Every day I meet people who are successful.
But 9 of 10 people fail to explain HOW they succeeded. It is either generic, watered down or not clear what the impact of their work was.
If you cant sell yourself authentically and powerfully, it means less opportunities.
How to Explain Your Success in 5 Simple Steps.
- Audience: Think about the reader
- Details: Get specific
- Narrative: Create a compelling story
- Quantify: Calculating Value and Indirect Value benefits
- Framework: Imply future success
Step 1 - Audience: Think about the reader
A simple step, but one that is often missed. If you are a Medical Doctor/Professor with no Industry experience, writing achievements about how many papers you have published / grants raised is not relevant. If you are a Medical Director (Medical Affairs) and talk about how great your KOL network is, that is not that relevant to Clin Dev.
Think : Who is the decision maker that will read this? How can you make your experiences truly valuable to the end reader?
Step 2 - Details: Get specific
In the beginning of this course we discussed how to get really specific. Targets, trials, patient types, technology used. In here you can isolate very specific tasks which you know are important to the job you are applying to.
Your job is to identify the what and then discuss the how. In the above example, the “what” is leading a Phase II trial design. The “how” is way you approached this. Note: The how can be much more detailed (what statistical models used, what literature, etc).
3 - Narrative: Create a compelling story
All work we do can be distilled into two elements, we help companies make money or we help companies save money. Important to understand this most basic element.
Direct Value vs. Indirect Value
In the above graphic you can see the Indirect Value that helps a company create Direct Value (money).
In Clinical Development the most obvious is intelligently designing trials. A well designed trial will be able to test drugs safer (saving money), more effectively (saving time) and create new opportunities (creating money).
To clarify some of the above Indirect Value contributors:
Energy: You allow other people to have more energy to do their job more effectively.
Leverage: You provide data, insights or leadership which allows more effective work.
Engagement: Not just patients, but also marketing engagement, Investment engagement or team culture etc
Opportunity: Here you identify problems or new angles.
The above are the most common pathways, there could be more. The important thing is connecting the What with the How and then creating the story about the benefits.
Step 4 - Quantify: Calculating direct or inferred benefits
After you create your story pathway, you can now include how your work has helped. You should show how the Indirect Value has been able to create Direct Value.
My recommendation is find a healthy balance of Value Creating achievements and 1-2 Indirect Value Creation achievements (Time, Energy, Opportunity etc).
If you have worked in 10 companies, I would say your CV should have about 2-4 Direct Value achievements and 3-5 Indirect Value achievements. You do not need to make it about money each time, this would be strange.
5 - Framework: Imply future success
The secret sauce. The gamechanger. The thing EVERYONE fails at.
With every success and every failure - you have developed an insight. With reflection and repetition that becomes a framework. A framework is what makes people incredibly successful.
Implying future success is what makes you go from a GREAT applicant to an UNBELIEVABLE candidate.
“Through this I built a framework which I now apply to all PI trials which Discera Therapeutics now implements globally during all their research. Excited to bring this to future companies and help transform their clinical approach.”
All Together - aim to have 2-3 such stories
Real examples available in the Paid Content.
Bonus: Leverage social references
At the bottom of your CV, feel free to add a reference with a quote. Think of it like an amazon review - a simple.
“Charles and I worked together for the ELEVATE-66 study and he helped transform how we approached the entire study” Prof. Angela Merkle (Reference available, along with 8 more).
Comfort zone vs. Authenticity : This will be new to many. Find the balance between leaving your comfort zone and remaining authentic.
