I have written about several story structures that job-seekers can deploy — especially in job interviews — but also in resumes, cover letters, and other job-search communications.
Let’s review:
- Traditional Situation (or Problem or Challenge) > Action > Result (SAR, PAR< CAR) structure
- Steve Denning’s Attention > Desire > Reasons structure
- Gerry Lantz’s What’s at Stake? structure
- Lesley Morgan’s Feel … Felt … Found Blueprint
- Bill True’s Negative to Positive structure
- Rebecca Ruby’s Venn diagram
- Dick Gaither’s Who, What, Why, Where, When, How + Results structure
Every structure I’ve come across has been basically the same; it’s just that their originators use different words and nuances to describe them.
If they’re really all the same, why do I keep writing about them? Because not everyone can relate to the same structure. If you’re a job-seeker having difficulty grasping how to tell stories in your job search, perhaps the classic Situation –> Action –> Result doesn’t do it for you, but one of the others will.
Here are two more that I recently encountered and have framed in terms of job-search accomplishment stories:
From Mary Morel on the Flying Solo blog, in turn taken from Ros Jay, author of How to Write Proposals and Reports that Get Results:
- Position: In what position or role did you find yourself in a past or current job?
- Problem: What issue or problem did you encounter?
- Possibilities: What options did you have for solving the problems? What avenues did you consider?
- Proposal: Which option did you choose to solve the problem?
This structure leaves out perhaps the most important element, your results; be sure to tell prospective employers the outcome or results you obtained.
From a very nice essay by Bill Johnson, Perceiving the Foundation of Storytelling:
- Dramatic issue of consequence to the audience: What situation or problem did you handle in a past or current job that is directly relevant — or of consequence — to the job you’re targeting?
- The story’s movement: How did you move toward dealing with the problem and handling the obstacles along the way?
- Fulfillment: What resolution did you achieve? (Tell this story in a way that your audience, the prospective employer, will experience fulfillment because he or she will picture you solving the same kind of problem for his or her organization.)