Using Rock Star Success Stories To Land Your Next Job!

Lucky you, you’ve been selected to interview for what may be your dream job. But then you discover you’ll be up against nine other hopefuls, and you ask yourself, “How can I be the chosen one?”

My favorite strategy for standing out to is arm yourself with a handful of rock-star success stories relevant to the position you’re targeting, and be ready to share them in the interview.

For example, talking with a machinist on the hunt for a new job, I asked him to describe a time when he’d demonstrated his expertise in that specialty. Soon he was recounting a situation where he’d pushed purchasing to make a change in the thickness of metal sheets he was working with, to increase the quality of the widgets he was machining. When they didn’t respond, he nudged them again, until they honored his request.

When pressed for more details, he told me that simple change ended up saving him about an hour each day in not having to rework his widgets. At a pay rate of $22/hr., the upgrade in materials saved the company $100 each week in wasted labor. He then told me there were seven other machinists all working on the same project, so the savings multiplied to $700 per week, or $36,000 per year. The quality of the widgets output increased, also, ultimately boosting customer satisfaction.

Now imagine this machinist walking into an interview with five or more success stories like this, practiced and ready to share in response to questions like, “What are your strengths?”, “Describe a time when you solved a sticky problem,” and “When have you persuaded others to do things your way?”

Recalling accomplishments like these, and developing them into success stories, has the potential to place you above the competition. For each, include details about what prompted your action, how you responded, and proof that it worked. This outline will keep you on track as you deliver high impact, memorable answers.

Then, when the hiring managers make their choice, you’ll be far more likely to be remembered as the candidate who gets results.