Selection criteria · Cover letters · STAR method
How to Use the STAR Method in Selection Criteria and Cover Letters
A practical primer on the STAR method — Situation, Task, Action, Result — and how to apply it inside selection criteria responses, cover letters, and any short-form written application where you need to evidence capability through specific examples.
In thirty seconds
- STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. It's the structure panels and recruiters use to score behavioural responses — and it's the structure your selection criteria responses and cover letters should be built around.
- The proportions matter as much as the format. Roughly 10% Situation, 10% Task, 60% Action, 20% Result. Spending too much on Situation is the single most common reason STAR responses fail to score.
- Before you write anything, read the role pack carefully — word counts, page limits, formatting requirements, submission instructions. The candidates who follow the brief get read; the ones who don't get filtered before the panel sees them.
- STAR works in cover letters too. The structure is the same; the proportions shift slightly because cover letters lead with framing rather than diving straight into examples.
- Below: a worked STAR response built piece by piece, the most common mistakes that cost candidates marks, and a 2026 note on AI screening that has changed how STAR responses are read.
In this article
Why STAR works
An application is meant to give recruiters and panels insight into your behaviour in the workplace. Not your aspirations, not your training, not what you'd like to do — your actual behaviour, evidenced through specific things you have done. The best way to give them that evidence is through worked examples, structured the way humans naturally tell stories about real events.
That's all STAR is. It's a four-part structure for a story about something you did: the context, what was being asked of you, the specific actions you took, and what happened as a result. Decades of organisational psychology research have confirmed that structured behavioural assessment outperforms unstructured assessment for predicting future job performance — which is why every well-run recruitment process, public sector or private, asks for behavioural evidence in this format.
Two related formats sit alongside it: situational questions ("what would you do if...") and job knowledge questions ("describe how X works"). STAR specifically applies to behavioural questions about your past experience. It's the workhorse of selection criteria responses and capability-based cover letters. Get it right and the rest of the application becomes easier.
Read the fine print first
Before you write a single word, read the role pack carefully. Most application failures happen at the brief, not at the writing. The role pack will tell you most of what you need to know — and the candidates who follow the brief get read. The ones who don't get filtered before the panel sees them.
Pre-flight checklist
Things to look for in the role pack
- Word count and page limit. Some agencies are explicit ("400 words per criterion"); others give a page limit ("two-page pitch in 11pt Arial"); others give nothing and you'll need to use judgement.
- Format requirements. Margins, font, font size, line spacing. Some panels score format compliance.
- Whether documents go in one file or separate files. Often the resume and pitch are uploaded separately even when they're part of the same application.
- Whether responses are uploaded as a single document or as separate text fields. This changes how you structure the prose.
- How many referees are required, and at what stage. Some processes need referees with the application; others only at offer.
- Submission deadline and time zone. APS deadlines are usually 11:59pm in a specific city's time zone — not your local time.
- Contact officer details. Worth a phone call before you write — they often share useful framing for the role.
For most federal government jobs, the requirement now is a one- or two-page pitch rather than individual responses to each criterion. Length varies considerably by department: 400-1500 words is the typical range, with Defence often asking for 1000 words and Home Affairs typically asking for one page in 11pt Arial. The pitch addresses the role's capabilities and selection criteria together, woven into a coherent narrative — closer to a structured cover letter than a list of separate responses. We've documented the pitch format in detail in how to write a two-page pitch for APS roles.
In the absence of clear directions, default to STAR responses, use sensible judgement on length (around 250-400 words per criterion), and call the contact officer if anything is genuinely ambiguous.
Choosing your examples
Look at each capability or selection criterion in the role pack. For each, identify a real, specific situation where you demonstrated that capability. Not a generalisation ("I regularly manage projects"). A specific event. The most complex project you've delivered. The most contested stakeholder negotiation you've handled. The hardest piece of policy work you've drafted.
The strongest examples meet three tests:
- Specific. A particular project, at a particular time, with a particular set of constraints — not a pattern.
- Recent. Ideally from the last five years. Older examples are red flags to senior recruiters; they suggest either lack of recent senior experience or examples that haven't held up.
- Multi-capability. Each example should evidence more than one criterion. A change-management story might also demonstrate stakeholder management, written communication, and leadership. That's how you fit four examples into a five-criterion pitch.
Have a look at all the criteria, identify candidate examples for each, then check coverage — every criterion should be evidenced by at least one example, ideally with at least one example contributing to multiple criteria.
The four parts of STAR
Once you've selected your examples, the structure is the same for each. Four parts, with deliberate proportions.
