8 Tips on Why Candidates ECQs Do Not Pass the QRB

By Barbara Adams, Executive Coach

Federal and Military Career Strategist – www.careerproplus.com

Over the years, we have seen candidates who wrote their own ECQs fail the QRB for a variety of reasons. For example, their narrative ECQ statements:

1. Do not describe the personal action they took to achieve the results;
2. Do not focus enough on leadership skills;
3. Seem more managerial/project management-oriented than executive in nature;
4. Lack quantifiable results;
5. Lack evidence of the core competencies, such as leveraging diversity, creativity, vision, and/or strategic thinking;
6. Contain too much philosophical or vague language;
7. Are not presented in OPM’s preferred format, CCAR (Challenge-Context-Action-Result);
8. Spend more than one robust paragraph on challenge/context. The boards want to see a clear and concise challenge/context paragraph that tell them your job title, role, the date of the example, and the problems/challenges you faced. Further, they want you to spend the majority of the space on the page to highlight your specific actions and results.

We Can Help

If you are experiencing any of the above reason that your ECQs are not QRB worthy, we can help. Contact one of our Master Federal Career Advisor’s for a free consult, and path forward. https://www.careerproplus.com/ecqs/ or 800-471-9201

Learn More About ECQs & KSAs

• Executive Core Qualifications
• TQs, PTQs, and MTQs
• KSAs and Assessments
• ECQ Best Practices Webinar