Represent your background and experience accurately.
Dos: Account for all meaningful experience that relates to the type of position you seek. If you worked your way through college, say so.
Don'ts: Avoid gaps in your work history. Never lie or misrepresent; sooner or later you will be found out.
Cover every related experience in your background.
Dos: Include experiences with community, fraternal, and educational organizations- religious and political too, as long as you don't say which party or denomination.
Don'ts: If you seek a non-secretarial position, avoid describing your work experience in secretarial terms.
Express your background and experience in ways that work for you, not against you.
Dos: Explain your experience fully using action verbs. Turn your worst negatives (you were fired, overage, lacked a college degree) into positives.
Identify personal interests such as tennis or bridge which show you are a "people" person (competitive), particularly if applying for sales or other people-oriented jobs. Take credit for projects you had a part in.
Don'ts: Avoid self-praise.
Avoid describing yourself as a job hopper. Don't undersell yourself. Reach above your current position (not laterally or below it).
Never mention your salary in writing, even if an ad you are answering asks for it. If the ad doesn't mention salary but asks you to tell yours, just state in your cover letter, "My salary is competitive."
Show a progression in job responsibilities.
Select those aspects of your background and work experience that most closely fit the position you are seeking.
Defining Job Tasks
So let's work on the list. What tasks (paid and/or voluntary) of a constructive nature have you done that turned out well? To answer this question adequately you need a set of simple but effective guidelines for measuring accomplishments. These guidelines have two parts: (1) the actions you took and (2) results you achieved. A typical action list would look like this.
- Developed special seasonal and non seasonal promotions.
- Opened up new markets for existing products and services.
- Increased the caseload of clients.
- Selected products for major promotions.
- Established markets for overruns and irregular goods.
- Reduced personnel and labor costs.
- Reduced average order-filling, turn-around time.
- Carried out an analysis of ...
- Responsible for long-term intervention with families.
- Helped organize an activity group.
- Performed client advisory role.
- Fieldwork supervisor for undergraduate social work students.
- Helped with the design of a community outreach project.
- Evaluated natural parents' grievances.
- Worked with parents to determine if they were able to resume child care.
- Provided child protective services when needed.
- Attended several maternity shelter conferences.
- Worked to increase sales.
- Helped rebuild the field sales force.
- Recruited and trained salesmen and brokers.
- With two other managers, revised the incentive program.
- Introduced new products to customers.
- Developed some new packaging ideas.
- Conducted sales and training meetings on a weekly basis.
- Contacted and maintained liaison with major chain accounts and wholesalers.
- Forecast budgets and sales for my department.
- Supervised 4 sales representatives and 18 food brokers.
- Developed sales programs for major accounts.
- Originated a plan for coverage of accounts based on sales, price, volume, potential and expense.
These approaches are somewhat typical the ways in which many of you would describe your work experiences in a resume, but they contain major weaknesses.
1. They only list areas of responsibility rather than showing how these responsibilities were carried out. There are no conclusions, only statements. To show that you are "responsible for" a particular area does not communicate to the reader of your resume or letter how effectively you carried out your responsibilities. Perhaps you were terrible and got demoted or fired!
2. A list of "responsibilities" also fails to communicate what specific problems you were hired to solve.
Improving Your "Marketing Materials"
To put it in a nutshell, to increase the effectiveness of your job hunt, you must improve the quality of your "marketing materials" (your resume, cover letters, or action letters). Be specific much more effective than being general. Instead of stating responsibilities in a general way, describe your experience in terms of (1) the problems you were hired to solve, (2) the actions you took to solve them, and (3) the results you were able to achieve (positive or negative).
Insiders' Tip: Our experience shows that even when a company advertises for a generalist, it usually hires a specialist. Therefore your written marketing materials should describe you as a specialist and as specifically as possible.
To create your list of job accomplishments so you can identify those things you enjoy doing and things you wish to avoid, it is necessary to follow the next four-step procedure.
