Jobs
Colleagues seating in the coffee shop

Understanding our application process 

At the university, we utilise two types of application forms. For most of our jobs, we use criteria-based (standard) application but there are some roles such as research and teaching where we utilise the CV-based application form.  

 

Criteria-based application 

It allows the hiring manager to collect information in a structured way seeking examples that allow you to demonstrate your skills, competencies and experience for the role. 

When applying for a job with questions on the application, you will be asked to answer questions designed to understand when you have demonstrated the skills, knowledge and experience required. Ensure you provide specific examples to support your answers. We recommend structuring your answers using the following technique to ensure the selection panel has all the information they need to make a shortlisting decision. 

The STARR technique 
Think about the question/criteria/competency/requirement you are evidencing and share an example to demonstrate how you meet it.  

  • Situation - Explain the situation in which the action took place 
  • Task - Describe the task
  • Action - Detail the actions you took to address the task 
  • Result - What happened as a result of your action? Were there any measurable outcomes? What did you learn from the experience? 
  • Reflection-  Highlight what you learned, whether you would do something differently next time, and why? What did you learn from the experience?

For example;  

On the criteria-based application, you are asked to give evidence of your customer service skills.  
Think about a situation where you demonstrated your customer service skills, for example: communication, planning and organising and problem solving.  
What was the situation? What were you asked to do? Use this to explain the task. 
What action did you take to support the customer and how did you go about this? Think about the skills you have used and the actions you took to help the customer and highlight those within your response. 
What was the result (outcome) of your action? Was it successful and why? Was the outcome successful because of the action you decided to take?  
Did you learn anything which would mean you would have done something different next time? 

 

 

Remember, if you don’t have direct experience for the role or this is your first job you can give examples from education or other roles of responsibility that you have held outside of work. By highlighting transferable skills in your answers, you will help us to see the potential that you have to perform in the role.
 

 

CV-based application

This application type often applies to our research and teaching roles, where a CV and other supporting documents such as a publication list and a supporting statement/cover letter are required.  

When making a CV-based application, make sure you tailor your CV to reflect the role requirements, providing details of how you meet the skills and experience asked for in the role profile. The role profile is provided via the link at the bottom of the advert page.  


Key things to include in your CV:

Opening Statement: Summarise your expertise, experience and career goals. Make sure to summarise why this role is a good match for you and your motivation for applying. You may want to highlight your key strengths, such as creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork.

Key Achievements: Highlight achievements that demonstrate your experience and skills relevant to the role you are applying for. Examples include, but are not limited to, leading or contributing to successful projects or process implementations.

Career History: Focus on the last 5-10 years, as they are likely to be the most relevant. Ensure you cover relevant experience. For each position, include job title, company name, location, and dates of employment. Use bullet points to describe responsibilities and achievements.

Qualifications: Make your highest and most relevant qualifications the most visible. Include any other formal training relevant to the role.

Professional Memberships: List any professional memberships you hold.

Publications: For academic (research and teaching) roles, include your publication list if you have one.

 

 

In all cases we remove access to the sensitive application data for the hiring manager and selection panel (age, religion, sexual orientation, sex, disability, nationality, ethnic origin). We also use anonymous shortlisting for many roles, which means the panel will also not have sight of information such as your:  

  • Name 
  • Address 
  • Name of educational institution and year obtained 
  • In employment section reason for leaving/change the role 


This allows the selection panel to focus solely on the evidence you have provided in relation to your knowledge, skills and experience for the role. 

The ‘sensitive data’ provided in your application is only visible to our HR Team. We ask that you do not reference any protected characteristic or share personal information in your criteria-based answers or supporting statement. You can find more information about protected characteristics on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion website. 

We ask that you do not share personal information that references your protected characteristics in your CV, unless it is directly relevant to the skills, knowledge, experience or qualifications required for the role and detailed in the person specification. We are taking this approach so applicants can't be individually identified from their application information ahead of shortlisting and to ensure our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible.

The ‘sensitive data’ provided in your application is only visible to our HR Team and used for monitoring and reporting and, where relevant, to ensure we meet our Disability Confident commitments. We ask that you do not share personal information that references your protected characteristics in your CV, unless it is directly relevant to the skills, knowledge, experience or qualifications required for the role and detailed in the person specification. We are taking this approach so applicants can't be individually identified from their application information ahead of shortlisting and to ensure our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible.

 

Disability Confident Scheme

The University of Nottingham is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2) employer. Increasing the diversity of our employee community is extremely important to us and we are committed to the aims of Disability Confident Scheme. 

We: 

  • ensure that our recruitment processes are inclusive and accessible 
  • communicate our vacancies through a range of different channels 
  • offer an interview to candidates with a disability who meet the minimum requirements of the role (as detailed within the role profile) 
  • provide reasonable adjustments  
  • provide support to existing employees who acquire a disability or a long-term health condition 

As part of our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme, we ask all candidates whether they wish to be considered under this scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for the role. Opting into the scheme allows candidates to disclose a disability solely for the purpose of securing an interview guarantee. We will not assume or interpret this as a broader disclosure or a request to record a disability in any other context.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend the interview or complete any assessments as part of the selection process, please inform us as soon as possible.

 

 

 

OSZAR »