Situation
≈ 10% of word count
Briefly explain the context: where you were working, the broader environment, and why this work mattered. Two to three sentences maximum. Resist the temptation to over-explain — panels know what a workplace looks like.
Example"In my role as Senior Officer with a federal regulatory agency, I led project work spanning IT, business improvement, and policy implementation."
Task
≈ 10% of word count
The specific task or challenge you were responsible for. One sentence is usually enough. The reader needs to know what was being asked of you so the Action makes sense — but the Action is what scores.
Example"As one example, I led the implementation of a new customer relationship management system across the agency."
Action
≈ 60% of word count
The specific actions you took. This is where the response scores. Use first-person verbs ("I conducted," "I developed," "I negotiated"). Show decisions you made, not just tasks you completed. Layer multiple capabilities — project work usually demonstrates communication, stakeholder management, and judgement alongside technical delivery.
Example fragment"I conducted independent research, developed a business case for senior management comparing options against minimum specifications, and made the recommendation to implement..."
Result
≈ 20% of word count
What happened. Quantify where possible — time saved, money saved, outcomes delivered, scale of impact. Where outcomes can't be quantified, name the qualitative outcome (a piece of work being adopted, a relationship being repaired, a policy being endorsed).
Example"The system was implemented on time and approximately 8% under budget, with 96% of staff trained and self-sufficient on the new platform within six weeks of rollout."
The Action is where the response scores. Spending two-thirds of your word count on Situation and Task is the single most common reason STAR responses fail.
A worked example, fully assembled
Below is the same example pieced together as a complete STAR response to a project-management capability. Around 250 words — appropriate for a single criterion in a 1000-1500 word pitch, or for a standalone selection criterion response.
Full STAR response — project management capability
Approximately 250 words
I managed a range of projects in my role as Senior Officer with a federal regulatory agency, spanning IT, business improvement, and policy implementation. (Situation)
One particular example was leading the implementation of a new customer relationship management system across the agency, replacing a fragmented set of legacy tools. (Task)
I conducted independent research and analysed organisational requirements to identify appropriate solutions. I developed a business case for senior management which compared three vendor options against minimum specifications and total cost of ownership over five years. The board endorsed the recommendation, and I then developed detailed project documentation in consultation with the customer relationship management team. I established and negotiated deadlines, milestones, budgets and key dependencies, which gave me visibility over project risk throughout. I worked with the vendor to design the customised user interface and modules, and worked with senior managers to test system performance against specification before rollout. Once the system was designed, I developed and delivered a suite of training materials, technical documentation, and standard operating procedures to support implementation. (Action)
The system was successfully implemented and met organisational requirements; staff were trained appropriately; and the project was delivered on time and approximately 8% under budget through careful planning and risk monitoring. The CRM is now used as the agency's primary customer-management platform across three divisions. (Result)
Notice what this response does. The Situation establishes context in one sentence. The Task is one sentence. The Action takes the bulk of the response and demonstrates not only project management but research, business-case development, stakeholder engagement, vendor negotiation, training delivery, and documentation. A single example, layered across capabilities — exactly what selection panels score well.
STAR inside cover letters
STAR works in cover letters too — but the proportions and structure shift slightly because a cover letter has more framing work to do than a standalone selection criteria response.
A capability-based cover letter typically runs 400-700 words and contains:
- An opening (~15%) — a paragraph stating the role you're applying for, your headline suitability, and the two or three capabilities the rest of the letter will evidence. Cover letters are read in the first ten seconds; this opening has to do real work.
- Two or three short STAR examples (~70%) — typically 100-150 words each. Tighter than a standalone selection criteria response, with the same proportions internally (Situation and Task brief, Action dominant, Result quantified).
- A close (~15%) — reiterating fit, naming track record at the relevant level, and signalling availability for interview.
The hardest part of STAR-in-cover-letter is keeping the Action prominent inside a tighter word count. The discipline is the same — show what you did, what you decided, what you delivered — but compressed. One-sentence Situation. One-sentence Task. Three or four sentences of specific Action. One sentence of quantified Result. That's a STAR example in a cover letter.
A note on the difference between cover letters and pitches
In federal government recruitment, the term "cover letter" has largely been replaced by "pitch" or "suitability statement" — different name, same structure. A pitch is a capability-based cover letter, written specifically to address the role's selection criteria. The advice in this article applies to both. For more on the longer pitch format, see how to write a two-page pitch for APS roles.
Common STAR mistakes
The patterns we see most often when reviewing client drafts. Each is fixable.
