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Article from Smart Investor Magazine, May 2000
Survival Skills for the Modern Corporate Warrior
Something to Shout About
Unlike in the world of financial investment, past performance in your career is a good indication of future potential. This is why it is imperative that you identify your key strengths, also known as major marketable skills, or MMS. After all, what you have to offer your next employer is what you have achieved in the past. At this stage of your career, it won’t be the MBA or PhD that will count, but rather what value you can bring to the new organization.
Your MMS will include the skills and attributes that contributed to your accomplishments. These could be career-related achievements as well as other milestones achieved in college and personal life. To arrive at your MMS list, start with identifying your key accomplishments.
STAR Qualities
Begin with college days. What were some of the major achievements that you still remember to this day? Then slowly work forward until you get to your last job. Alternatively, begin with your last job and work backwards to college days.
Recall five to seven key accomplishments. These should be quantifiable ones that you feel are significant enough to shout about. They could have been achieved alone or as a key member of a team.
Record your accomplishments in the following sequence, which spells STAR:
S - Situation. Describe the scenario then, what problem needed to be solved or overcome, what needed to be achieve.
T - What were the specific tasks that needed to be executed?
A - What specific action/s did you take?
R - The results. Focus on how the company benefited from the actions.
Next, scrutinize each accomplishment and determine your specific skills and attributes that contributed to the successful outcome. Examples of personality traits and skills include creativity, assertiveness, inquisitiveness, knowledge of e-commerce and negotiation smarts.
This list is your MMS, broken down into two segments: skills and attributes. Use this information to sell yourself during interviews and networking opportunities.
Show, Don’t Tell
When highlighting one aspect from your MMS, cite a specific example or scenario in which you demonstrated this trait. Tell a story, and weave it in such a way that your interviewer is persuaded that you are a creative person.
Marketing yourself may not be the most comfortable or natural thing for you to do. Indeed, the cultural environment in which we have been brought up frowns upon bragging. But selling yourself is not about being modest, so leave your modesty at home when you are at a job interview. Take each opportunity as it if were the only one you will have for a long time.
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