Thinking About Making a Change?

Might become a candidate in 2020?

Here is something to help you prepare.

Take some time every year to update your STARs.

This is:

Situation – Your context (company, industry, etc.) and what you are doing (title, function, etc.).

Task – Specific tasks or responsibilities you have in your role.

Action – What actions or steps you took to accomplish the task.

Result – The quantifiable results you achieved.

The problem is that memories get fuzzy over time. Studies have shown that resumes often have material misstatements or errors…a fancy way of saying stuff that just ain’t accurate.

Taking time every year to update while things are fresh can help accomplish two very important things.

First, it cuts down on those errors. If a resume has errors, it puts a candidate in the position of either running with inaccurate information in an interview or contradicting it…neither is a positive in a hiring scenario. 

Second, it prepares a candidate to interview and, if needed, to present the most effective case for a raise or promotion internally. 

On your resume list the company, industry segment, scope of company and overall responsibility. This is your situation.

For the bullet points, do not go heavy on responsibilities alone. It is great that you had a massive P&L responsibility but what value did you deliver in the role?

There should be bullet points highlighting the actual value you delivered in the Task, Action, Result format. 

For example, “Led turnaround effort for sales efforts by implementing new CRM processes and developing a fresh go to market strategy. Resulted in 23% revenue growth YOY with 9 new customer logos.”

Or, “Restructured project credit facilities resulting in $300,00 in interest savings annually.”

Each of these highlights your value impact and provides a strong platform to launch into the “how you did that” conversations in an interview or a review.

Now that 2019 is closing out, this is a great opportunity to document the value you delivered in your current role and the potential you can bring into your next career step.

Want to talk through this and have a sounding board to test your STAR’s on? Happy to help. Click the logo below ?? and let’s have a conversation.