Step 1: List all your experience chronologically. Cover all your paid business experience, your military experience as well as your non job or unpaid experience, including religious organizations, fraternal organizations, community service, and other volunteer work.
Step 2: For each experience, paid or not, develop a complete list of responsibilities.
Step 3: For each area of responsibility, develop a complete list of job tasks.
Step 4: Describe these job tasks in the P-A-R format; that is, the problems you were attempting to solve, the actions you took, and the results you achieved.
Make No Mistake: Career Changing Is Hard Work
Two issues need to be addressed here. First of all, is career changing worth the effort? And second, are the time and effort required more than you would normally spend using your former methods of job hunting?
Most of you will live twenty or thirty years beyond your fiftieth birthdays. Will you have the financial means to enjoy your ten, fifteen, or more years of retirement? You will if you plan your career properly. Part of that planning is making the correct career switch(es).
In 2000 executives used the yardstick for success of $1,000 earned for each year of age he or she had attained. That is, if you are currently thirty-seven years old, you should be earning $37,000 per year! In the 2010s, because of inflation, the figure s $1.300 for each year of age (and this may be a conservative estimate). Based upon this yardstick, how well are you doing? How can you expect to improve your earning capability without working hard on your job campaign?
A rule of thumb that job seekers have found is to expect to spend, for every thousand dollars of anticipated income, one week looking for work. In other words, if you want to obtain a new job paying $32,000, you must expect to be looking for a period of approximately 32 weeks. Even with professional help, if you are unemployed and looking, the time required to get a new job is quite substantial. Outplacement companies, those that employ people who specialize in helping fired employees reported in Forbes that white-collar workers
" who had been earning over $40,000 and who were forty years of age took 4 to 6' months to find another job,
" who had been earning between $20,000 and $39,000 and who were under forty took 2 to 4 months.
Recent studies on the quality of work in America indicate that fully 85 percent of the workers in this country are not satisfied with their jobs and the psychic benefits. Are you one of these people? Do you want to find a more fulfilling job? Without working hard at doing so If you weren't "lucky" in the past, why do you think the future will be any different?
Business Week reported in one of the issues of 2010 that "according to a study by the National Commission on Working Women, the average woman worker is a lonely person in a dead-end job, seething with frustration over her lot." The number of women at work is expected to have risen from 48.4 percent in 2010 to 60 percent by 2020. Yet this study, which is based on the results of over 150,000 questionnaires, found that "40% felt that their jobs were boring and did not utilize their skills," and 60 percent named lack of advancement opportunity as their major obstacle on the job. Although the statistics for men would be different, these points affect them too.
The second point of consideration in "job hunting is hard work" is whether the time and effort required to apply the strategies of Career Changing are more than you would normally spend using traditional methods.
Although the effort involved is probably the same as in the usual ones, the methods discussed in this book may require a greater degree of concentrated effort. However, we believe that the time you spend to obtain a successful switch will be appreciably less. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the frustrations usually associated with a job search have been eliminated or reduced to a minimum. Next, the "Insiders' Tips" that are provided throughout this book give you a clearer understanding of how the job market really functions.
Knowing these things will permit strict control of energy, effort, time, and money on your part. Third, the skills you will develop and the strategies you will employ, along with the experience you will gain from their application, will (a) have practical application for your next job, (b) provide you a level of psychic security few people have experienced before, and (c) will reduce sharply the amount of time, effort, and money required to effect all of your future switches successfully.
The P-A-R Process in Action
So much for theory, let us look at the process by which a Problem-Action-Result(P-A-R) paragraph is developed.
We are in the home of Steve Walters in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. Steve is a thirty-eight-year-old regional sales manager for a small (625-employee) New Jersey-based business equipment service company. He has had sixteen years of sales experience with three companies and has a B.S. in marketing from New York University. Steve now finds his career advancement blocked and plans to switch to a larger company in order to increase the scope of his job responsibilities, raise his income, and move along in his career. To help him develop a resume or letter, he has enlisted the aid of a friend who also works as a sales executive.
