A Suitability Statement is an opportunity to bring your CV to life. It helps demonstrate to the hiring manager relevant experience, achievements and more importantly how you arrived at them and what the outcome/impact was. It can also be an excellent opportunity to help remind you of your achievements and pre-prepping for possible upcoming interviews.
A suitability statement should always be tailored to the position you are applying for. Read through the job description thoroughly and pick out the criteria/essential criteria that is highlighted (if multiple, choose the ones that you deem most relevant for this role) and give examples of how you have previously done these tasks and explain the outcome.
Often when applying for roles at executive level employers seek where possible relevant examples or understanding of behaviours that are needed for a leadership position. We would therefore recommend taking some time reflecting on the impact of your leadership – this could be external (speaking at conferences, events, raising organisational brand and your brand) and/or internal (teams managed, coaching, mentoring, D&I, culture, creation of OKRs etc)
There are a few ways that you can visually present and structure your suitability statement:
- Sub-headings reflecting the essential criteria with a small paragraph below
- General bullet points
- Paragraph/’freestyle’
Everybody’s style is different and you must pick that which suits you, however, from historical feedback and experience, We would recommend sub-headings and writing a short paragraph below each point. This allows you to tailor your experience directly to what the hiring manager is ideally looking for. Keep the experience recent and relevant – and don’t forget the outcome of your activity! We recommend utilising the STAR approach when framing examples.
