... and Boost the Power of Your Resume or Leadership Addendum
By Jan Melnik
Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW, is president of Absolute Advantage, a resume-writing and job-search coaching practice in Connecticut, which she has operated for 23 years. She assists clients coast-tocoast with career strategies and resume services. Jan is the careers expert on Money Matters radio, syndicated nationwide. The author of five entrepreneurial books, she has been featured on television and in numerous periodicals. Her newest book is Executive’s Pocket Guide to ROI Resumes and Job Search, co-authored with Louise Kursmark. Learn more at www·janmelnik·com
Two of the most important features of a well-written resume are the qualifications profile detailing “predictors of success” and the STAR stories that present a candidate’s most significant accomplishments and contributions. This article will focus on developing effective stories that describe the Situation, Tactic, Action, and Result.
The STAR approach to resume writing focuses on an individual’s signature strengths. To make the process more approachable, consider describing key accomplishments from the standpoint of telling a story. There are four elements to this story.
The first step is to describe the specific challenge or opportunity faced, the Situation. Set the stage for describing the role you played, the initiatives you took in turning a situation around or solving a problem. This could range from such things as spearheading a new product launch, optimizing an underperforming sales organization, or exploring new distribution channels. As much as possible, quantify what the challenge was—forming a basis for which you subsequently drove a solution, performance improvement, performance boost, or increase of some type (profitability, productivity, etc.).
By establishing a clear picture of the situation, a reader is in a good position to understand the full context of the problem you faced.
The next element is describing the Tactic(s) you used to effect a change— what steps did you take? What initiatives did you propose? What was your method of attack? What resources did you engage? What methods or strategies do you use in figuring out an attack or a solution? Your goal here is to describe what drives your performance in addressing a challenge and provide uniquely transferable skills. This section is all about your strategy and approach.
Action is the third step and takes the tactics identified and shows what you did to then execute. Highly descriptive action verbs are suggested for this section. Literally answer the question: What did you do to bring about the end result? Facilitated ... Managed ... Spearheaded ... Reengineered ... Transformed ... Drove ... Orchestrated ... Led ... and so forth. Don’t get too detail-oriented in describing your actions, but do be sure to thoroughly describe your key skills and action steps.
The fourth and final step is to show the Result. This is the bottom-line—the all-important outcome reached through taking the action steps outlined to implement the key tactics identified. Quantify this result wherever possible— showing numbers or percentages that help substantiate the results and tell your story with credibility. Try to link the impact to an organization to the result. How were you instrumental in bringing this about? Did you personally garner any recognition or award for your efforts?
Here’s an example of a STAR story that is presented in a more abbreviated fashion on a resume and in its expanded version in a Critical Leadership Initiative Addendum.
Resume Example:
Betty Crocker … Contemporized General Mills’ flagship brand through
innovative first-to-market new product initiatives and a communication
campaign to expand brand’s appeal to a broader (and younger)
demographic. Result: Elevated brand to largest and most profitable in
category with sales growth of 29% ($95MM), two 5% price increases,
and a 45% reduction in trade dollars.
Critical Leadership Initiative Addendum Example:
Increased momentum of signature premium brand through innovative first-to-market initiatives and doubled growth expectations.
Challenged to accelerate market reach of General Mills’ #1 brand (Betty Crocker), representing 22% of US profits. This super -premium product already enjoyed fierce loyalty from 3 million customers (75% of which were in over-50 demographic). Reshaped product proposition, harnessing internal expertise and leveraging marketing know-how. Executed campaign that communicated contemporized brand and delivered extensive sampling to appeal to a broader audience.
Results ... Grew sales and profits 29% ($95 million) since 1999, despite a 6% category decline, two 5% price increases, and a 45% reduction in trade dollars. Boosted from #3 to #1 as largest and most profitable brand in the category, which delivered $320 million annually (2002).
Key Strengths ... “I am professionally exhilarated by challenges to extract incremental value from already profitable product lines and turn around sluggish performance in under-optimized brands.”