All Situation, no Action
The pattern: three paragraphs of context-setting, one paragraph of what you actually did, one sentence of result. Reads as well-informed about the workplace but tells the panel nothing about you. The fix: S 10%, T 10%, A 60%, R 20%. If the proportions are off, cut Situation and Task ruthlessly until they are.
Generalisations instead of specific events
The pattern: "I regularly manage projects involving multiple stakeholders." This isn't a STAR response — it's a description of a job. Panels can't score it because there's nothing specific to score. The fix: pick one specific project. Name it (or anonymise it specifically — "a national customer-management implementation"). Tell the story of that one event, not the pattern across many.
"We" instead of "I"
The pattern: "We delivered the project on time. We engaged stakeholders. We developed the business case." The panel is scoring you, not your team. They can't tell which "we" actions were yours. The fix: use first-person verbs throughout the Action — "I led," "I developed," "I negotiated." Use "we" only where it accurately describes a collaborative element you contributed to within a larger personal contribution.
No quantified Result
The pattern: "The project was successful and stakeholders were satisfied." This is the equivalent of "we did some stuff and it went OK." It doesn't score because it doesn't differentiate. The fix: quantify where you can — time, money, scale, percentage improvement, count of people affected. Where you genuinely can't quantify, name the specific qualitative outcome — "the policy was endorsed by the Executive Board," "the framework was adopted as the agency's standard methodology."
Old examples
The pattern: the strongest example in the pitch is from 2017. Recruiters notice. It signals either a lack of recent senior experience or an example that hasn't held up. The fix: use examples from the last five years where possible. Where an older example is genuinely necessary, frame it ("earlier in my career...") rather than positioning it as recent.
One example per criterion, no overlap
The pattern: the candidate writes a separate example for each of five selection criteria, ending up with five examples that each score one criterion. The fix: find two or three examples that each evidence multiple criteria. A change-management story can score project management, stakeholder engagement, leadership, and communication simultaneously. That's how senior-grade pitches work — fewer examples, deeper evidence.
2026: AI on both sides
STAR isn't new — what's new is the screening environment around it. AI is now used on both sides of most recruitment processes. Candidates use AI to draft applications. Recruiters use AI or automated keyword-matching to filter the resulting pile down to a manageable shortlist. Both changes affect how STAR responses get read.
On the candidate side, AI tends to produce STAR responses that are structurally correct but generic. The proportions are right. The verbs are first-person. The format is clean. But the specifics — the particular project, the actual decisions, the real stakes, the texture of how it actually happened — are missing. Around 49% of AI-drafted resumes are dismissed in the first round of screening, according to a 2025 study of 3,000 hiring managers. The same pattern applies to selection criteria responses.
On the recruiter side, AI screening rewards exact-keyword matches. Candidates who reframe selection criteria into more direct language — which is what a senior writer would do — sometimes get penalised by the screening layer.
The fix for both is the same: specificity. Write STAR responses with the names, numbers, contexts and decisions that AI couldn't have made up. The candidate-screening AI rewards it because it matches keywords from the role pack; the human panel rewards it because it sounds like a real person describing a real event. Specific beats polished, every time. We've written more about this in our guide to editing AI output for human readers.
Edit, review, submit
Once you've drafted your responses, run them through a structured edit:
- Read each response aloud. Anything that catches your tongue catches the recruiter's eye too. Reword it.
- Check the proportions. If Situation and Task together exceed 25% of the response, cut. The Action is where the response scores.
- Check the verbs. Every Action sentence should start with "I" plus a strong verb. "I led," "I developed," "I negotiated." If the verbs are passive ("was responsible for"), rewrite.
- Check coverage. Every selection criterion should be evidenced. The strongest pitches use two or three examples to cover four or five criteria — not five examples for five criteria.
- Get a second pair of eyes. Someone outside the immediate context will see things you've stopped seeing.
- Re-read the submission instructions before pressing send. Word count, file format, file naming convention, submission portal. Last-minute fixes after the deadline aren't usually accepted.
Carefully follow the role pack's submission directions. Recheck names, phone numbers, contact details. If anything in the role pack is genuinely ambiguous, the contact officer's number is on the ad — they often share useful framing for the role that other candidates won't have.
A closing note
STAR isn't complicated. The structure is the same shape humans use to tell any story about something they did. The discipline is in the proportions — keep Situation and Task brief, give Action the room it needs, quantify the Result — and in choosing examples that are specific enough to score, recent enough to be relevant, and layered enough to evidence multiple capabilities at once.
Get those right and the rest of the application becomes easier. Selection criteria stop feeling like an obstacle. Cover letters stop feeling like creative writing. The panel reads your response, sees the evidence clearly, and gives you the score the work earned.
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