KIT Insiders' Tip: To develop your own Problem-Action-Result (P-A-R) paragraph, obtain the help of a friend or business associate who works in the same field or job and as if you are staying in the same or similar work. If you are making a major switch (of job, title, or industry), find someone who can help you to reorient your materials.
Below (written in the format of a script for a play) is an example of a conversation between Steve Walters and his friend. It helps to show a P-A-R paragraph evolving out of the give-and-take of their dialogue. Although you'll see some sales jargon, concentrate on the process of developing the P-A-R paragraph rather than its content.
Constructing the P-A-R Paragraph: Two Examples
Let's produce the body of a P-A-R paragraph in the job of greatest interest to Steve, that of sales manager. He identified this category by doing a want-ad analysis on sales manager ads. This method is quite easy. It consists of one person's (a friend's) asking questions of another person (Steve Walters, the person looking to switch jobs). During this process, the friend takes notes, which are later expanded and refined into a P-A-R paragraph. We recommend that you use a cassette tape recorder, which will help preserve the give-and-take of the questioning technique and will prevent the possible loss of any important thoughts or concepts.
The most important activity identified from the ten want ads Steve collected for his want-ad analysis was "to maintain and strengthen existing business accounts." Following our P-A-R format, the first part that needs to be defined is the problem that Steve was attempting to solve. In doing this kind of exercise, don't think in terms of how you see the problem, but rather what a hiring organization sees as the problem.
This is the conversation between Steve Walters and his friend.
FRIEND: In your company, what is the major problem you hoped to overcome as it related to maintaining existing business accounts?
STEVE: Let me think. I'd say it's reducing, if not totally eliminating, those bureaucratic errors which create customer dissatisfaction. I've always found it more difficult to get new business than to hold on to existing customers. So if bureaucratic mistakes could be reduced, my company's ability to retain its existing business base would be maintained.
FRIEND: How would you start your P-A-R paragraph?
STEVE: "In order to maintain our ..."I'm stuck! What is the common terminology we've seen in the want ads? Do they use maintain accounts or prevent loss of accounts more often?
FRIEND: In your want-ad analysis, the phrase - maintain accounts- is definitely used more often than prevent loss of accounts.
STEVE: Yeah, but I've always used prevent loss of accounts.
FRIEND: Well, may be. But unless you start using the jargon we identified from your want-ad analysis, anyone who reads your letter or resume will see you as an outsider. Don't forget, Steve, you've been employed by the same company for nine years. Terminology has changed somewhat over the past few years.
STEVE: OK. I understand what you're saying.
FRIEND: Then you can begin your P-A-R paragraph as follows: "To maintain existing business accounts ..." What types of things did you do to prevent these losses? (Pause) I did a number of things. I interviewed customers by phone, in person, and by written
STEVE: questionnaires to determine what problems they were having. I questioned the drivers of our delivery trucks and I reviewed our customer service records to see if I could spot problem areas. I had another source of data too, the weekly field reports submitted by my sales reps.
FRIEND: (After finishing jotting down brief notes) A thought came to me while I was taking notes. What are you specifically trying to accomplish when you say you want to maintain business accounts? To maintain the highest possible level of equipment rental!
STEVE: That's better. Here's what I've written down so far. (Reading from his notes, as he starts to write the P-A-R paragraph) To maintain the highest level of equipment rental,
FRIEND: Insiders' Tip: Whenever possible, express your experience in positive instead of negative terms. Example: "To maintain the highest level of equipment rental" reads more positively than "to prevent the loss of business accounts."
STEVE : It sounds pretty good so far.
FRIEND: Let's now add the action part. "To maintain the highest level of equipment rental, I . . . (pause, reviews his notes) interviewed customers, questioned our delivery truck drivers, and reviewed accounts receivable records as the basis for improvement in service." How does that sound?
STEVE: OK, but it only describes the fact-finding phase. What about the ways I improved service?
