Guide to your future

High school students have always been asking me about the most important things they
should focus on.

I faced the exact same problem when I was a high school student and it took me many years
to really understand how to approach this question. Should I be studying more? Should I get
a job? Should I make the most of my freedom and Netflix all day?

Its only once you graduate and get a taste of the real world that you start to reflect and wish
youd done things differently. Ive been extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to be
exposed to successful young professionals, business owners, industry leaders and other
inspiring students over the last few years. After learning about their journeys following high
school, this was the advice each one of them told me:

Hustle and gather offers for personal development opportunities, whether they are
scholarships, internships, work experience opportunities or any other opportunities that will
help you grow.

These responses are consistent with my industry experience as an assessor for interviews and
applications.

Successful people dont invest in items, they invest in themselves. Applying for and getting
an offer for any one of these opportunities in high school will give you a significant head
start for the challenging years that follow.

If youre a proactive, hardworking and passionate individual, then youre exactly the type of
person that these opportunities are targeting.

However, realistically, your ability to get an offer is entirely based on the quality of your
application. Even though you might be the most deserving student, assessors wont know it
and its imperative on you to communicate your merits to them.

So this is why Ive decided to create this guide. As a successful recipient of multiple
scholarships, internships and grants, these opportunities have had a significant positive
impact on my life and Im going to tell you exactly how you can do the same.

Using these exact frameworks and methodologies in writing applications, I was able to
secure 5 scholarship offers in Year 12 alone, translating to over $50,000 of scholarship
payments per year. Ive also edited multiple applications and I have a 100% success rate.
Thats right - every single student that used these methodologies wrote a successful
application!

Sounds too good to be true? Youll just have to read on to find out for yourself ;)
How to Use This Guide

Throughout this guide, Ive provided 7 principles for you to follow. If you incorporate every
single one of these methodologies into your application, then youre well on your way to
securing that scholarship, internship, grant or work experience opportunity.

My recommendation is that you read this guide prior to writing an application so that you
have the correct foundations. I would suggest comparing each principle against your
completed application to ensure that youve hit each one. The guide also contains a
comprehensive set of exemplar responses from actual successful applicant and I thoroughly
encourage you to closely examine their respective structures and writing styles.

In general, most applications will incorporate two types of questions:

List your education, work experience and extracurricular activities

Open-ended questions

The first category of questions should be very straightforward and theres no special strategy
or methodology to tackle this section. It goes without saying that you need to give concise
and grammatically correct responses which are based on real examples. All you need to do is
just carefully follow the instructions specified in the question. For example, if the question
tells you to use dot point format, please dont be a hero and start writing paragraphs; youll
have plenty of opportunity to differentiate yourself in the open-ended questions.

This guide will be focused on helping you to tackle the second category of open-ended
questions. There are unlimited types of questions which applications can potentially throw at
you. As such, Ive designed these principles to be applicable for a wide range of situations so
that you can use them for every opportunity you apply for.

With all this out of the way, lets get straight to it!

Principle 1: Take a holistic approach

Almost every application you complete will contain more than one question. Each of these
questions are usually designed to focus on different areas of your character (whether they
are areas of strength or areas of weakness) so that assessors are able to get a detailed
picture of you and make a better decision as to whether youre suitable for the opportunity.

A huge mistake made by many applicants is that they approach each question separately.
They simply answer individual questions without thinking about how it fits in with their other
responses. I call this the tunnel-vision approach. This leads to a disjointed application and
in the worst case scenario, you can inadvertently contradict yourself.

Remember, the application is not to understand bits of your personality. They are trying to
understand how you as a whole are suitable for the opportunity. Accordingly, the questions
(and your responses) must be read together from that broader objective.

For example, I was helping one student edit her application and she wrote that she was
passionate about improving the field of education. However, in another question which
asked about her career goals and aspirations, she didnt mention anything to do with
education. If youre passionate about something, then shouldnt your future aspirations
revolve around it? This was a massive contradiction which wouldve been a red flag for
assessors, and is an example of the tunnel-vision approach.

