sausagedog
Application Coach.
Write what actually happened. We score it against what the question is really testing, ask the questions that surface your evidence, and rewrite it in your own facts.
How it works
Good experience loses to bad wording. Not any more.
Paste the question, write what happened
In your own words, rough is fine. No jargon needed: we find the structure inside what you wrote.
Scored against the real framework
Civil Service questions are checked marker by marker against the official Success Profiles for your grade. Other jobs get an honest evidence check, no made-up numbers.
Follow-up questions surface your evidence
Was the client happy afterwards? Roughly how many? The detail that wins applications is usually in your memory, not your first draft. Then we rewrite using only your facts.
Who this is for
An application asks you to evidence what you did. It does not set out to test how well you write about yourself, but that is part of what it ends up measuring, because the only thing an assessor can credit is what reached the page.
That catches people out for reasons that have nothing to do with whether they can do the job. Some find writing about their own work hard. Some have a strong example involving something painful, and have never had to hand it to a stranger in 250 words. Some have a disability or condition that makes recall, structure or written expression harder than it looks from outside. Plenty of people do not read what they did as an achievement, because at the time it was just Tuesday and somebody had to sort it out.
None of that is a shortage of evidence. It is detail you have and did not write down. The follow-up questions are there to jog it loose, and the rewrite puts it in order. Nothing here lowers the bar or changes what you are assessed against. The example still has to be real and yours, and an answer reaching for markers you cannot honestly evidence reads as hollow and scores worse than a plain one that is true.
What you get
Making Effective Decisions · Executive Officer grade · before and after
Take responsibility for making effective and fair decisions, in a timely manner
PartialHitTalk to relevant people to get advice and information when unsure how to proceed
MissingHitExplain how decisions have been reached in a clear and concise way, both verbally and in writing
MissingPartial
Every rewrite comes with "why this scores", so your next application is stronger without the tool. And we never add anything you did not tell us.
Application Coach is for written application answers. It does not sit live tests for you, such as situational judgement tests.
The markers are not ours and they are not secret. The Cabinet Office publishes the whole framework at gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles, free to read, with a candidate overview written for applicants. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Sausage Dog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Civil Service or any government department.
Try it on the question in front of you
Sign in and put one real answer through the full loop free: scored, questioned, rewritten. After that, Application Coach is part of Sausage Dog Premium. £9.99 a month, cancel anytime.
- Real Success Profiles markers
- Follow-ups that dig out your evidence
- Only your facts, never invented