Person specification/supporting statement and qualification

[Charleston]

Hello, I was wondering what people generally do, particularly when responding to the NHS person specification for AP posts. When it states in the person specification that 'Essential Criteria' is a UG degree classification of 2.1 or above, do people just leave this to speak for itself in the qualifications section of the form, or would you also re-iterate this in the supporting information section? I tend to write my supporting information using the headers from the person specification i.e. begining with 'Education' or 'Qualifications' where I will re-state my qualification and briefly mention my MSc (which I consider to be very useful experience).

However, I am currenly revising my supporting statment and can't believe I ever managed to get interviews as it is huge! Should this be the kind of thing to go first? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
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On silver stars I wish and wish and wish

[captain artichoke]

Hey

I personally would state it explicitly.

Good luck

[astra]

I wouldn't. If someone is looking at your application form for shortlisting purposes they will look at your qualifications in the qualifications section and tick their box accordingly. Re-iterating it in the personal statement section is unnecessary duplication of information, unless you've got something additional and important to say about it.

[Charleston]

Thanks for the responses. It didn't seem too efficient on the word count to re-state it, but I think I may give it a brief mention for RA posts/relevant AP posts as I got some quite unique research related outcomes from both my BSc and MSc. Just wondered what other people do!
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On silver stars I wish and wish and wish

[astra]

So I would reflect on the unique findings and what I learnt from the research process in the personal statement section but I wouldn't re-iterate that I got a BSc or a MSc. I might say "My masters research gave me the opportunity to . . . and I learnt . . . " for example. It's all about learning from it and reflecting on it.

[Charleston]

Sorry, that was a little ambiguous, I didn't mean unique 'findings', more 'outcomes' (e.g. Research prizes, thesis distinctions/1sts, publications, research studentships etc) Obviously I would reflect on these too as I learnt a lot about public dissemination and peer review.

Would it be ok to have give a brief sentence on 'Qualifications' to say something along the lines of 'I have a 1st class BSc in Psychology which resulted in xxx from which I learnt yyy' or just not re-iterate education at all as they do give you a section and don't ask for these kinds of details?

I suppose from what you say, as along as I have something to say about it then state it, if not, don't? Similarly, is it always advisable to explicitly sate 'I have GBC'?
_________________
On silver stars I wish and wish and wish

[astra]

Ultimately it's entirely up to you what you put and how you put it. As long as the information is clearly there then it'll be fine. If you don't have much to go in the personal statement bit then some repetition and padding is probably going to help you feel you've filled the space as best you can, but it sounds like you have reams and need to trim down a bit, so I wonder why you are so anxious to restate your qualifications when there's a separate place for that.

[Charleston]

[miriam]

You've given lots of people support and advice, so you are welcome to PM me a draft and I'll see what I'd include and exclude based on my experience short-listing
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Miriam

Friends are like stars: you can't always see them but they are always there.

(18lbs lost since 18th July)

[Charleston]

Miriam, you are an absolute diamond! Just working on a draft and will PM you it soon. Thank you!
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On silver stars I wish and wish and wish

[ebbager]

I have just started applying for AP posts again after doing an MSc but I’m not having much luck so far… I had 4 interviews before and the feedback was that I needed more experience, hence the MSc as well as working at a learning disability charity.

The fact that I am not getting interviews now, with more experience, where I did before makes me think that my application can’t be as good.

My computer died on me a couple of months back and I have lost my statements which I got interviews with. I have been looking on this forum and have followed the general advice of saying how I meet the person spec., tailoring my applications for specific posts & keeping the statement succinct (500ish words).

Something I’m not sure if I’m doing right is the actual layout of the application . . .

As the start of this thread asks, do people put in their statements their academic grades or do you just put it in the education section of the form and say nothing more about it?

Also, I know bullet points are a bad idea but should I be giving headers to the sections on my statement? At the moment I separate it into paragraphs but don’t put headers.

Any advice would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks