At this time of year, our allied health students will be on the look out for pool positions going up on the WA government job board…but just what is pool recruitment?

Firstly, you’ll be able to spot a pool recruitment position as the position number will be listed as ‘Pool REF’.

Pool recruitment can be open-ended, meaning that there may be a number of jobs available over a longer period of time – normally 12 months or longer. It is generally used when a particular unit within a particular department may recruit at various points of need. For example, the Child and Adolescent Health Service with the Child Development Service can be looking for social workers, speech pathologists and occupational therapists over the course of a year, but only want to advertise once. Usually there’s a closing date that is months into the future, towards the end of the year. A panel will monitor the pool regularly and invite suitable applicants to interview for one of the positions.

At the moment, there are positions open until 31 December 2018 that would suit speech therapy, occupational therapy and social work students. Final year students and graduates are eligible to apply, but it could be wise to wait to hit submit until you’ve completed your final prac placements or clinical rotations.

Why wait?

You’ll definitely know more and be more likely to produce a stronger job application, it’ll be easier to write solid responses to the selection criteria, and you might be able to add valuable referees to your application.

If you are going to be applying, a wise move for final years or recent grads is to have a close look at the key responsibilities and the statement of duties. These are common to health-related job descriptions.

Finally, give yourself a head start in figuring out how you would address the selection criteria. We run workshops specifically for health science students on resumes, interview skills and selection criteria throughout the semester, and you can come and visit us any time in Building 101, call on (08) 9266 7802 or email [email protected].