FRIEND: Let me try and add what you just said to your P-A-R paragraph. "To maintain the highest level of equipment rental, I interviewed customers and delivery drivers and reviewed customer service records to determine a basis for service improvement. I established feedback mechanisms through monthly questionnaires, weekly driver reports, and daily review of customer service incident reports." Steve, how successful was these information feedback mechanisms? I have the lowest customer attrition rate in the company.
STEVE : How many sales regions are there in your company?
FRIEND: We have twelve regions.
STEVE: When you say "lowest" attrition rate, can you quantify that for me?
FRIEND: I think so. (Steve enters some figures on his calculator.) I was consistently under one percent attrition each month.
Their discussion having ended, Steve's friend then put all three parts of the P-A-R paragraph together for their mutual review. Below is their completed paragraph.
To maintain the highest level of equipment rental, I interviewed customers and delivery drivers and reviewed customer service records as the basis for service improvement. I established feedback mechanisms through monthly customer questionnaires, weekly driver reports, and daily review of customer service incident reports. This resulted in the lowest customer attrition rate throughout the company's twelve (12) sales regions: consistently under 1% per month.
PROBLEM: To maintain the highest level of equipment rental.
ACTION: I interviewed customers and delivery drivers and reviewed customer service records as the basis for service improvement. I established feedback mechanisms through monthly customer questionnaires, weekly driver reports, and daily review of customer service incident reports.
RESULT: This resulted in the lowest customer attrition rate throughout the company's twelve (12) sales regions: consistently under 1% per month.
This conversation between Steve Walters and his friend was a simple re-creation of the process used to develop any P-A-R paragraph. To increase your understanding of this process further, so that you can use it to develop your own P-A-R paragraphs, we will show you another, more elaborate conversation. Only slightly altered, it represents the recorded conversation of a job hunter and his friend. Certain concepts that appeared in our first P-A-R script are deliberately repeated in the second conversation for the purpose of emphasis. In addition, more Insiders' Tips are provided.
We are in the home of Ellen Jacobs in Stamford, Connecticut. Ellen is a thirty-seven-year-old union negotiator for a Washington-based professional transportation association. She has sixteen years of labor relations and union negotiations experience and two degrees, a B.S. from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University. Ellen finds herself at a dead end with her employer of fourteen years. To revive her career, she hopes to switch from a "public sector" career to one in private industry. Ellen has enlisted the help of a friend who works in a major manufacturing company as a labor-relations specialist. This illustrates how a P-A-R paragraph results from their discussion. Although, as before, there is a lot of industry jargon, notice the process of digging out the P-A-R format rather than the content of the dialogue. Once you understand this process, you will be able to repeat it, assisted by a friend or business associate, and develop your own P-A-R paragraphs.
As above, one person (the friend) asks questions of the other (Ellen Jacobs). As before, the friend takes notes, which the pair expands and refine into a P-A-R paragraph. A cassette tape recorder, as we've suggested, will help the participants remember any significant ideas.
From her want-ad analysis, Ellen decided that "administering the union contract" was her chief concern. The first P-A-R part needing definition is Ellen's problem. Remember, think in terms of what the organization sees as the problem, rather than your problem.
FRIEND: As far as your organization is concerned, what is the major problem you address in administering a union's contract?
ELLEN: Well, from my experience I'd say it's whether management can interpret a rule to mean something particular, whether they are allowed to require that work be performed in a particular manner as they view the contract.
FRIEND: How could we start your P-A-R paragraph?
ELLEN- "In order to interpret ..." What is the usual terminology that we have seen used in the want ads? Do they use the term contract or collective bargaining unit more often?
FRIEND: In your want-ad analysis ads, the term contract is definitely used more often than collective bargaining unit. In fact, it's used in eight out of ten ads.
ELLEN: But I've always called it a collective bargaining unit.
FRIEND: That's all well and good, but unless you use the jargon that currently appears in ads, a company will view you as an outsider to the field. Don't forget, terminology has changed since you began working fourteen years ago. The terminology used by corporations is different from what you've learned.
ELLEN:I see what you mean. I guess the term contract could also refer to a side letter of agreement as well as to the basic contract.
