Career experts frequently advise job-seekers to structure their stories based on the same formulas, expressed as acronyms, suggested in Chapter 2 as overall structures for developing career stories:
CAR: Challenge, Action, Result
Challenge: In my last leadership role, we had a challenge with our receiving process. It would take five shipping-and-receiving associates about two days to process an average-sized shipment. I quickly recognized that with the holidays approaching, the size of our shipments would double, and our process had to change.
Action: First, I addressed the overall stockroom organization and completely overhauled it. I collaborated with my stockroom manager to organize and label all products in every row. I directed rows to be organized by type of product. We were then able to sort boxes of product as they came off the trucks according to which row they went into. We had stockroom associates in each row and a runner who could carry boxes of product to their designated row.
Result: Receiving time was cut from two to three days to less than six hours from the time the truck hit the dock.
CCAR: Context, Challenge, Action, Result
Context: After Hurricane Katrina, our company was down for weeks. Challenge: My subordinates are commissioned employees who still needed to collect a paycheck. Our print shop was up and running; however, the post office was not equipped to handle bulk mail, which is how our newspaper is distributed on Wednesdays. On weekends, our paper is distributed to stores. At this time we were doing neither.
Action: I suggested to the publisher that we distribute the paper to stores on Wednesdays. We all collaborated to come up with selling points for advertisers; for example, offering special discount to roofers, carpenters, and lawn-maintenance businesses in our services-offered advertising section.
Result: Revenue started flowing again, and my team members got paid.
Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.
