to EL1 (with a worked example)

Most Australian Public Service roles no longer ask you to address each selection criterion under its own heading. Instead the ad asks for a pitch, sometimes called a statement of claims, usually capped at one to two pages or somewhere between 500 and 1,000 words.

It looks easier. It is harder. A pitch gives you no scaffolding, so the burden of structure falls entirely on you, and a pitch that rambles is very easy to score below one that does not.

What the panel is holding while they read you

Two documents sit beside your application.

The APS Work Level Standards, which define what each classification is expected to do. An APS5 exercises judgement within defined parameters. An EL1 leads work, manages people and operates with a lot more independence. The standards are what stop an excellent APS5 pitch from winning an EL1 role.

The capabilities named in the advertisement, often drawn from the Integrated Leadership System. Shapes strategic thinking. Achieves results. Cultivates productive working relationships. Exemplifies personal drive and integrity. Communicates with influence.

Your pitch is read against both. The Australian Public Service Commission publishes its own guidance in Cracking the Code, and it is worth reading before you write anything.

Write to the level, not just the job

This is where most unsuccessful pitches go wrong. The evidence is real, but it is pitched a classification too low.

At APS4 and APS5, show that you can do the work reliably, apply guidelines correctly, and handle competing demands without needing to be managed closely.

At APS6, show judgement. You are expected to interpret rather than follow, to handle ambiguity, and to be trusted with work that has no obvious precedent.

At EL1, show leadership. Not "I led a project" but that you set direction, made decisions others depended on, developed people, and managed upwards and sideways. An EL1 pitch built entirely on personal delivery, however impressive, reads as an APS6 who works very hard.

Ask yourself, honestly, whether your examples show the level you are applying for or the level you currently sit at. If it is the latter, find better examples or reach higher into what you have actually done.

A structure that works

Opening, roughly 60 words. Who you are professionally, and why this role. One or two sentences. No throat clearing.

Body, three or four blocks. One per capability group in the ad. Each block is a claim, a STAR example, and a result. This is where the marks live.

Close, roughly 50 words. What you bring that is distinctive, and a plain statement of interest.

Use subheadings if the ad does not forbid them. They cost you nothing and they help a tired assessor find what they are scoring.

A worked APS6 pitch

For an APS6 Policy Officer role advertising three capabilities: shapes strategic thinking, achieves results, and communicates with influence. Around 600 words in full; the body blocks are shown here.

Opening

I am a policy officer with six years across program delivery and evaluation, currently at APS5 in the Department of Social Services. I am applying for this role because it sits at the point where evaluation evidence actually changes program design, which is the work I want to be doing.

Shapes strategic thinking

I identify the question behind the question. When our branch was asked to report on why a grants program was underspending, the obvious answer was low application volume. I pulled three years of application data and found volume was steady but the withdrawal rate after conditional approval had tripled. The cause was a compliance step introduced in 2024 that smaller providers could not meet. I reframed the brief from promotion to process, and recommended a tiered compliance pathway. That recommendation went to the Deputy Secretary and was implemented in the following funding round, with withdrawals returning to their earlier level.

Achieves results

I deliver under pressure without dropping quality. During the 2025 machinery of government changes I was managing four evaluation projects when two colleagues moved out of the branch and were not backfilled for five months. I triaged the portfolio against ministerial priorities, negotiated revised timelines with three internal clients rather than silently slipping, and automated a monthly reporting process that had been taking a full day of manual work. All four projects were delivered, two ahead of the revised schedule, and the reporting automation is still in use.

Communicates with influence

I make evidence usable by people who do not have time for it. Our evaluation reports were thorough and largely unread, so I introduced a two page decision summary at the front of every report, written for a decision maker rather than an analyst. I tested the format with three programme managers before rolling it out. Uptake was immediate, and the branch head now requires the format for all evaluation products. In the most recent internal survey the branch's reporting was rated useful by 88 per cent of programme areas, up from 61.

Close

I combine hands on evaluation practice with the ability to make findings land with the people who act on them. I would welcome the opportunity to bring that to this team.

Notice what is doing the work. Every block opens with a claim, gives one specific situation, describes what the writer personally did, and ends with something measurable. No adjectives about being passionate or dedicated.

Things that quietly cost you marks

Writing your resume again in prose. The panel already has your resume. The pitch is for evidence they cannot get anywhere else.

Adjectives instead of evidence. Highly motivated, results driven, passionate, dedicated. They occupy words in a capped document and score nothing.

One example stretched across everything. It reads as a thin career even when the career is not thin.

Ignoring the word limit. Some agencies truncate at the limit and the panel simply never sees your closing.

Forgetting the resume. Many agencies load applications into recruitment software such as PageUp or Workday, where your resume is parsed and searched. It still needs to use the language of the role. You can check yours against the ad for free.

Eligibility details worth checking early

APS roles are generally open to Australian citizens only, and many require or will require a security clearance at Baseline, Negative Vetting 1 or higher. Some roles are advertised as ongoing, others as non ongoing for a fixed term, and merit pools from one process are often used to fill later vacancies.

That last point is worth knowing. A strong application that does not win the advertised role can still land you a job months later from the pool, which changes the arithmetic on whether a difficult application was worth the effort.

Before you submit

Read your pitch and ask three questions of every paragraph. Does it make a claim? Does it prove the claim with something specific that I personally did? Does it end with a result?

If a paragraph fails any of the three, it is decoration. Cut it and use the words on something that scores.

For the individually addressed format still common in state government, see how to address selection criteria. For health and education specifically, see selection criteria for NSW Health, Queensland Health and state education roles.