FRIEND: OK. So far we have "In order to interpret the contract. . ." Now, do you just want to concentrate on your side of the negotiating table, or do you think it's better to present both sides?
ELLEN: Since I'm trying to switch from the union side to the management side, 1 think it's better to expand it to encompass both. In reality, I act like a consultant to both sides, anyway. After all, if a contract is too one-sided toward the union, and management can't make any profit, then the company would go out of business and our union members would be unemployed. So I have to be fair to management too.
FRIEND: I'll jot that down. So far we have "In order to interpret the contract ..." Should it read: "to the company's advantage" or "the organization's advantage"?
ELLEN: Well, the interpretation has been made by the company to their advantage. Obviously it is to their advantage, otherwise they wouldn't have done it. Now, I try to figure out what the correct approach is concerning the contract so I can advise the union people who want to file grievances. I have further discussions about it to determine if I should take a firm or not-so-firm position. Or maybe I just ignore the issue.
Then what are you trying to achieve in terms of the interpretation of the contract?
FRIEND: The intent of the agreement at the time the contract is signed.
ELLEN: Then can we say: "In order to interpret the contract to achieve the full intent of the agreement"?
FRIEND: Yes, but I would like to get the concept of my impartiality somewhere in this sentence. Maybe I could add to the sentence that I was an advocate of my organization?
ELLEN: I understand what you're saying, but don't we achieve more by leaving the advocate issue out of the sentence? After all, none of the ads asks for an advocate, but rather an administrator of the contract!
FRIEND: OK. I'll agree with that. Leave "advocate" out.
ELLEN-
FRIEND: Then our description of "P" (Problem) from the P-A-R format is finished. Let me read what we have so far: "In order to interpret a contract to achieve the full intent of the agreement ..."
Good. But don't we assume that the agreement has already been read? It's a question of rereading the agreement, isn't it?
ELLEN: Yes, true. Also, I review similar circumstances to determine a consistency of application. (In other words, what led to the problem?)
FRIEND: Let's see if this answers the "A" part of our P-A-R format.
- Discuss the facts and circumstances of the point at issue.
- Research the negotiating history with its accompanying documentation.
- Review earlier discussions with interested personnel.
- Reread the agreement.
- Review similar circumstances to determine a consistency of application. (That is, what led to the problem?)
ELLEN: I'm not sure, but there is a logical and normal progression to these s:eps. "Discussion with the people" would come first while "research the negotiating history" would be last, since it involved getting into deep research.
FRIEND: Do we "reread the agreement" first, or do we "review similar circumstances"?
ELLEN: We reread the agreement.
FRIEND: OK, fine; so we have the proper order. Let me read you the first two parts 'P" and "A") of the paragraph. "In interpreting the contract to achieve the full intent of the agreement, I discuss with interested personnel the facts and circumstances of the points at issue; I reread the agreement; I review similar circumstance to determine a consistency of application (that is, what led to the problem?), and then I research the negotiating history with its accompanying documentation."
ELLEN: Not bad! But we'll have to tighten it later. That brings us to the "R" part of the P-A-R format. This is the part I have trouble with.
FRIEND: How do you document to the reader's satisfaction how successful you were?
Insiders' Tip: The value of what Ellen just did is the hardest to assess. To overcome the hurdle of documentation, be specific and quantify your results.
Insiders' Tip: It is perfectly all right to report a negative result in your work history. Very often, negative data are useful to an organization as they provide information for decision-making. Examples: Surplus inventories to be reduced, eliminating a communications bottleneck. Typical example: After spending six months reviewing a possible company acquisition, a manager of corporate planning decided it would not be in his company's best interests to buy this particular company (even though the president wanted it). Reasons: The price-earnings ratios were not good, the debt to equity ratios were terrible, people were quitting left and right, etc. It was an unpopular decision, but he reported the negatives. On the basis of his report, his corporation did not buy the little company. Later, another firm did buy it and they consistently lost money on it, eventually selling it off. The company was in terrible shape, as had already been determined.
