How I got into the Australian Public Service, and what actually helped.
Welcome to my APS career guide. I’m Tuey, a data scientist in the Australian Public Service.
I came in through a data graduate program, so this is written from that angle, mostly data and analytics roles. If you’re going for something different, most of it should still hold, just not all of it.
I’m writing it down because I wish something like this had existed when I was starting out: the resume, the cover letters, the interview prep, all of it.
If you’d rather skip ahead, Part III: Interview is where most of the useful stuff is.
Over the past few years I’ve spent a good deal of time doing interviews, studying the process, preparing properly, and watching a lot of mock interviews and debriefs. I’d like to think that’s made me pretty good at taking interviews, and I picked up plenty of other tips along the way that actually hold up in the room, not just the “be yourself” advice you get everywhere else.
This guide walks through those interviewing tips, along with the anecdotes that came with them, plus what I learned going through a graduate program and into the role I’m in now. It’s not meant to be the definitive answer, just my lens on the process, written down in case it saves you some of the guesswork I went through.
Part I · 10 articles
The document that gets you the interview, done right.
Part II · 7 articles
Don't be lazy with it: a short, well-aimed letter can do a lot of work.
Part III · 8 articles
The biggest part of this career guide.
Written by Tuey, a data scientist in the Australian Public Service, and published in the Public Roles resources section as The Career Guide. Guidance draws on published APS and state recruitment policy alongside first-hand experience. It is shared advice, not official policy.