Desk notes
Desk notes
Short essays from the reading desk: how written applications fail, how criteria hold, and how a panel can stay fair under time pressure.
How many criteria a statement can honestly carry
Nine overlapping criteria do not buy more fairness. They buy repetition, exhausted candidates, and a panel that stops distinguishing marks.
When the award classification and the advertisement disagree
If the award level says one kind of work and the advertisement sells another, applications scatter — and scores become arguments.
A cover letter that restates the CV twice
Cover letters rarely rescue a statement that never meets the criteria. They can, however, waste a panel’s first ten minutes.
The criteria you published are the only fair ruler
Private firms sometimes treat key selection criteria as a public-sector habit. They remain the only ruler candidates were invited to answer.
Twenty applications is a morning; sixty is a different job
A panel can read a modest field with care. Past a certain size, fatigue replaces judgement — and the shortlist starts to reward whoever was opened first.