ELLEN: I was successful in resolving almost all grievances without having to go to arbitration. Probably ninety-five percent successful, to quantify it.
FRIEND: Were you able to do this within a specific time limit?
ELLEN: No. Some issues take months or even years to resolve. When you deal with small, financially unstable companies who have small labor-relations staffs, its difficult for them to block out large chunks of time, aside from contract negotiations.
FRIEND: What do you mean by small? A hundred-million-dollar company versus a two-billion-dollar company?
ELLEN: In terms of my industry, transportation, I mean a regional carrier or lines above the commuter level as opposed to the big trunk lines.
Insiders' Tip: The jargon Ellen uses is indigenous to only the transportation industry. The reader of her job-hunting letter might (1) not know this jargon or (2) not be able to tell what industry she's in as a labor negotiator. But if you are too specific as to which industry you're in, you may not get the initial interview. A reader of Ellen's letter might conclude that because she works in transportation, she might not be well suited to the reader's industry, which might be consumer packaged goods or manufacturing. This type of prejudice (the reader jumps to conclusions based only on the information contained in the letter) is quite common and must be avoided. Your marketing materials should include only that information which will help you to get interviews. Leave out any specific facts which the reader can use against you (that is, not bring you in for the interview). The time to cover sensitive information is during the interview itself, when you can adequately explain any extenuating circumstances.
ELLEN: By "small companies" 1 mean ones that have fewer than five hundred employees.
FRIEND: That's a better way of defining "small." Can we say, "Five hundred employees in the bargaining unit"?
Insiders' Tip: The ability to choose when to be specific and to be general will make you an experienced and successful job hunter. Give the reader facts instead of making him/her draw inferences. Your letter or resume should answer questions for the reader, not raise them.
For example, the term small companies is open to a wide range of interpretation. Small is viewed differently by a personnel vice president in a $4 billion giant from the way an executive of a $15 million company views it. Therefore, 500 employees in the bargaining unit is preferable to the word small.
FRIEND: OK. Let's see what we have in your section on results. "Resolved ninety-five percent of the grievances without a need to go to arbitration."
ELLEN: Maybe we should characterize the types of case I was dealing with.
FRIEND: That's a good idea. It's specific rather than general. It also allows us to get some jargon into your paragraph.
ELLEN: My cases involved issues of contract terms, seniority questions, pension issues, work rules, and compensation.
ICW Insiders' Tip: The use of jargon in this case works in the candidate's (Ellen's) favor. Jargon tells the reader the person is experienced in a particular job category: she is an insider. Proper use of jargon allows the job applicant to speak the language of the prospective reader/employer.
FRIEND: I think we can finish the paragraph. "Resolved ninety-four-point one percent of the grievances related to union/management questions on work rules, compensation, pension, and seniority without a need to go to arbitration, in companies with five hundred or fewer employees constituting the collective bargaining unit."
Insiders' Tip: When developing your written marketing materials, avoid using numbers that end in 5 or 0, unless they are real figures. They look contrived CM" estimated. Instead, use decimal numbers and percentages such as 94.1 percent rather than 95 percent. These will be assumed to reflect an actual figure from your work experience. Example: "Increased new profits 23 percent" (not 25 percent); "decreased department personnel 37.5 percent" (not "16 people to 10 people"); "increased sale* $37,484 in the first quarter," not "$40,000."
Here is a rough draft of the completed P-A-R paragraph that Ellen Jacobs developed with the help of her friend.
As contract administrator for a large professional organization, I am responsible for interpreting the contract to achieve the full intent of the agreement. To accomplish this, I discuss with interested parties the facts and circumstances of the point(s) at issue, evaluate the applicable portions of the agreement, review similar circumstances to determine a consistency of application (i.e., what led to the problem?), and research the negotiating history with its accompanying documentation. This has resulted in a resolution of 94.1 percent of the grievances related to questions of work rules, compensation, pension, and seniority without a need to go to arbitration.
