DISCUSSION: Strengths and CAR statements

This week we are back in discussion section to talk about the results of your recent assignments: your initial resumes, wanderings diagrams,  strengths quiz results, and challenge-action-result statements.  In particular, your TA may ask you to think about some of the connections between these different communication and reflection assignments.  For example:

• Review your resume.  Are there items from your wanderings diagram that might be good things to highlight on your resume?  Are there ways of talking about your top strengths that you can make more evident on your resume?  (Not by "listing" your strengths on your resume, but by demonstrating them in the bullet points under your experiences.)  Are there particular challenge-action-result examples that you can highlight as bullet points under experiences in your resume?  What if you rewrote every bullet point on your resume to include strengths language?  What if you rewrote every bullet point on your resume in C-A-R format?  
• Think about your wanderings diagram.  What areas of your life you draw most of the items on this diagram from -- formal jobs? high school or college coursework? volunteering or community work?  hobbies or family life?  What kind of overall "story" does your wanderings diagram tell about you, your interests, your values, and your strengths?  Does that same story come through with your resume?  Can this help you think about what kind of story you want a prospective employer to learn about you?  
• Think about your strengths results.  Do the items on your wanderings diagram represent opportunities you've had to discover, develop, and improve those strengths?  How about the experiences listed on your resume, or the experiences you cited in your CAR statements?  What kinds of choices about courses, student activities, volunteer activities, or hobbies could you make in the future to provide more opportunities to better develop the strengths that you've identified?  Did you identify any new strengths that you've previously thought of as "weaknesses"?  If so, how can you change the story that your resume tells in order to recast those as strengths?
• Think about your CAR statements.  Imagine someone asking you about each one -- how would you develop those brief statements into a longer story in an interview setting?  Your TA may pair you up in person -- or create little paired breakout sessions online -- to have you go through an exercise where your partner reads out one of the CAR statements as an interview question, and you answer it with a brief story.  For example, "Tell me about a time when you ... demonstrated that you can work effectively in a group setting".   Going through a "mock interview" with these CAR statements can help you reflect more deeply about how you want to describe your challenges and successes, and how you would link those back to a resume or cover letter.