An interview storytelling form for you
Ever been asked to tell a story in an interview? You know, in response to something like, “Tell me about a situation where you faced a challenge in a previous position, and how you handled it.”
Well, there’s an effective storytelling tool I’ve come across in the marketing world, and though I’ve seen three or four variations on it put out there by different folks, here’s basically how it would work for you, the job seeker:
1. The strong opening. This is a teaser preview of the story’s big punchline.
2. Positioning. Then you step back and briefly describe your job and company you held at the time.
3. Problem statement. Pretty straightforward – you describe the situation.
4. Failed solutions. If conflict is the key ingredient in making a story compelling, then being able to describe solutions other people tried, which failed, increases the listener’s interest because it deepens the level of conflict in the story.
5. Your solution. Describe it, top level, executive summary style.
6. Objections. Again, deepening the conflict. If there was any doubt cast on your solution, share it, and share how you overcame it.
7. The proof. Numbers, percentages, hard results – that’s the key here. You want incontrovertible evidence that shows your solution worked.
Now, it may seem like this would take forever to do in an interview, and you’d bore the interviewer to tears…but here’s a little stat for you: Speaking at a nice moderate pace, you can do about 500 words in just three minutes.
Think you can tell a good story for an interviewer if you typed it out across two double-spaced pages in a Word doc first, to get the story down in this format (which also serves as a way to practice it in advance)? Yes, I think you can.
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Excellent information — actionable, clear, concise. I will endeavor to use it.
Thank you!
Nice post. One quibble: I’ve been studying storytelling in the job search for a long time, and I contend that 3 minutes is too long. Two minutes at the absolute max, and even that is pushing it.