Lesson 3 – Me as an employee
Please note all of our course materials, videos and webinars are provided for general information only. Their contents do not represent legal advice. Their content represents original work and are protected by copyrights and are intellectual property of NDSA Partnership C.I.C.
Lesson overview
- My STARS
- My transferable skills
- My channels – communication settings that make me effective
In lesson 2 you described your achievements. We are going to refine and complement your description of achievements using the STAR structure, so that your achievements come across in the strongest possible way in your CV and in interviews.
My STARs
We are going to use the STAR model to analyse your achievements and develop a structured helpful way of describing them. This will be helpful for the CV and the interviews.
STAR stands for
- Situation: what was the problem, provide some background.
- Tension: what was the complication, the obstacles you had to overcome.
- Action: describe what you did using action words, step by step.
- Result: make this as specific and measurable as possible, quantify it and provide something to compare it with that makes it look even more impressive, explain what is the benefit, the impact.
Download the STAR form attached and describe your achievements using all the sections of the STAR model. Try to write at least 6 STARS, preferably one for each of your strengths. Later this will serve for updating your CV and preparing for interviews.
Describe your achievements using all sections of the STAR model. Think of times when you have enjoyed achieving something. For example something you feel good about from any time in your life. Something accomplished at work, home, or in leisure. Something that depended on your actions, not just what happened to you.
Take time to choose your six examples, consider carefully about what you did, why it was challenging and also rewarding.
Write down each example in the STAR structure about 14 lines each, about 250 words.
This will be used to identify your transferable skills and competencies and for interviews.
My transferable skills
We are going to use your STAR stories to identify your transferable skills.
- For each of your six Achievement examples go down the list of skills in the list attached and tick the boxes for the ones you used. There are six numbered columns for each of your achievement examples. When you have done that for all six stories count the ticks for each skill and write down the total.
- When you have finished scoring your skills in the list, list the top 12 skills as described.
- Reorder your top 12 skills in order of preference with the ones you enjoy using the most at the top and the skills your enjoy the least at the bottom.
Fill in your transferable skills section in the All About Me section ‘Transferable skills’
My channels
We are going to talk about the types of communication that work for you. We will call them your communication channels.
Some people like talking face to face. Other people prefer online text chat. These are examples of channels: in person to a group of people or one to one, on the phone, online via text chat, online via video chat.
Think about examples when communication worked well for you. When you enjoyed communicating.
What communication channels make you effective?
Write them in All About Me.
All about Me and the STARs
Now you should have completed all the sections of All About Me and the STARs
Re-read them carefully and see whether you have a STAR for each of your strengths/transferable skills. If not, add additional STAR’s at the bottom of the STAR document. The STAR’s for your most powerful strengths should be at the top.
Reread them again and take time to appreciate yourself as a person with talent bringing significant benefits to an employer. You are a STAR!
Me in the work environment
Presented by Jane Green.
Jane was a professional autism educationalist for the county then nationally with the largest autism charities. She worked on the social model of autism education and various other areas including diversity in employment. She became Asst. Headteacher but had to retire due to ill health. She advocates for health and autistic people in education, employment, health, social care and transport accessibility particularly for those who often missed out. She is a parent/care for her eldest autistic adult child and recently received her diagnosis of autism. She has presented at various arenas on autism employment including neurodiversity hackathons but speaks about actually staying employed and the organisation being flexible enough to go somewhere towards co-production.
Please note all of our course materials, videos and webinars are provided for general information only. Their contents do not represent legal advice. Their content represents original work and are protected by copyrights and are intellectual property of NDSA Partnership C.I.C.
