APS 4 selection criteria examples
What an APS 4 does according to the APSC’s work level standards, what panels look for in your examples, and three full responses pitched at APS 4. Each one shows the three things that mark the level: organising your own work, judgement within the rules, and helping others.
Updated October 2026. Sources are listed at the end.
What APS 4 means in practice
The APSC’s work level standards describe an APS 4 as doing tasks of moderate complexity under general direction. You’re accountable for organising your own workflow and making decisions within defined parameters, and you may use some discretion in how legislation, procedures and guidelines are interpreted and applied. The standard also mentions research and analysis, a public contact role, and in some jobs supervising a small team, including coaching and training newer members.
The APSC’s Cracking the code guide groups APS 3 and 4 as general administrative, technical, project, public contact and service positions. So an APS 4 job is usually about doing the work itself, well and with less checking, and being the person newer colleagues come to.
- Decisions with some autonomy in your own area, where the impact on agency operations and resources is limited.
- Resolving moderately complex enquiries and representing your work area at internal and external meetings.
- Accountability for finishing allocated tasks, organising workflow, reviewing work and developing less experienced staff.
- Identifying and reducing risks to your own and your team’s work, and suggesting more efficient processes.
What panels look for at APS 4
Panels judge whether your examples sit at the level of the job. The APSC’s advice to applicants is to choose examples that best relate to the duties and level of the job, and its guidance to agencies says panel members are generally at the level of the vacancy or one above, so they know what an APS 4 does day to day.
- Working without being chased: you planned your own work, chose the order and raised problems early.
- Judgement inside the rules: you applied a guideline to a case that didn’t fit neatly, and knew when to ask.
- Helping others: you showed a new starter how to do the work, or checked their work and gave feedback.
- Small improvements you made yourself, with a before-and-after number.
APS 3 versus APS 4: the same skill, one level apart
The APSC’s Integrated Leadership System (ILS) guide for APS 1–6 sets out the behaviours expected at each level. It is cumulative: what’s expected at one level becomes the floor for the next. At APS 4 it expects you to draw on information from multiple sources, think laterally and implement improved work practices, make effective use of individual and team capabilities, and set up simple project plans with measurable milestones. Here is how that changes a sentence in your application:
- Problem solving. APS 3: “I noticed the forms were often incomplete and told my supervisor.” APS 4: “I worked out why the forms were incomplete, changed the checklist, and incomplete forms halved.”
- Planning. APS 3: “I kept a task list to meet my deadlines.” APS 4: “I set up a simple plan with weekly milestones for the team’s end-of-year mail-out and tracked it.”
- Using people. APS 3: “I made good use of my own skills.” APS 4: “I matched cases to each team member’s experience so the queue moved faster.”
Format: pitch, criteria or questions
The information pack decides the format. The APSC says agencies may ask you to address each criterion separately, write one general statement of claims, or answer set questions, and that many now want only a CV and a one or two page document on how your skills and experience fit the job. Word and page limits are set for each job, so check before you write.
Whatever the format, the APSC suggests using only one or two of your strongest examples for each criterion, and not repeating what’s already in your CV. A pitch that lists duties tells the panel what your job was; an example tells them how well you did it.
Criteria you’ll see
- Organises own workload under general direction and meets deadlines. Shows you plan and prioritise without close supervision, and raise problems early.
- Applies legislation, guidelines and procedures with sound judgement. Asks for a case where you interpreted a rule, not just followed it, and knew when to escalate.
- Resolves moderately complex enquiries from clients and stakeholders. Listening, explaining rights and obligations, and reaching a resolution.
- Contributes to a positive team environment and helps develop newer team members. Coaching, checking work and sharing what you know, without needing a supervisor title.
- Undertakes research and analysis and reports on findings. Gathering information from several sources and drawing an accurate conclusion.
- Identifies opportunities to improve work practices. A change you suggested or made yourself, ideally with a measurable effect.
- Displays personal drive and integrity. An ILS heading: taking responsibility for accurate work, showing initiative and owning mistakes.
3 selection criteria examples
Made-up applicants, employers and numbers, to show the shape of a strong response. Yours should use your own experience.
Organises own workload under general direction and meets deadlines
I organise my own workload with little supervision as a grants processing officer at the Department of Coastal Industries, where I assess small business grant applications against published guidelines.
When the 2025 round closed, 410 applications arrived in the final week, and our service standard was an eligibility decision for every applicant within 20 business days. My supervisor gave me the regional queue of 140 applications and asked me to come to her only with cases I couldn’t decide. On the first morning I sorted all 140 into three groups: complete and clearly eligible, missing documents, and likely to need a policy decision. I emailed every applicant with missing documents that day, so their 10-day window to respond started straight away, and processed the complete applications in batches of 15. I kept a one-page tracker with each case’s status and due date. In the second week, when a colleague went on leave, I took on 25 of her cases, added them to the tracker and reordered my week so the oldest cases came first. Every Friday I sent my supervisor a short update listing the cases that needed her decision, with the guideline clause and my recommendation for each.
All 165 of my cases had a decision within the service standard, with three days to spare, and only six needed my supervisor’s decision. She adopted the three-group sort for the whole team in the next round.
- It shows “general direction” in action: the supervisor set the goal and the applicant planned everything else.
- Escalating only six cases, each with a recommendation, shows judgement about what needs a higher level.
- The result is measured against a real service standard, and the method spread to the team.
