How do you tell a dragon-slaying story?


The best way to explain work history is to write it as a mini-story. HR expert Liz Ryan calls these “dragon-slaying” stories. You are the knight in shining armor that killed the mighty beast of a problem at your past employer. Stories are much more captivating than a list of duties and tasks.

A dragon-slaying story shows the problem, explains your solution, and conveys the impact your solution brought.

[Problem] + [Solution] = [Impact]

The problem is the challenge you faced or the issue that was presented to you. This can be as big as trying to figure out logistics for a multi-million dollar client or as small as doing customer support for an extremely upset user.

The solution is what you did to solve the problem. This answers how you won that client back, made that customer happy, saved the company money, etc.

The impact is what happened as a direct result of your solution. Often these are quantifiable. Such as "...saving the company $4M a year" or "...growing user retention by 31%.”

Once the reader understands the problem, they can appreciate the impact that your solution had.

Example: An upset client threatened to leave after our bid was twice as much as other companies. I worked with manufacturing to create a more cost effective plan for them and win the bid (worth $25k/sales a year.)

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