Using the S.T.A.R. Method To Have your Resume Stand Out

Using the five W's (Who, What, When, Where, Why) of a Story

One of the best practices for writers is to follow "The 5Ws" guideline, by investigating the Who, What, Where, When and Why of a story. 

If you can’t identify what makes your story unique and interesting, chances are nobody else will either.

• Who is driving the story? Who is it about? Who is affected? Who benefits? Who loses?

• What has happened? What are the consequences? What does this mean for the reader?

• Where is this taking place (building, neighborhood, city, country)? Where should readers go to learn more?

• When did it happen (time of day, day, month, year)? When was the last update? When can you expect to learn more? When will the effects be felt?

• Why did this event take place? Why is this important in the big picture? Why should readers care?

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Things to consider as you improve your resume and consider other roles.  5 Tips to Help You Get Hired Right Now.

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What is more credible to a listener, telling or showing?  

Telling forces the listener to accept your conclusion.  Showing, using objective, quantitative, unbiased statements and storytelling allows the listener to draw their own conclusions - and using the STAR method accomplishes this

Using the STAR method, helps you and your resume stand out.  When used properly, it's like a mini case study of a problem you solved.

It is also great in interviews to communicate how you can solve current problems by using the STAR storytelling format.   It helps you create an easy to understand and concise narrative.  

Rather than just reading what your responsibilities are, the resume reader will:

• understand why you had a certain responsibility (i.e, situation), 

• the activity you had to perform to carry out the responsibility (i.e., task), 

• how you went about figuring out how to perform the task (i.e., analysis) and 

• the outcome of carrying out your responsibility (i.e., results).

Each responsibility/situation can then be turned into a bullet on your resume and/or an answer to an interview question, especially if the interviewer is using behavioral interviewing.

So how to begin?  Create five columns on a piece of paper, in a word document or in a spreadsheet labeling them:  

• Responsibilities/Accomplishment, S.T.A.R. (Situation, Task, Action, Results)

I. Creating the Responsibilities/Accomplishments List

I suggest you use one or two ways to create the items in column 1 (Responsibilities/Accomplishment):

• 1. Traditional Way. Create a list of your responsibilities and accomplishments of anything that is related to the job you are seeking (i.e., jobs you've had; related experience whether in a job, volunteering, etc; formal or informal education or training; personal passions or interests; etc.).  Often these will be on your resume.

  2. Critical Incidence/Your Proudest Accomplishments. List those GREAT accomplishments of which you are personally proud.  Include every accomplishment that you are proud of, whether directly job-related or not.  (As an example, for me, I didn't play lacrosse in high school, but in college I worked to get good at lacrosse and in my junior year on the varsity team, I score a goal against national ranked Syracuse.  This is an example of setting a difficult goal and achieving it.)

In column 1, list the responsibility/accomplishment, in column 2,  date it and in column 3 classify (e.g., leadership, problem-solving, overcoming obstacles, working well with people, etc.)  Use column 2 (date) to know where it could be a bullet on your resume and use it to answer behavioral interviewing questions.

II. Using the Responsibilities/Accomplishment List to Create Your STARs

Using what you learned here, breakdown the responsibilities/accomplishments into STARs so they create the story you will use to communicate how the problem you solved in the past predicts that you will be able to solve the current problem.

As an illustration, click on the below links showing the original resume, first draft of STAR spreadsheet, final STAR spreadsheet and final resume using results from STAR spreadsheet.

Create your own spreadsheet or contact me and I'll send you a template spreadsheet or share a spreadsheet with you.