Contributes to a positive team environment and helps develop newer team members
I enjoy helping new colleagues get up to speed, and in two years as a compliance officer at the National Product Standards Office I have become the person new starters are sent to.
In early 2025 our team of nine took on two new officers just as our senior officer moved to a project. My team leader asked me to help settle them in alongside my own caseload. I put together six practice cases from closed files, with names removed, covering the mistakes I had seen most often, and worked through one with each of them every second day. For their first live cases I sat in on their calls with businesses and gave them two or three points of feedback straight after, rather than saving it up. I checked their first 30 decision letters each against our template and kept a short log of errors, so I could see which topics needed another session. When the log showed both were unsure about penalty notices, I asked a senior officer to run a 30-minute session for the whole team.
Both officers were signed off to work independently after five weeks, against the usual eight, and errors in their letters fell from about one in four to fewer than one in twenty. I kept my own caseload on track throughout.
- It matches the APS 4 standard of coaching and training newer team members, without claiming to manage them.
- Four concrete methods (practice cases, sitting in, prompt feedback, an error log) prove the claim.
- Asking a senior officer to run a session shows the applicant knows the limits of their own role.
- The last line answers the panel’s obvious question: did your own work suffer?
Applies legislation, guidelines and procedures with sound judgement
In my role as a permits officer at the Department of Primary Exports I assess about 25 import permit applications a week against the import conditions and our operational guidelines, and I decide straightforward cases on my own.
In 2025 a university applied to import research seed samples from a country whose import conditions had changed the month before. The application met the old conditions but not the new ones, and the samples had already been shipped. Refusing would have meant the seeds were destroyed at the border; approving as submitted would have breached the new conditions. I read the revised conditions and their explanatory note, and found the change allowed an alternative: approval if the samples went straight to an approved quarantine facility. I searched our records for earlier decisions under the same clause and found two, then rang the applicant to confirm they could use an approved facility. Because there was no clear precedent for samples already in transit, I wrote a half-page note setting out the clause, the two earlier decisions and my recommendation, and took it to my team leader before deciding, as our procedure requires for anything new.
My team leader agreed with my recommendation and the samples were cleared within the week. My note was added to our guidance, and the next four similar applications were decided on the same basis without needing to be escalated.
- It shows the APS 4 balance: some discretion in applying the rules, within defined limits.
- The applicant does the research before escalating, and escalates with a recommendation rather than a question.
- The result goes beyond one case: the note became guidance for the team.
Mistakes to avoid
- Listing duties (“responsible for processing applications”) instead of one example of how you did them and what changed.
- Pitching too low: examples where you only followed instructions, with no judgement or improvement of your own.
- Pitching too high: claiming to have “set strategy” in a role that didn’t. Panels sit at or above the level and notice.
- Leaving out other people. If the job mentions coaching or supervising, at least one example should show you helping or checking others’ work.
- Writing responses to each criterion when the pack asked for a pitch, or going over the word limit.
- Repeating the job description’s adjectives without proof. “Sound judgement” means nothing without a case that shows it.
Check or draft your own response
Paste your response to see which parts of the criterion it proves, or paste rough notes for a draft built only from your own facts. Free, no account.
Questions
What does APS 4 mean?
APS 4 is one of the six APS classification levels below the Executive Levels. The APSC’s work level standards describe it as moderately complex work under general direction, with accountability for organising your own workflow and making decisions within defined parameters. Cracking the code groups APS 3 and 4 as general administrative, technical, project, public contact and service positions.
Is APS 4 a supervisor role?
Sometimes. The work level standard says APS 4 work may involve supervising a small team and coaching newer members, but many APS 4 roles have no direct reports. The job description will tell you; if it mentions supervision, include an example of guiding or checking others’ work.
Can I apply for an APS 4 job with a degree but no work experience?
Yes. The APSC says the APS 3–4 level may suit people with a degree and no work experience, and that nothing stops you applying at any level you’re suited to. Use examples from study, part-time work and volunteering that show the same things: planning your own work, judgement and helping others.
What is an APS 3–4 broadband?
Some agencies advertise jobs across two levels, such as APS 3–4. The APSC explains that a broadband makes it easier to move from the lower level to the higher one, as long as higher-level work is available and you have the skills and are performing well. If you want to be considered at APS 4, pitch your examples there.
How long should an APS 4 pitch be?
There’s no standard length: each job sets its own limit in the information pack, usually as a number of words or pages. The APSC’s advice is to stick to the limit, avoid repeating your CV, and use only one or two of your strongest examples.
Do APS 4 selection criteria use the ILS?
Many APS job ads borrow headings from the Integrated Leadership System, such as “achieves results” or “communicates with influence”. The APSC’s ILS guide for APS 1–6 describes the behaviours expected at each level, so read the APS 4 column before you write. Agencies can also add their own capabilities, so the job’s information pack comes first.
Sources
- Australian Public Service Commission: Work level standards, APS Level and Executive Level classifications
- Australian Public Service Commission: ILS, a guide to the Integrated Leadership System for APS 1–6 employees
- Australian Public Service Commission: Cracking the code, 2. About jobs in the APS
- Australian Public Service Commission: Cracking the code, 3. Applying for an APS job
- Australian Public Service Commission: Cracking the code, 8. Frequently asked questions
- Australian Public Service Commission: Factsheet, roles and responsibilities on selection panels
General guidance. Always follow what the job ad or information pack asks for.