After reviewing this draft, Ellen was able to tighten up the paragraph by eliminating nonessential phrases and simplifying the language. The results of Ellen's efforts are reflected in the next paragraph.
As an industrial relations manager for a large professional organization, I am responsible for interpreting contracts. To accomplish this I discuss with interested parties the facts and circumstances at issue, evaluate the applicable portions of the agreement, review similar circumstances to determine past practice, and research the negotiating history. This efforts resulted in a resolution of 97.8 percent of contractual grievances without arbitration.
Before summarizing the P-A-R technique, let us analyze the discussion between Ellen Jacobs and her friend. Ellen and her friend encountered the greatest difficulty when they attempted to define the problem. As you read this section, you may have found it somewhat confusing. This confusion was mainly due to Ellen's vagueness and lack of direction. When Ellen's friend asked her to define the problem ("As far as your organization is concerned, what is the major problem you hoped to overcome?"), Ellen's response was general, almost tangential. The reason for this obliqueness is simple: the discussion between Ellen and her friend is a real conversation. If you followed the discussion closely you saw that the clarification resulted from the question-and-answer method of the counseling session. This process is very typical of the P-A-R approach. The counseling session begins with groping for information.
As the question-and-answer session continues, the friend further helps Ellen to clarify her thoughts, sorting the information into a well-defined problem. Later this same process is applied toward defining the action and the result.
The vagueness, the generality of the thoughts and statements, is typical. Do not allow it to frustrate you. Recognize that it is natural and necessary to the P-A-R process. The specifics develop from the general dialogue-once the direction is provided by the good listener.
Summary
To achieve a strong, concise P-A-R paragraph that accurately describes your experiences in the best possible way, simply follow the questioning procedure outlined above and try to include most of these key points:
" Use the same jargon that appeared in your want-ad analysis.
" Present your experience as a means of solving a specific problem.
" Include only data that work to your advantage.
" Present your "Problem" in general terms, but the "Action" and "Results" in specific terms.
" Present your "Action" data in a logical sequence using action words
" Quantify your "Results" using real figures (for example, 94.1 percent rather than 95 percent).
" Don't be wordy; wordiness shows you don't think clearly. Keep each sentence to a maximum of ten to twelve words. Keep each paragraph to a maximum of three to four sentences.
When describing your work history in the P-A-R format, remember to select experiences that were real and major accomplishments. For example: has your analysis of the functioning of your department ever resulted in major improvements? Have you ever worked on a project that expanded the nature of your company's business? Have the people you recruited and trained been promoted to more responsible positions?
A Portfolio of Sample P-A-R Paragraphs
For reference we have included additional examples of P-A-R paragraphs from various job categories. The action verbs used are italicized.
Training
To increase the effectiveness of employee communications throughout the organization, I negotiated the purchase and adoption of the American Airlines customer treatment program. I selected and trained 20 discussion leaders, then supervised the implementation of the 14-week program for 5,108 employees. Evaluation included questionnaires, interviews, and (random) analysis of employee job performance, which resulted in an average improvement of 22 percent above initial performance levels.
Problem: To increase the effectiveness of employee communications throughout the organization.
Action: I negotiated the purchase and adoption of the American Airlines customer treatment program. I selected and trained 20 discussion leaders, then supervised the implementation of the 14-week program for 5,108 employees.
Results: Evaluation included questionnaires, interviews, and (random) analysis of employee job performance, which resulted in an average improvement of 22 percent above initial performance levels.
Personnel
To improve the reporting of status changes in personnel, I interviewed department heads and administrators in order to produce an instruction manual with flowcharts. It explained the steps required in each of 34 methods to revise an employee's status. I conducted seminars on the personnel action form and manual for managers. I reduced errors from an average of 31 per day to 6.
Problem: To improve the reporting of personnel status changes.
Action: I interviewed department heads and administrators in order to product an instruction manual with flowcharts. It explained the steps required in each of 34 method to revise an employee's status.
I conducted seminars on the personnel action form and manual for managers.
Results: I reduced errors from an average of 31 per day to 6.
