Your evidence bank

Turn duties into results with numbers, then build eight STAR stories that cover the competencies senior panels test.

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Before you start

Your path

Choose your field and level. The examples and suggestions in this lesson change to match.

The story

Twelve years, and nothing to say

Amira · Senior nurse · applying for a matron post

Amira had run a busy medical ward for four years. Her CV said: “Responsible for patient care. Supervised junior staff. Involved in audits.” All true, and exactly what every other candidate could have written.

At interview, the panel asked about a time she'd improved a process. Her mind filled with half-memories. She started in the middle, wandered into a second example and stopped without saying what had happened in the end.

“I’ve done so much. Why couldn’t I think of anything?”

She had plenty of evidence. She just hadn't collected it before she needed it. This lesson builds your evidence once, properly.

Step 1 · Duty or result?

Check your current CV

Paste the bullet points from your CV or job description, one per line. Each line is marked D (a duty) or R (a result).

Step 2 · The achievement inventory

Challenge, action, result

For each role in the last ten years, including board, trustee and committee roles, write achievements as CAR: the challenge, what I did, and the result with a number. At senior level, the action is often what you decided, who you persuaded and how you led others. Aim for fifteen.

Role

Challenge

Action (I…)

Result (with a number)

Step 3 · Eight STAR stories

From achievement to story

Choose your eight strongest achievements and write each as STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result, plus an optional Reflection. Aim for about two minutes spoken, with roughly half of it on the action. Tick the competencies each story covers.

Competency coverage

Step 4 · The modesty check

When your evidence feels smaller than it is

Many experienced professionals, especially those working in a second language, carry an inner critic that shrinks every result: “anyone could have done that”, “it was really the team”. Write the three lines yours uses most. Whose voice is it? Then rewrite each line the way a respected colleague would describe the same work to a hiring panel.¹

What my critic says

Whose voice?

What a respected colleague would say

1. Adapted from Shaun Simpson, Why Should I Give a Monkey’s? (2024), Exercises 24 and 25.

★ Core activity

Your evidence bank

Your strongest achievements and STAR stories, with competency coverage, on one page. You'll use it for your CV (Lesson 6), applications (Lesson 7) and interviews (Lessons 8 and 9).

Before you move on

Three questions

Five minutes, in English or your own language: whichever lets you think most clearly.

Which achievement surprised you most when you wrote it down properly?

Which competency was hardest to find a story for, and why?

Is it easy or difficult for you to say “I” rather than “we”? What would help?

What to remember

Five things to keep

Employers know your duties from your title; they hire you for your results.
CAR turns a duty into an achievement: challenge, action, result.
Almost every role has numbers; honest estimates are fine, invented ones aren't.
A STAR story takes about two minutes, and half of it is the action.
Eight stories, covering eight competencies, answer most interview questions.

Lesson 4: Your personal search plan

Turn your positioning into three lengths, ten seconds, thirty seconds and a written bio, and set weekly targets you control.

Start Lesson 4 All lessons

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