APS Pitch CheckerAPS6 pitch guide (750 words)
Short answer: For a 750-word APS6 pitch, use 2 examples of about 307 words each, between a roughly 75-word opening and a 61-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 750 words
750 words fits two deeper examples (or three shorter ones if the criteria don't overlap). Spend the extra words on actions and reasoning.
| Part | Words | What goes here |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | 75 | Name the APS6 role, your current role and what your examples will show. |
| Example 1: Negotiating with a resistant stakeholder | 307 | S ~31 · T ~31 · A ~184 · R ~61 |
| Example 2: Evaluating a pilot program | 307 | S ~31 · T ~31 · A ~184 · R ~61 |
| Closing | 61 | Link your evidence to this APS6 role in one or two sentences. |
Check a 750-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 Adviser (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: Negotiating with a resistant stakeholder
- Situation: A peak body opposed a proposed regulatory change.
- Task: Find a workable position before public consultation.
- Action: Met their CEO to understand concerns; analysed their data against ours; identified two areas of genuine risk; proposed amendments; briefed my director on trade-offs.
- Result: The peak body publicly supported the amended proposal; consultation ran without escalation.
Example 2: Evaluating a pilot program
- Situation: A pilot was ending and a decision on expansion was due.
- Task: Design and deliver an evaluation in three months.
- Action: Developed an evaluation framework; combined program data with interviews; managed a contractor for surveys; tested findings with the program team; wrote the evaluation report and a decision brief.
- Result: The executive used the report to expand the program with two design changes I recommended.
Related guides
- APS6 · 300 words pitch guide
- APS6 · 500 words pitch guide
- APS6 · 1000 words pitch guide
- APS5 · 750 words pitch guide
- EL1 · 750 words pitch guide
- Writing to 500, 750 and 1000 words
- APS capabilities in plain English
Free download: a worked APS5 pitch (PDF)
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