Hospital Administration
To centralize administrative functions, I interviewed key staff members, assessed the types of work required and the methods to accomplish them. I developed job descriptions and instituted clerical procedures to replace arbitrary use of staff by physicians. I created lists of job tasks and trained staff in their functions to permit rotational assignments. These changes had organization-wide effects and resulted in improved morale, cooperation, and initiative, and allowed closer supervision of clerical staff.
Problem: To centralize administrative functions.
Action: I interviewed key staff members, assessed the types of work required and the methods to accomplish them. I developed job descriptions and instituted clerical procedures to replace arbitrary use of staff by physicians. I created lists of job tasks and trained staff in their functions to permit rotational assignments.
Results: These changes had organization-wide effects and resulted in improved morale, cooperation, and initiative, and allowed closer supervision of clerical staff.
NOTE: In this example the hospital administrator was-not able to quantify her results. Though the P-A-R paragraph is not as strong as if the results had been quantified, this format is perfectly permissible.
Stock and Securities Sales Assistance
I screened and handled all customer inquiries, including instructions for buying and selling securities and changes in the status of accounts. By being a good listener and using my ability to placate irate customers, I was able to overcome hostility and then satisfy their business needs. This resulted in the stockbrokers' having more time to call clients and sell securities.
Problem: To placate irate customers.
Action: I screened and handled all customer inquiries, including instructions for buying and selling securities and changes in the status of accounts. By being a good listener and using my ability to placate irate customers, I was able to overcome hostility and then satisfy their business needs.
Results: This resulted in the stockbrokers' having more time to call clients and sell securities.
Retail Buying
To improve relationships with vendors, I initiated continuous verbal and written communications. Consequently, I planned advertising and inventory levels with vendors and documented advertising agreements. I then negotiated return privileges or markdown money with 72.7 percent of my manufacturers.
Problem: To improve relationships with vendors.
Action: I initiated continuous verbal and written communications. Consequently, I planned advertising and inventory levels with vendors and documented advertising agreements.
Results: I then negotiated return privileges or markdown money with 72.7 percent of my manufacturers.
Being a Travel Agent
To satisfy the overseas travel needs of a large Midwestern Shriners' organization, I determined the requirements and limitations of my client. Within that framework, I arranged for transportation, accommodations, meals, transfers, sightseeing trips, excursions, and banquets for a group of 335 people. I also coordinated the work of support staff in four countries. This resulted in a 17.4 percent increase in bookings the first year and a 27.8 percent increase in repeat business the second year.
Problem: To satisfy the overseas travel needs of a large Midwestern Shriners' organization.
Action: I determined the requirements and limitations of my client. Within that framework, I arranged for transportation, accommodations, meals, transfers, sightseeing trips, excursions, and banquets for a group of 335 people. I also coordinated the work of support staff in four countries.
Results: This resulted in a 17.4 percent increase in bookings the first year and a 27.8 percent increase in repeat business the second year.
Marketing Magazines
To increase sales, I developed and implemented a new concept called split logo, which enabled supermarket chains to sell two different monthly magazines, having an on-sale date 15 days apart, out of the same checkout pocket. This gave the chains 26 turns instead of 12. When the concept was implemented, a major publisher gained 73,210 new checkout locations for its magazines and increased sales of its leading women's fashion magazine from 779,826 copies per month to 1,274,533 in only 2 years, an increase of 63.4 percent. I achieved this at 60 percent of the normal cost for checkout pockets.
Problem: To increase sales.
Action: I developed and implemented a new concept called split logo which enabled supermarket chains to sell two different monthly magazines having anon-sale date 15 clays apart, out of the same checkout pocket.
Results: This gave the chains 26 turns instead of 12. When the concept was implemented, a major publisher gained 73,210 new checkout locations for its magazines. It increased sales of its leading women's fashion magazine from 779,826 copies per month to 1,274,533 in only 2 years, an increase of 63.4 percent. I achieved this at 60 percent of the normal cost for checkout pockets.
