The Art of Answering KSA Questions

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The Art of Answering KSA Questions
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What does KSA means?
KSA (stands for Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)
is a statement needed in case of applying to
federal government and some state and city
government jobs. Along with resumés, KSAs
determine to select the most qualified applicants
among others. It is about unique qualities that a
person has that are required for a particular
position.
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KSAs contain information about a persons
educational and career background, talents,
experiences and achievements. In simple words,
KSAs are questions that you need to answer when
you are searching for a job.
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KSAs are defined as
Knowledge is an organized body of information
that you have to be familiar with to do a
particular job successfully make sure that your
accomplishments are winning and competitive among
others candidates.
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Skills
Skills present how you can use your knowledge.
For instance, you can be asked how experienced
you are in using personal computers, how rapidly
you can type on a computer, how proficient you
are in some programming language, etc.
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Abilities
Abilities define your potential to work well,
organized and effective. They measure how good
you are in dealing with tasks and activities.
They show if you are able to plan and organize
your whole work.
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KSAs are extremely important, they define a
persons eligibility for the job. So you cant be
even considered for a position among others if
your answers to KSA questions are poorly written
or incomplete.
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The art of answering KSA questions is very
simple just follow some tips

• Read the KSAs thoroughly
• You have to understand completely each KSA to
  write good answers. Read the vacancy announcement
  very closely so you will know what duties a
  particular position involves.

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• Relate your experience to KSA
• Look through all your experiences and find those
  that are connected to KSAs. For example, if you
  claim that you have an excellent communicative
  ability, give examples of real experience where
  youve shown this ability.

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Also think of relevant education, specialized
training, internships, awards that youve gained,
students activities, volunteering, school
projects, extracurricular activities and so on.
It will be great if youll logically organize
your experiences (for instance, in chronological
order). Link all these experiences to KSAs in a
way that presents you as the most appropriate
candidate for the job.
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Do analyze Define how you use the knowledge,
skill, or ability in those experiences that
youve mentioned. Make sure that your responses
demonstrate your responsibility and ability to
take initiative.
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Use some quantitative data where it is possible
(for example, how much money you saved, how many
products you produced, how the production
increased, how many people you coordinate, etc).
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Write KSAs in the first person, give more
examples that show your skills and
responsibilities from your previous jobs and how
amazingly you were dealing with them. Use this
Google book to guide you in your writing.
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• Remember about the length
• Each KSA should be between half a page and a
  page. A person who will check your application
  wont have too much time to read pages and pages
  of your experiences. Look through some KSA
  questions and answers samples.

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• Proofread
• Revise each response accurately to make sure it
  is readable, precise and grammatically correct
  and flows logically. Ask someone who knows you
  well to review your answers in case youve missed
  something or make some mistakes. As an
  alternative, you can always use KSA writing
  services.

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Other tips on how to answer KSA questions 
Understand precisely what the position entails
Be specific and precise
Do not babble
Use lots of relevant examples
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Do not use language from the job description, be
original and show your uniqueness
Use only clear language inwriting KSA for federal
jobs
Write exactly what you have achieved, what you
know and are able to do
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Do not exaggerate
Be concise, do not make your KSAs hard to read
Forget about being shy as you literally need to
sell yourself
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Do not forget to use action verbs and statements.
Do not add any irrelevant materials (training
certificates, letters of recommendation, examples
of work that are simply unsolicited). They are
not needed.
More tips you can find in this Google book!
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Do you want more? Check www.ksaservices.net/ rig
ht away!