Instead, an applicant that takes a holistic approach writes responses for different questions
which complement each other. They present a consistent, self-reinforcing and air-tight
argument for why they deserve the scholarship/opportunity.

So how exactly do you take a holistic approach?

I do something which I call the big ideas technique. Before I start writing any application, I
will write down 2-3 statements on a piece of paper. These statements represent what you
want assessors to know about you in a single sentence. They are the big ideas that will
guide your entire application and you can think about it like a thesis for an English essay. For
example, when I was applying for a scholarship for a job in the Finance industry, these were
my big ideas:

I want a career in Finance

I have the right work ethic to handle the tough working conditions
I have the right soft skills to thrive in this industry

Once youve written these down, your mindset going forward is that EVERY SINGLE
SENTENCE in your application should support and contribute to one of these big ideas.
Each statement in your applicable is an arrow designed to strike towards the same target(s).

If you employ this mentality, I promise you that your entire application will be smooth and
cohesive even if the individual questions are vastly different.
Principle 2: Its a story about YOU

Everyone always asks me about how to differentiate themselves in an application.

As an assessor of an application, the most important thing is to learn more about you. They
want to be able to understand your motivations and why youre passionate about an issue /
want to work in the industry.

Youre meticulously crafting a personal brand in an application and the only way to do this is
to tell them more about yourself, rather than providing bland generalised statements.

This requires you to dive deep and explain to them the narrative of who you are, why you are
motivated to apply for the opportunity and ultimately why there is an alignment between
you and the opportunity that stands above all other applicants.

It might be hard to immediately grasp what I mean so let me just take you through an
example. Say youre applying for a university scholarship and the application asks you:

Why are you applying for your chosen course?

Lets keep it generic and say youre applying to study for business or commerce. I guarantee
you that most students would write responses that revolve around the following points:

I relish the opportunity to work in professional environments

Business/commerce is challenging and dynamic
I see this as an opportunity to develop a creativity and analytical mindset
I want to develop the theoretical foundations behind the real-world applications

Now these certainly arent terrible points but theyre also far from fantastic. So whats the
issue? These points are too generic (as well as super boring) and it doesnt allow the assessor
to gain a more intimate picture of YOU. Saying that business is challenging and dynamic or
that its a blend of analysis and creativity are just descriptions of the degree. Anyone can
google the official course outline and recite what it says.

So instead of simply writing bland descriptions, you differentiate yourself with personal
anecdotes. Tell a story or give an example of something which happened in your life to peak
your interest/passion in what youre applying for. What assessors really care about is why the
opportunity is relevant to you and why you care about it on a personal level. Dive deep and
then connect the dots of your story to the opportunity at hand.

Have a look at the following examples for exactly how you integrate personal stories or
examples into your application responses:
Exemplar Response 1

Why are you applying for your chosen course?

The field of Commerce stands out as I am deeply passionate about creating positive change
through business. By co-founding the start-up Generation Entrepreneur back in 2016, I
gained a firsthand experience on the power of business/entrepreneurship to improve our
society. As part of my future aspirations to lead or support innovative businesses that can
shape the world, this drives me to expand my business acumen. As such, I perceive a
Commerce degree to be vital for achieving my future endeavours.

Comments

I integrated my example of building a start-up as the defining personal experience

which led me to apply for Commerce.
This example goes to show that your story doesnt need to be super revealing.
Whenever I tell students to communicate through stories in their applications, they
assume that they need to write something emotional and provocative. For most
questions, something simple like what is recorded above is more appropriate and
sufficient.
Exemplar Response 2

Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be

an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - no matter
the scale

Every day as I sit in class, my mind inevitably drifts to the why I am there, contemplating how
any of the lessons will be useful. A Business Studies teacher once told me, Forget what you
know about business in the real world; just memorise the syllabus. This statement stuck with
me as I agonised over what my future would look like if my high school education was useless
for the real world. As I near graduation and the reality of leaving the high school bubble
looms closer, the pressing concern for me is that the education system is no longer able to
prepare students for the jobs of the future.

