Writing Great Career Stories and Accomplishments on Your Resume

If you want a chance at a good job, tell a story.

No, I’m not talking about “Once upon a time,” or “In a land far away.” What I mean is a story that tells about who you are, what you have done with your career so far, and what you can bring to a new position.

C.A.R. Stories

What I am asking you to do is create a CAR story. It stands for Challenges, Actions, and Results. In short, what you do is look back over your career and think about the Challenges you encountered in various positions. How did you Act upon those challenges? And what were the Results? There is almost always a good story attached to things that happened to you over the course of your employment, and if you can find stories that show the ways in which you can be of value in a new position, you could end up with a very compelling resume.

Identifying C.A.R. Stories

You have probably heard of behavioral interviewing, and this, as well as on your resume, is going to be where you will be asked for CAR stories. Pretty much everyone today knows that behavioral interviewing is the standard, and expects to be asked: “Tell me about a time when you went the extra mile,” “Tell me about a time when you resolved a conflict,” “Tell me about a time when …” Well, you get the idea. You should include some of these stories on your resume as well as keeping some in reserve for your interview.

In essence, what I am trying to tell you is, don’t just say things like “Improved the bottom line by 15%.” That’s great, but what led up to it? There is a story, so tell it. Something like, “A competitor introduced a new product that looked better than ours.” That’s your Challenge. “So I Acted upon it by finding a way to add features to our product.” Then, “The Result was that our sales went up by 15%.”

You have a CAR story, or several, somewhere in your employment history, so find them, and include them in your resume.

Maybe you think you are not a good storyteller, but realistically, everyone is. You just have to identify the story that you want to tell, and make it fit with the job you want to get. In my e-learning course, What’s Wrong With My Resume? 10 Questions to Ask Yourself and How You Can Fix It, I talk quite a bit about CAR stories and the way that they can help you to craft a resume that will get you interviews.