Donate
Career Advancement

Show Your Worth: 6 Ways to Weave Technical Skills into Your Story

You know your worth is inestimable, right? You’re infinite and infinitely worthy just because you exist.

But when you’re out there networking, job searching, and interviewing, it’s easy to forget that not everyone knows your heart, soul, and value-adds. It’s also really easy to index for the wrong things when putting your achievements forward. 

In the professional world, it’s up to you to SHOW the value you bring to all the folks you meet – you know, the ones who can open doors for you.

This article gives you six easy tools to do that. 

What’s the Problem Here?

Have you ever gone through a job interview process feeling really good about your prospects, even feeling like you crushed the interview, only to later be told the company was going in a different direction?

There are lots of reasons that can happen (some of which have nothing to do with you – internal hire, perhaps?) But it could also mean you left points on the table when communicating the value you can bring to an organization, your technical skills, or – much more simply – your impact. 

These three things are all facets of the same thing: how adept you are at driving measurable positive change within an organization. Without clear insight into this aspect of your track record, you leave a big question in the mind of the hiring manager: “She’s great! I really liked her … but I’m just not sure she will be able to solve my problems and help me fulfill my agenda.”

Why This Matters?

When I’m screening for new members of my team (just as I did when I was a hiring manager at BCG), I’m looking for potential. Potential is not the same as past achievements – it’s an estimation of your ability to contribute within my organization against the projects and problems we are working on. I am looking for the person who represents the greatest potential value add to my team.

Any time you make a career change, you are changing environments, culture, technology, communication norms, people, and lots more. Wherever you are coming from isn’t the same as where you’re headed. 

The only constant in this world – and in any corporate structure – is change. Things are changing all the time – for better and for worse. The question is: will you make positive change happen? The only way recruiters know you will is if you communicate the specific ways you’ve done so in the past.

6 Ways to Show You are a Changemaker

1. Start with a brag sheet

Your resume probably doesn’t yet reflect all the change you’ve made happen. We’ll get to that in a minute. But for now, set aside your resume, your LinkedIn, and all the ways you‘ve thought about your career to date. 

Stop and just reminisce.

Start with your most recent role. Make a list of all the ways you have made an impact so far in this role. Include all the ways things are now better because of your input. That could include …

  • Projects that went well
  • Processes that were improved
  • Initiatives that succeeded
  • Revenue that was generated
  • Customers that were satisfied
  • Costs that were reduced

And so on …

Think beyond what you did, like …

  • Ideas you generated
  • Analysis you performed
  • Solutions you uncovered
  • Communication you facilitated

to why your input mattered

In other words, how did you concretely and measurably move the needle on corporate objectives? Map your impact as closely to the bottom line as possible. You needn’t have played the key role in a success – everything happens through collaboration. The important thing is to show how your efforts did tie to the outcome and make change happen.

List as many examples as you can think of, big and small. Then move to your last role, then the one before that, and so forth.

This is your brag sheet. And you need it for all the rest of the tactics.

2. Talk to your managers

Now that you have a clear picture of where you’ve made a difference, vet it with the people who know your work. 

In an informal conversation, say you want to get their input on your thinking about the value you’ve brought to some recent projects. Run one or two of your greatest hits by them, clarifying where you think your work helped create the positive outcome. 

Then ask them for their perspective. Do they agree this is the primary value you added? Did they observe other impact you left out? What other input do they have that could help you clarify the mark you are making on the team?

Add their insights to your brag sheet. 

A great question to close the conversation: What are one or two ways you’d like to see me add even more value to the current/next project?

3. Gussy up those resume bullets

Most people miss the mark entirely on their resume bullets. That statistic frequently includes MBAs, unfortunately. They use valuable word count to summarize responsibilities, outline deals or projects they worked on, or list out tasks and skills employed. This information is useless to a hiring manager. Remember: new world, new environment, new job, new challenges. Your previous job description isn’t important. How you drove change is. Check out this video for a deeper look at what I mean.

The resume is a different kind of brag sheet. It needs to showcase the most important ways you’ve made change happen in your career so far. Start with that brag sheet from earlier. Then work to transform those bullets into showstopping testaments to the value you brought to the organization. Here is much more in-depth guidance on your MBA resume if you want to really put this advice into practice and master the executive communication skill of defining your impact.

4. Make that cover letter stand out!

When job applications give you the opportunity to submit a cover letter or a short statement of interest, cut straight to the value you bring. Examine the description of the job you’re applying for carefully. Determine the 3-5 key areas the company needs you to create value in that role. Make a list.

Then go to your brag sheet, or your awesome resume at this point, and find 2-3 ways you’ve created similar or relevant value. 

Highlight these anecdotally in your cover letter:

In my role as [previous role], I contributed to/enabled/created [concrete business outcome] through [actions you took to achieve the result.]

Then speak to the new role and delineate why you’re enthusiastic to add concrete value to that role, team, and organization.

5. Walk them through your resume (emphasis on change!)

Most interviews start with this general question about your history. I talk a lot about this question in my book Interview Hero. It’s the first question, and for that reason, it’s arguably the most important. It sets the stage for the rest of the conversation. Instead of rambling through your chronology, make it a charismatic, bold statement about your value as a professional.

Go back to that brag sheet. Choose the 2-3 places you’ve created value that are most relevant to the role you are interviewing for. Then highlight those in your walk-me-through. Don’t forget to demonstrate passion for the path of positive change you are uniquely creating on your career journey so far.

6. Tell stories about impact

Many professional interviews center around behavioral questions. Questions like …

  • Tell me about a time you led a team.
  • Tell me about a time you overcame a challenge.
  • Give me an example of solving a problem under uncertainty.
  • When have you achieved a goal under resource constraints?

And many, many more. 

These look like different questions, but they’re actually just different versions of the same question. Do you know what they’re really all about?

You guessed it. They’re about driving positive change. Make sure absolutely every story you tell culminates in the happy ending of the impact you created, the way you made your mark, and how things were different and better after you did your thing. 

Go back to that brag sheet and start building new stories for your next interview.

Where does Confidence Come From?

In my 20 years of career coaching top performers and MBAs, I’ve learned that confidence, though it can elude us at the most critical moments, is essential to success and happiness at work. 

I‘ve also found that for those of us who are already out there in the world doing great stuff, confidence comes from communication. It comes from the way you privately frame and understand your own meaningful place in this world and – just as importantly – the degree to which you can convey that to others so they get it, too.

My whole career has been about giving you the tools to believe in yourself and achieve your dreams, in part through the powerful tools of brilliant communication. If you’d like to join my community, get periodic blasts of career wisdom, and download a free chapter of one of my books (or another free gift of your choice), head on over and sign up for the Career Protocol community.

Related posts
LET’S DO THIS

Get newsletters and events relevant
to your career by joining Forté.

our partners