Taking a higher perspective on this issue, the problem that I would like to resolve is a
significant socio-educational problem which impacts many of the youth of today. The
dilemma is that 50% of jobs that students are training for today will no longer exist in 10
years. With this in mind, it is crucial that students are not being trained for redundant jobs, but
rather are provided with accurate information on career options relevant to their future.
Students should spend time training in industries beneficial to their future and society,
particularly in technological literacy and adaptability, rather than forgetting about the real
world.

Its a problem thats relevant to me, but is also relevant to everyone.

Comments

For this question, most students would have started with the second paragraph and
described the flaws in education. Everyone is good at pointing out problems. Instead,
this applicant started off with her personal story, differentiating herself from everyone
else. This is valuable because it lets the assessor know that she is actually passionate
about the issue. It is only after she has established her own personal connection with
the issue that she moved onto the actual issue to establish that she knows what shes
talking about and the relevancy of the question to her.
The storytelling approach in Exemplar Response 2 is more intimate than what you saw
in Exemplar Response 1. This demonstrates that both responses are equally valid. The
only caveat is that a more personal and intimate story like this is harder to execute in
terms of writing so you need to take care to not make it clichd or unnatural. Part of
making it natural is to tell a narrative that is true to you and which you believe in.
Principle 3: Selling yourself

If it isnt already obvious, you should know that the application is a written sales pitch as to
why you are more deserving of a scholarship or opportunity over the thousands of other
applicants.

Broadly, there are two ways you can pitch yourself:

1. Emotional pitch
2. Logical pitch

Neither of these are mutually exclusive, but it is important to know which to apply and when.

The concept of emotional selling is relatively straightforward. I think the best way to use this
approach is to tell an intimate story as set out in Principle 2. The more personal the story, the
greater the emotional impact. When used in the right situation, this form of selling is
extremely potent and helps differentiate you from other applicants. Yet, this approach is only
appropriate for very specific types of questions and you should use it sparingly. Do it too
much and your application can run the risk of not being sufficiently grounded in hard data,
and accordingly comes across as being too fluffy and lacking substance.

From my personal experience, the bulk of applications and your coinciding sales pitch will
most likely require a logical approach. Even if you decide to use a more emotional approach
because thats how you naturally write, it needs to be framed within a cohesive, logical
argument.

So how exactly do you present an effective logical argument? The answer is simple - provide
specific evidence.

Say that youre looking for a private tutor and two people pop up that charge the same
amount in fees. Tutor A informs you that theyre an awesome and empathetic tutor with an
impeccable and astute knowledge of the subject. Tutor B shows you how they personally
achieved perfect marks and have since taught over 100 students across a range of vastly
different demographics, helping 90% of students achieve A-range marks. Do you hire Tutor
A or Tutor B?

This is not a trick question; the answer is Tutor B and the overwhelming majority of
respondents would select Tutor B. Tutor B is the obvious choice because theyve provided
specific evidence that theyre competent and can add value to your education. It is this
specific evidence which forms the basis of a sound logical argument. For all you know, Tutor
A may have actually been a better tutor but from a sales and personal branding perspective,
they failed to give a convincing, evidence based and logical explanation of why this was the
case. There was a failure to pitch and communicate to the audience in an appropriate
manner.
This seems like a no-brainer but the truth is that a lot of students make this very mistake
when it comes to writing their applications.

A broad statement like Im a fantastic leader without actually providing any evidence adds
no value whatsoever. In reality, most students will be smart enough to actually provide
evidence and write something like Im a fantastic leader as seen from my experience as
school captain. However, this still neglects to tell the assessor a number of critical details:

How are you a good leader?

What did your experience as school captain teach you? How have you developed and
grown?
What was your impact as a leader? Did you actually do something worthwhile?

