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Many job applicants are too easily caught in the “I did” trap. That’s the trap where you go on and on listing all of the great things you did over the decades. On your resume and during interviews you make a cascade of statements like;

• I managed twelve salespeople, or,
• I developed a marketing plan, or
• I never missed a day of work, or
• I won the employee of the month award three times, and so on…

Unfortunately these “I did” statements do not differentiate you from other applicants, have no impact, and are easily forgotten. In National Able Network Board Chairman Carolyn Dolezal’s recent blog post: “Tell Your Story, Show Your Strengths,” she explains the best way to show your strength is to use “PARs.” PARs are brief achievement stories about a previous job or volunteer situation covering a Problem you dealt with, the Action you took, and the Result you accomplished.

My advice to you is to turn your PAR into a “super-PAR” and relate your experience to a specific issue faced by the company you’re interviewing at. It will show you care about the company and the position you’re applying for. Caring is important. If you do not communicate that you care about them, why should they care about you?

Imagine this super-PAR scenario…

You use a PAR that shows you saved $50,000 at your previous company by negotiating a better cleaning service contract, but the company you are interviewing with does not use an outside cleaning service. Although your PAR is much better than a simple “I did” statement, it has far less value at this company than to a company that uses outside cleaning services.

Now, let’s say that through some research you learned that the company has over 20 people involved in cleaning. You know from your past experience that the cost for 20 people with salary, benefits, taxes, etc. would be close to $1 million/year. From your research and prior experience, you estimate that an outside contractor could help reduce these costs by $100,000/year.

So, now you can deliver this super-PAR during an interview…

From my research, I understand that you have almost 20 people doing facility cleaning. We had a similar situation at ABC, Inc. and I brought in outside contractors that not only improved the cleaning quality, but saved the company over $100,000/year.

Using this “super-PAR” shows the interviewer that you have the skills they need, communicates that you know how to apply these skills and, more importantly, shows that you care about the company by doing your research.

In summary, if you want the hiring manager to care about you and offer you a position, you first need to show that you care about them and using a super-PAR can do that. Super-PARs take time and effort to build, but there is no better way to show you care and can deliver real value!

National Able Network Board Member, Frank L. Poggio