How to write your Professional Registration Application using STAR
Professional Registration is a status awarded to qualified engineers and technicians. It is awarded by licensed bodies who represent the Engineering Council and is based on your knowledge, demonstration of your competence and your commitment to professionalism. Professional Registration can help provide a benchmark through which employers and their clients can have confidence in and trust that they are working with registered engineers that have been recognised for their work and professional standards.
However, being recognised in the engineering community isn’t the only benefit to becoming professionally registered. Some of the other benefits of Professional Registration can include but are not limited to:
- Improved career opportunities and salary prospects
- Official confirmation of your professional competence
- You may be able to have a greater influence within your organisation
- More opportunities to connect and work with inspiring people in your field
The IET have a dedicated team of individuals that are ready to support you with all aspects of the Professional Registration journey. From deciding on the category you would like to apply for all the way through to the submission of your application, Lucy Byrne can help you with all and any questions you may have. Lucy is the IET’s Professional Registration Engagement Manager, and you can find her details below if you do wish to get in touch.
(0)1438 767 307
(0) 7936 341 416
If you are already a member of the IET, all you have to do is log in and apply! Log into your Career Manager account.
If you are a member of another engineering institution but want to register and become a member of the IET, there is a way you can do this too. Simply click the link above and you can find the answers you are looking for.
Our team can help you along the way, but this article is focused on writing your application and getting it ready for submission!
So how do you begin writing your application?
There is more than one way to start writing your application, but we find that the easiest way to get past that first line writers block, is to use STAR. This can be a great tool for any application because it provides a structure that helps you build well formulated answers to the written elements in your application.
So, what is STAR and how can you utilise this way of writing to build a strong and successful application for your Professional Registration?
Situation: When answering a question or stating a point, it is important to provide details about the situation you were in and how you used your skills. Be specific about the situation. It is important that you use examples from past experience, so it might be a good idea to include elements of important projects you have been involved in or worked on lately. Pick something interesting and relevant to talk about. A situation that allows you to showcase and discuss key skills and how you used them. Make sure the person reading this really understands what it was you did and how you learnt from this experience.
Task: What were your goals during this situation? It’s important that you not only mention the exact situation but that you outline the objective clearly to ensure that your answer is put into context and understood properly. You don’t want to leave them guessing, so give all necessary information.
Action: The action part of your answer is very important to your application. It is your chance to talk about exactly what you did and how you approached it. Make sure that you are talking about you and your achievements, even if you were working in a team. It is your chance to talk about how you achieved your goals. Discuss any steps that you took in detail and make sure that you highlight the steps that you believe to be the most important.
Result: What did you achieve from this and what did you learn from the experience? Whatever the outcome was, whether it be good or bad, keep the answer positive. Even if you were unsuccessful, you would have learnt something from the experience and sometimes that can be more important than reaching the goal. No matter what, you will have accomplished something so don’t be modest. Make sure you are showing the reader your achievements and give yourself the credit you truly deserve.
Before you start writing your application, have a think and come prepared with any situations or examples that you think would show off your skills the best you can. It’s a good idea to have a mixture of examples from your past work and projects you are working on now. Being able to show your career development can be very important. Commitment is a very good trait to show in this application, so show it where you can. Talk about valuable experiences, things you remember or have made a distinct difference to your engineering career.
Try to focus on what is important and answer the questions that are asked of you correctly and to the point. Make sure you are giving them what you want, while also showing yourself in a good light. You need to make yourself stand out, use STAR to emphasis this. You don’t want to add any fluff to the application, stick to the point and you will hopefully get the outcome you desire.
STAR can be a powerful tool; it can help your application come to life. It can show the reader how well you have dealt with past experiences. It can show them that you are capable and deserving. Using the approach above can result in a very compelling application.
Like this article, there are many other resources you can be using to help put together your Professional Registration application. However, if you do have any other questions, don’t hesitate to get in contact and we will help anywhere we can!