When youre providing evidence, do not just list it. Dive deeper. Holding the title of school
captain may be impressive to everyone at your school but dont assume that assessors will
understand the magnitude of this position. You must explain the significance to them. To do
this, the most important thing is to tell them how you have developed, what have you
learned or the value which you created.
Exemplar Response 3

Describe your involvement and/or achievement in the workplace creating

something

In January 2014, I realised that there was a distinct lack of entrepreneurial education in the
high school curriculum. To tackle this problem, I took the initiative to co-found Generation
Entrepreneur (GE). Despite the failure of our initial product, my co-founder and I took the
lessons that we had learned from GE, and 3 months later displayed vision and perseverance to
develop Australias first hackathon branded INITIATE 48, enabling high school students to
become entrepreneurs. After being awarded Best Social Venture at Sydney Start-up Weekend
in late 2014, GE has since had many successes to justify its status as an award winning start-
up. INITIATE 48 piloted in 2015 where I developed strong relations with sponsors such as
Techhub to secure $25,000 worth of sponsorship support. In 48 hours, our event enabled 65
high school students to build 10 start-ups, empowering youth to realise the immense
potential they possess. Being featured extensively on media platforms including the Sydney
Morning Herald and StartupSmart, it is clear GE is making a significant impact upon the lives
of youth. This project captures my desire to tackle societal issues as I took on the challenging
responsibility to create a solution. Most importantly, I believe the greatest achievement has
been to instigate positive change and to improve the lives of others.

Comments

Notice what is highlighted - these are all examples of providing specific evidence to
form a logical argument
This response focuses more on highlighting the value which the applicant created
which implicitly demonstrates what the applicant learned and now comprises part of
their skillset
 Exemplar Response 4

Describe what you learned with reference to an activity you participated

My work experience at management consulting firm Crescendo Partners provided valuable

insights into working with multinational clients. As I analysed the 2017 financial statements
such as the cash flow statement and balance sheet for a listed real estate fund, and developed
client presentations, I learned the importance of having strong attention to detail to deliver
services of the highest calibre. I was also mentored by the Managing Director on how to
professionally converse with clients, building communication and presentation skills that are
suited for client facing positions and went to three client meetings which gave me an
opportunity to practise these skills.

Comments

Notice what is highlighted - these are all examples of providing specific evidence to
form a logical argument
As with Exemplar Response 3, this response focuses on highlighting the value which
the applicant created which implicitly demonstrates what the applicant learned and
now comprises part of their skillset

Principle 4: Tackling situational questions

A common type of question which are asked in applications are situational questions.

As the name suggests, a situational question asks you to talk about an experience where you
did XYZ or showed XYZ quality.

To effectively answer these questions, I would highly recommend that you use the STAR
framework; being an acronym which stands for situation, task, action and result.

Situation: Set the context for your story and give your assessor a bit of background
information
Task: What was required of you? What did your role entail?
Action: What did you actually do in this situation?
Result: What were the results and consequences of your actions or what did you
learn?

When you first come in contact with a situational question, it can be quite daunting so this
framework helps you to structure your answer. Furthermore, its also an effective method to
communicate information to assessors because it also aligns with Principles 2 and 3.
Have a look at the examples below for the STAR framework in action.

Exemplar Response 5

Drawing upon your experience or involvement in a part-time job,

community or school activity, describe how you overcame a challenging
situation and what you learnt from that experience

As a soccer referee, I had to resolve an incident of racism in an Under 14s match. After the
match, a player approached me, expressing he was the victim of a racist remark from an
opposing player. Despite not witnessing the event, I believed his claims as the boy was in
distress. However, the offending player denied making the remark (Situation). Without
evidence, I realised it would be unprofessional to act on personal assumption where it was my
duty to make critical, impartial and well-informed decisions (Task). As a compromise, I got
both teams together and clearly set out the severity of the issue, explaining the zero tolerance
policy towards racism to ensure both teams would act with integrity in future. I also informed
my association to endorse a proactive approach to prevent further incidents through clearer
guidelines (Action). As a result, I learned how to maintain my composure and think
objectively in a hostile setting, developing my capacity to reconcile conflicting parties and
handle a sensitive issue (Result).
 Exemplar Response 6

