For generations Latino families have passed on stories that teach us about our history, culture, values, and life-lessons. It is this powerful gift of story telling that our parents and abuelos bestowed on us that can make the difference in whether we succeed during our next job interview or performance review.
Susan Whitcomb, author of Interview Magic and 30-Day Job Promotion, explains that employers are looking for candidates who can do the job, will do the job, and fit into the corporate culture, thus adding value to the company. Value can be woven into your responses to virtually every interview question via story telling. This is your opportunity to create your own chisme and land a job offer.
Three methods of conveying value are:
1. Linking your past successes and future solutions to employer’s needs.
2. Demonstrating a return on investment (ROI).
3. Emphasizing the benefits (instead of the features) of your qualifications.
Many employers prefer that you deliver your responses via behavioral or competency based interviews that asks you to outline the given problem or challenge, explain how you handled it, and describe the results of your actions. Try using the S.T.A.R. story technique – Situation, Task, Action, Results when answering these questions.
A S.T.A.R. story will allow you to craft your responses with a targeted beginning, a brief explanatory middle, and a strong ending that provides the interviewer with details that demonstrate what you can do for them. Using this format allows you to neatly link your response to employer’s behavioral or competency question and focus the conversation on how you can do the job.
S.T.A.R. stories should be concise and compelling as outlined below.
SITUATION: Define the situation or “set the stage”:
Example: I was assigned as an account manager to take over an underperforming sales territory – #92 out of 100 districts.
TASK: Identify the key objective / task performed:
Example: Our goal was to increase sales 20% and boost customer base 10%.
ACTION: Describe the action you took or initiated. This response should illustrate the specific skills you used in completing the task.
Example: I (my team or the team that I lead)
- Conducted a market analysis and customer service survey;
2. Identified untapped multicultural markets;
- Developed a business plan that focused on value-added service, sales incentives, multicultural brand adoption and a referral bonus program to benefit customers;
- Rolled out a 3-level marketing strategy to implement the plan.
RESULT: Summarize the outcome.
Our district ranking improved to #9 in the region within a year;
- Store sales increased 37%; net profit margin per sale improved 7%; and commercial customer base grew 18%.
- My business plan was adapted for use by all account managers in the region.
- Earned Account Manager of the Year Award.
We recommend that you prepare several S.T.A.R. stories to address various aspects of the position you are interviewing for. Your inventory of stories can represent everything from simple improvements to major achievements. They can represent individual successes or team contributions. In short, your S.T.A.R. stories will not only help you feel more confident and better prepared for interviews, but will improve your perceived value in the eyes of your potential and current employers.
You can read out more about S.T.A.R. stories in Barron's Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos. Another great source is Katherine Hansen's, Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career. Dr. Hansen demonstrates how storytelling is also the key to excelling in other job search activities, such as writing resumes and cover letters, networking, creating portfolios, and developing you personal brand. She takes the reader through the steps for executing each of these crucial tasks impressively and successfully. The book also focuses on on-the-job storytelling that enables you to capitalize on opportunities to advance.
Below is a S.T.A.R Story Worksheet to assist you in building powerful responses to job interview and performance evaluation questions.
¡BUENA SUERTE!
Posted by Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias
Principals, Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC and MulticulturalResumes.com
Authors, Barron’s The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos
S.T.A.R. Story Worksheet
S = Situation T = Task A = Actions you took R = Results delivered
SITUATION:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Where: ________________________________________________________
When: ________________________________________________________
Who else was involved from your team? Who was impacted?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
One problem I had to overcome:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
TASK:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
One specific issue I addressed was:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
To solve the problem, I:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
RESULTS:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
The end result was:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
ACTION:
ACTION: Describe the action you took or initiated. This response should illustrate the specific skills you used in completing the task.
Comments