SUPPORTING
STATEMENTS FOR
JOB APPLICATIONS
Careers and Employability Service
What is a supporting statement
and when will I need one?
Writing a supporting statement is an alternative way of applying for a role compared to
sending in a CV and cover letter. An advert will state if you need to apply using a supporting
statement. If this is the case, the employer will provide an information pack about the job
role which will include a Person Specication or similar. This is a list of attributes required
for the role, and in your statement you will need to show that you meet all of the essential
criteria, as well as any desirable criteria as well. This method of applying is very common in
some sectors, especially Healthcare, Education and Charities.
Here is an example of a Person Specication
Attribute Essential Desirable How Assessed
Education
A degree in any subject • Application,
Certicates
Experience
Experience communicating with
the public
• Application,
Interview
Successfully organising a project
from start to nish
• Application,
Interview
Using databases • Application
Experience in a similar role in the
past
• Application,
Interview
Skills
Strong interpersonal skills • Application,
Interview
Ability to work in a team • Application,
Interview
Ability to remain organised under
pressure
• Application,
Interview
Creative problem
solving and initiative
• Application,
Interview
What is the employer looking for?
The great thing about this method of application is that you can easily see what would make
the employer•s perfect candidate. When you submit your application, the statement will
be more important than any other parts of the form that you ll in, such as details of your
employment history. The statement will be read against the Person Specication and a score
will be given for each of the separate criteria and then added up. The applicants with the
highest totals will then be shortlisted for interview.
How should I approach writing my statement?
A very important consideration for your
statement is the structure. It makes most
sense to cover each point of the Person
Specication in the same order that it has
been listed by the employer.
You can even use the same headings that
they have to section out your statement,
such as Education, Experience, Skills, or use
each criterion as mini headings within the
text. The benet of this is that it is incredibly
easy for the employer to follow and mark
what you have written. In most cases, this is
the best way to structure your statement.
Sometimes however, this isn•t the best
choice if the Person Specication has some
similar points that you want to use the
same piece of evidence for or if you have a
very small word count. For instance, in our
example, you may think it would be sensible
to group •Experience working with the
public• with •Strong interpersonal skills•. To
do this successfully you need to make sure
that you include pointer sentences at the
start or end of paragraphs. This allows the
reader to easily spot that you are meeting
more than one requirement with one
example. Here is an example of a pointer
sentence• •As well as demonstrating that I
have two years• experience working with the
public, this also shows how I developed my
strong interpersonal skills•.
Do not be afraid to use the same language
as the employer in your statement. Using the
same phrase to start a sentence as they have
used in the Person Specication will make
it easier for the employer to spot that you
are writing about something relevant. For
instance, •I have a strong ability to work in a
team, which I have developed through...•
As well as using their terminology, make
sure your language remains positive in the
statement. Avoid phrases like •I believe•, •I
had to• or •I was required to•.
The length will depend on the employer
and the number of criteria in the job
specication. Some employers, like the
NHS, have a word limit that you will need
to work to. For the NHS this limit is 1500
words. Many other employers will not give a
word limit. When this is the case you need to
balance properly covering all of the criteria
against not writing too much.
A good check is to ensure that you only ever
give one example for each of the criteria. If
you have a lot to offer, a summary sentence
can help, such as• •I have worked in a team
on university projects and in my part
time role in a coffee shop, however, most
recently I have worked in a team of ve in
my Secretary role for my University Student
Society. In this team•.•
How we can help
Our professionally qualied Careers Advisers
have lots of experience of checking personal
statements. You can book an appointment
online or if you do not live nearby you can
send us your application online and we will
be able to offer advice on your statement in
writing. Visit• careers.hud.ac.uk
Your examples from work experience,
volunteering, extra•curricular activities,
internships, placement years and university
will of course be the bulk of what you write
about in your statement.
Think carefully about which examples you
choose• you want them to be most relevant
to the tasks you would be responsible for in
the job you are applying for.
•My current role as staff nurse on
the acute stroke unit has a strong
multidisciplinary approach as many
of the patients have very complex
care needs following their stroke. I
work closely with the medical team,
physiotherapists, occupational
therapists, speech and language
therapists and dieticians to ensure
patient care is co•ordinated and
all the care needs of patients are
fullled. I ensure that I have thorough
knowledge of the patients so that I
am able to contribute to decision•
making regarding in•patient care
and discharge planning at the weekly
multidisciplinary meetings. I strongly
believe that effective multidisciplinary
working is vital in providing holistic
care as no one profession can meet all
the care needs of a patient and their
family alone.•
Here is an example taken from an
application for a nursing position.
Example attribute: ‘Experience of
multi-disciplinary team working’
When writing about your
examples ask yourself:
• Does this allow the employer to
picture me working in a similar way
to this new job?
• Have I included information on
positive results or learning points
from what I have done?
• Can the reader see how I have done
something, rather than just that I
have done something?
• Could I include more numbers in
here, such as efciencies, prots,
audience size, number of people
seen, timescales and so on?
This publication is also available online – should you
like to have it in an alternative format please contact us.
Careers and Employability Service
W: hud.ac.uk•careers E: [email protected] T: 01484 472124
/Hudunicareers
@HudUniCareers