Drawing upon your experience or involvement in a part-time job,

community or school activity, describe how you overcame a challenging
situation and what you learnt from that experience

Regarding the school's knockout volleyball team, I encountered a very difficult situation in
selecting the final team as there was one player who was my close friend but was lacking in
ability compared to the rest of the team. This was presented a challenge as I was conflicted
between my duty as a selector and my friendship (Situation). However, I realised that it was
my duty to maintain my integrity by making decisions in an objective manner. (Task). As such,
I discussed this matter transparently with the rest of the team and explained that we were
united in wanting the team to succeed and that merit should be basis for player selection. I
then had a discussion with my friend on not selecting him in the final team, I patiently
explained that it was for the best interest of the team. By carefully communicating my
concerns and position, he understood my perspective and did not let it come between our
friendship (Action). This experience taught me how to deal with conflict even with close
individuals where difficult decisions must be made to achieve a greater objective (Result).

One aspect of the STAR principle is to keep practising it. Dont only apply it just in interviews.
The more you use it, the more it will come as second nature and you will be apply it in
situations where you may not have a prepared response.
Principle 5: Tackling industry specific applications

A range of scholarships and opportunities that are offered to high school students will
revolve around a specific industry or line of work. These opportunities generally provide you
with real life experience as opposed to a monetary award. Given the nature of these
opportunities, there are certain things you need to keep in mind when approaching the
application process.

Think about this from the point of view of the company or institution that is providing the
scholarship or opportunity. Its a significant investment in terms of time and money to
nurture and develop an unproven high school student. They will have already and will be
dedicating in the future a lot of resources to invest in the successful candidate so its only
natural that theyre looking for applicants with a genuine interest or desire to pursue a
path in the industry. For work experience opportunities, the ideal scenario for companies is
that they want you to eventually work for them on a full-time basis.

Companies and institutions will know that youre still in high school and they wont expect
you to have your career path exactly figured out. That being said, you must still clearly
communicate the fact that youre interested in working in the industry (if youre going for an
industry-specific opportunity, this should be one of your big ideas as set out in Principle 1).

One of the best ways to communicate your interest is to show the assessor that you have
an informed perspective about the industry or issue at hand. Most applications usually
just contain broad and clichd statements like the industry is fast paced and dynamic.
Assessors read those kind of statements all the time and it doesnt reflect well on you.

I encourage you to do your research and gain insights on the following questions:
What are the different positions available in this line of work?
What will I actually be doing on a day to day basis?
What can I expect in terms of working conditions?
What sort of skills and personality traits am I expected to possess in order to succeed in this
industry?

If you can incorporate elements of these questions into your application, it instantly tells the
assessor that you know what youre talking about which is a huge point of differentiation for
these industry specific applications.

In terms of doing your research, I would highly recommend you talk to and learn from
someone that works in the industry rather than just doing a quick Google search. I can
guarantee that the applicants who take the time and effort to do this have a markedly better
chance of landing the opportunity. If you dont know anyone in your network that works in
the industry, then cold email or message anyone that can assist you. Youll need to step out
of your comfort zone and do what it takes if youre serious about impressing the assessors.
Exemplar Response 7

Which area (or areas) of Banking and Finance are you particularly
interested in?

Having co-founded a start-up, I have a strong interest in business and this shapes the
particular areas of finance which I would like to be involved in.

Within Corporate Client Solutions, undertaking work relating to Mergers & Acquisitions stands
out to me. I am aware this represents a significant event for a business and I am eager to gain
insight to the strategies that are undertaken to enable companies to substantially increase
growth. Mergers & Acquisitions spans a number of disciplines and skills that I believe are
consistent with my start-up background such as valuation, identifying synergies, negotiation
strategy and exit options. Furthermore, I have a high level of personal interest in being part of
transactions that can change the dynamics of entire industries.

