From Dick Gaither, the Wizard of Work, an expert in work search training and trainer of job-search trainers, comes a set of questions for identifying accomplishments stories to use in job interviews (and resumes and cover letters for that matter).
One of the most important questions any job applicant has to answer during the interview is the behavioral question “Can you describe your most notable professional or work-related achievement(s)?”
This question poses a couple of problems for many job-seekers. First, too many interviewees are uncomfortable talking about their achievements and feel like they’re “bragging.” A fact isn’t bragging! If you’ve had a hand in any type of work-related accomplishment or achievement, it’s not bragging … it’s a fact … once you can support it!
Our second problem is that too many employees overlook their small accomplishments and think the interviewer is only looking for big achievements. Don’t think an achievement has to be humongous to get an employer’s attention (Saved the company $10 million). Most of us haven’t been in a position to generate anything close to an earth-shattering, multi-million dollar achievement. But, we’ve all had the opportunity to have a hand creating any number of small, work-related accomplishments and achievements, such as: improving safety, doing the job quicker, saving money, improving customer service, etc. But just telling the interviewer you had an achievement isn’t enough. The interviewer wants a complete story. This seven-step questioning process I use with job seekers has proven to be a big help getting people to comfortably talk their achievements in the interview:
- Describe an achievement
- What was your role in the achievement?
- What problems were you trying to solve?
- How did your involvement benefit the company?
- How did your involvement benefit your co-workers?
- How did your involvement benefit customers?
- What three key skills did you use in achieving this success?