Accomplishment Stories Grid

The Ultimate Career Guide – Interactive Exercises

When you’re in the heat of an interview, these accomplishment stories can be hard to articulate clearly and concisely. In order to have all the facts “at your fingertips,” one of my clients came up with a brilliant tool called the “Accomplishment Stories Grid.”

In addition to writing all your stories out in full, one accomplishment story per page, you can create a separate “portable quick-reference” version that compresses all the highlights onto one page that is easily referenced during the interview!

You can hold this piece of paper in your lap, or have it on top of your portfolio or legal pad as you speak with someone.

The benefit of this format is that everything you need to connect your past accomplishments to your current interviewer’s needs, problems, challenges, and requirements is right in front of you.

It’s almost as good as using cue cards, and it makes for a great “security blanket” during interviews – to make sure you won’t forget your best selling points in “the heat of the moment.”

Using the Accomplishment Stories you have created, and following the example Grid on the next page, complete the exercise by filling in the summaries of your own accomplishment stories. The grid rows will expand to accommodate your entries.

Accomplishment Stories Grid (Example)

Story Problem What I Did/How I Did It Results Skills Business restructuring Overcapacity, mfg. Led team to develop Saved $6million per year, Leadership, innovation, project saving more than costs too high, supply competitive plant analysis, no significant customer analysis, presentation $6 million per year chain not optimized assessed plants, executed disruption, successfully closure program placed associates

Reduced raw material Needed to leverage Implemented an arbitrage Raw material savings Management, analysis, costs by $500,000 per purchasing power and system allowing purchasing average $200k to $500k organization, team-building year reduce raw material managers to find lowest per unit per year costs costs of materials in global system and negotiate better deals in all regions

Reduced supply chain Raw material Implemented a new approach to Maintained all needed Problem-solving, analysis, costs by more than 10% shortages threatened vendor management using levels of production and presentation, product supply and optimization methods to ensure reduced costs through communication higher costs lowest cost purchases at all improved logistics and manufacturing locations purchasing strategies

Convinced Executive Business opportunity Generated a multiyear strategy Won approval of the XYZ Management, persuasion, Management to invest in to supply airbag proposal including marketing Executive to invest in the analysis, presentation new business unit components needed analysis, financial evaluations, new business unit which to be evaluated and manufacturing strategies, ultimately doubled in sales promoted to executive technology assessments and and profits over the next 3 management to gain projections. Presented strategy years investment support to the XYZ Executive Team

Achieved rapid and Key regional Established a recovery plan Immediately stopped the Problem-solving, successful turnaround of distribution company which included solving the failures, improved the persuasion, organization troubled distribution suffered from financial financial issues, organizing a financial reporting and operations problems and new financial and operational analysis, solved the operational failures team and implementing systems operational failures and to support the business improved efficiencies without cost increases.

Design and Global business unit Developed and implemented a All US and Europe Leadership, analysis, team Implementation of and operations new organization structure operations using common building, follow-through Global ERP Systems strategy required a based on process work flow organization, processes process based designs and enabled this and systems with organization enabled organization with a common remaining regions to go on with a single instance ERP and related systems on a line in 2006. Project was ERP capability and global basis delivered with expected supply chain financial benefits achieved approach and with the needed strategic capabilities

Accomplishment Stories Grid (Exercise)

Story Problem What I Did/How I Did It Results Skills