Within Investor Client Solutions, equities research intrigues me as it involves thoroughly

analysing some of the largest companies in Australia such as BHP and Westfields, who also
happen to be key clients of Investor Client Solutions. Consistent with my interest in Mergers &
Acquisitions, I believe this a great discipline to gain foundational experience in evaluating the
opportunities and risks of a company and I believe this will build upon my experience and
interests as a business owner. Personally, I am also interested in gaining perspective on how
investors learn to read business stock movements, through a combination of technical
analysis, fundamental analysis and reading market sentiment.

Comments

Notice how specific I get in terms of identifying areas like Mergers & Acquisitions and
Equity Research. These were all areas I learned about after talking to people that work
in the industry and it gives assessors the perception that I am well informed about the
industry (or at the very least have done my research before speaking to them) and
know what to expect.
Exemplar Response 8

What sort of graduate position do you imagine yourself in after University?

I envision myself working as marketing associate in a commercial company. In particular, I

would like to be involved in social media advertising which I builds upon my past marketing
experience with my venture, INITIATE 48, where I was responsible for end to end marketing
strategy and implementation. I strongly believe that social media advertising is extremely
effective in grasping the attention of target markets, especially if they are teenagers or young
adults and is inexpensive compared to other forms of advertising. The customer acquisition
costs can be up to 61% lower than traditional forms of marketing such as print and cold
calling, and it develops brand recognition, loyalty and inbound traffic. While I dont think it will
displace all other forms of marketing, it is a huge and exciting part of marketings present and
future.

Social media advertising is growing rapidly and my previous field experience has allowed me
to experiment and understand which methods work in this area. Creating personalised
relationships is also extremely important to me and since marketing is consumer centric in
today's age, my passion for working with people will allow me to take up a position centred
around consumers. In the future, I hope to advance to a marketing manager position which
stems from my passion for the field and working with others.

Comments

Again, it is clear from reading this response that the applicant has clearly done their
research in the marketing industry. They have specifically discussed why social media
marketing is effective and have supported their statements with statistics, and have
also identified current trends in the industry. This has then been tied to their prior
experience in the field. This is a vastly superior response to an applicant who simply
states that they want to work in the field because it is interesting to them or because
they have studied marketing.
Principle 6: Quality vs Quantity

Everyone knows the adage that quality is more important than quantity. Indeed, this cannot
be more true in the case of applications.

A lot of high school students just list down a lot of different experiences and qualities when
answering application questions, because the more the better right? Im going to tell you
now that mentioning a lot of things briefly will actually be detrimental for your chances in
getting the opportunity.

The harsh reality is that assessors dont care if you were school captain, sports captain, a
business owner and youth leader all in one year. As I mentioned in Principle 3, what they
really care about is the things you learned from these experiences and the impact you
actually created. Assessors are used to students putting lots of fancy sounding titles on their
applications which dont hold any substance.

Furthermore, it can actually raise red flags when you have a tonne of super impressive
sounding experiences. Assessors will start to question whether you actually added value as it
would virtually be impossible to be involved in so many different things in a meaningful
manner.

This is why I always tell students to focus on writing about 1 to 3 experiences (this varies
depending on the length of the application). This is a superior approach to jumping around
and giving a shopping list of stuff. Focusing on the key messaging enables the assessor to
gain a deeper insight into how you actually add value and what kind of leader or team
member you are. By talking about fewer experiences in more depth, it also creates the
perception that you have a high level of commitment which is an important quality that
almost all assessors for scholarships and opportunities look for.

The same concept also applies when youre asked to talk about your strengths and unique
qualities. Everyone likes to think that they possess lots of positive qualities but I would advise
you to focus on the 1 to 3 qualities which really define who you are. Assessors will be unable
to paint a clear picture of your personality traits if you just randomly list a myriad of
superficial qualities.

Have a look at the example below for a response which focuses on quantity rather than
quality:
 Anti-Exemplar Response 9 (Bad response)

What do you regard as your key strengths?

