APS Pitch CheckerAPS6 pitch guide (300 words)
Short answer: For a 300-word APS6 pitch, use one example of about 234 words each, between a roughly 36-word opening and a 30-word close. The panel wants judgement where there was no obvious answer, stakeholder management and clear written advice.
What APS6 panels expect
An APS6 role involves complex work with limited supervision, often across teams or organisations. The panel wants judgement where there was no obvious answer, stakeholder management and clear written advice.
- Managing projects or complex matters with limited supervision
- Building and maintaining relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders
- Providing considered written and verbal advice, including on risk
- Supervising, mentoring or quality-assuring others' work
Structure and word budget for 300 words
300 words is tight: one strong example plus a two-sentence opening and a one-sentence close. Pick the example that covers the most criteria.
| Part | Words | What goes here |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | 36 | Name the APS6 role, your current role and what your examples will show. |
| Example 1: Advising on a project in trouble | 234 | S ~23 · T ~23 · A ~140 · R ~47 |
| Closing | 30 | Link your evidence to this APS6 role in one or two sentences. |
Check a 300-word draft in the free checker
What to emphasise at APS6
- Judgement: options you weighed and why you chose one
- Stakeholders with different interests and how you brought them along
- Written advice that informed a decision by someone senior
- Supervising or developing others, if you have done it
What to avoid
- Examples where the complexity isn't explained: say what made it hard
- Lists of stakeholders without what you did with them
- APS5-style examples that only show efficient delivery
Verbs that suit APS6 (only if accurate): managed, negotiated, advised, evaluated, led (a project), mentored, resolved.
Coming from outside the APS? Senior project, policy, consulting or professional roles (e.g. a senior nurse, engineer or account manager) often give APS6-level judgement examples.
Fictional example outline: Senior Policy Officer (APS6)
An outline, not a script. The scenarios are invented. Use them to see what APS6-level evidence looks like, then write about your own experience.
Example 1: Advising on a project in trouble
- Situation: A delivery partner couldn't deliver a funded project after a natural disaster.
- Task: Advise the director before an executive meeting the next day.
- Action: Gathered facts from the partner; checked the agreement's options; consulted legal and finance; wrote a brief with risks and a clear recommendation; flagged the key uncertainty.
- Result: Brief went forward unchanged; the recommended extension was approved.
Related guides
- APS6 · 500 words pitch guide
- APS6 · 750 words pitch guide
- APS6 · 1000 words pitch guide
- APS5 · 300 words pitch guide
- EL1 · 300 words pitch guide
- Writing to 500, 750 and 1000 words
- APS capabilities in plain English
Free download: a worked APS5 pitch (PDF)
A complete 500-word fictional APS5 pitch with notes on why each paragraph works, plus a one-page STAR planner. Email is optional. You can download it straight away either way.
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