I am a very committed and passionate individual in any activity I undertake. My experiences

within school, sports and community have allowed me to develop a proactive attitude towards
achieving my goals. My unparalleled commitment has also allowed me to acquire the
interpersonal skills to create personalised relationships whilst also developing my problem
solving skills. Im a team player and also a leader and I can fit into any team and work hard.
Furthermore, I possess a unique sense of creativity as I founded several ventures and acted as
a marketing manager in several competitions.

None of this response is consistent with Principle 1 or Principle 2. No part of the response
fits into a holistic depiction of the applicant. A scatter gun approach may hit some of targets
but it wont hit the targets that matter with the impact that is required.

After I told this student about the issues with their initial response from a quality vs quantity
perspective, he took my comments on board and this is how he improved his response:

Exemplar Response 10

What do you regard as your key strengths?

I am a very committed and passionate individual in any activity I undertake. My experiences

within school, sports and community have allowed me to develop an unparalleled
commitment in creating personalised relationships with other individuals. For example, as
media manager for my school newspaper in 2016, I had to manage an ongoing relationship
with the writing team while balancing this with local advertisers. This is significant in a
marketing position at a sponsor company as the ability to relate to a consumer whilst being
able to work in a team will effectively achieve company goals. Furthermore, I possess a unique
sense of creativity in founding several ventures and successfully acting as a marketing
manager in several competitions.

Comments

Compared to the previous response, this one is more focused and detailed. He
specifically focused on the quality of creating personalised relationships as this was a
key personality trait for him. Whats even better is that he related this quality directly
to the opportunity (he was applying for a scholarship in the marketing industry).
Principle 7: What experiences or extracurricular activities should I write about?

Now after reading Principle 6 above, youll know that its better to focus on quality as
opposed to quantity when writing about your experiences. Naturally, this then leads to the
question of which experiences you should include if you have too many to choose from.

Whilst theres never going to be a perfect answer to this question, Ill go over some things
for you to consider in this section so you can make a better decision about what you should
include.

If your application is a part of a multi-stage process (meaning that therell be an interview

round after the application stage), then you need write your application with a consideration
for whats going to happen in the interview. What exactly do I mean by this? Lets say you
write a successful application and youre selected for the interview stage. What will happen is
that interviewers will then go over your application which guides the questions that they will
ask you.
As such, you need to consider the following points:

Which experiences give you the most talking points during the interview?
Which experiences are you most comfortable talking about?

If theres a particular experience which you would really want interviewers to ask about, be
sure to feature it more than once in your application. The more prominent an experience is
in your application, the more likely that it will catch the attention of the interviewer,
increasing the likelihood that they will ask you about it. Much in the same way that a tennis
player has to keep in mind what the next two to three shots will be, it is about being
strategic and keeping an eye towards setting yourself up for the next stage of the process.

Another thing to consider in terms of deciding which experiences to feature is to think about
the skills that you want to convey to the assessor. Sounds familiar? It should be, because
this is a natural consequence of Principle 1.

The specific skills which you will want to convey will be highly dependent on the opportunity
for which you are applying. The general rule of thumb which I tell most students is that if
youre applying for a general work experience or a broad, cause-related opportunity, then
assessors primarily look for soft skills which revolve around the areas of:

Leadership
Teamwork
Communication

Keep in mind that these are broad categories and if you include them in your application,
you must touch on the specific aspects of leadership, teamwork and communication which
you possess. As such, I would feature experiences that enables you to showcase these soft
skills like team sports, in-school executive positions, leadership workshops/camps or part-
time work experience.

(Side note - do not underestimate part-time work. For a high school student, this is one of
the best forms of real world experience which assessors love to see. This is especially
important if youre applying for work experience opportunities so be sure to mention part-
time work in your application if you have it under your belt!)

If youre applying for a more technical opportunity, then you would obviously want to focus
more on your technical experiences as opposed to broad soft skills. If youre applying for a
scholarship in the area of digital marketing, you would want to talk about an experience
which showcases this specific skillset (e.g. the time you improved the reach and engagement
of your friends photography Facebook page).