When interviewing for a job, you are just one of multiple candidates that the firm is meeting for the opening. Regardless of the position or interview process, you have to be memorable to the interviewers. Being able to tell a compelling story or stories to answer common interview questions is a great way to create a memorable experience for your interviewer and set you apart from others that give generic answers to the same questions.
When I was at a large company and interviewing candidates for an opening, I met a candidate from a smaller company interviewing to join our larger organization. I posed the question to him on why he would want to join a large company where he might get lost working around so many people, as compared to his boutique organization.
His answer:
“When I was growing up, as a hobby I kept an aquarium. What you learn if you have fish is that they will grow to the size of their tank. If you have a small aquarium your fish will stay small. But, if you take those same fish and put them in a larger aquarium, then they will begin to grow to their surroundings. That’s how I view my career, I feel that I’ve grown as much as I can at my current company, and want to test myself at a larger company, where I can continue to grow my skills and experience, much like my fish would grow when they were moved to a bigger aquarium setting.” We ended up hiring this individual, and part of the reason we called him back for a second interview was this story. When we reviewed the multiple candidates we interviewed, the other manager and I would always come back to the ‘fish guy’ as someone that we wanted to meet again as a possible fit.
How do you tell a good story in an interview? Here are a few ways to prepare to be memorable in an interview by telling your story:
- Examine your resume, and look at a list of common interview questions. Brainstorm about memorable experiences that you’ve had that you could share in an interview. You don’t have to write an exact script out of the stories that you would tell, but you could certainly make notes in an outline of what you’d like to convey.
- Add specifics and details in order for your listener to have enough visual description to understand your illustration. For example rather than answer a question by saying “Our team had a really tough goal that we had to accomplish…” you should be specific: “Our team had to redesign our company logo. Our logo was 30 years old and the Partners had asked us to come up with something that could be cutting edge but also incorporated their history, and they gave us three days to accomplish this task.”
- It has a beginning (setting up the situation), a middle (the problem or obstacle you had to overcome), and an end (the result).
- Your story is true. This might sound like a no-brainier but I have had candidates tell me an anecdote, and when I became interested and probed them on details, it was apparent to all in the room that the story was fiction. If you doubt whether you have interesting stories to share then have a friend sit down with you and ask you questions about what they see on your resume in a comfortable setting, and stories will surface that you previously hadn’t thought of.
The listener will be thinking about W.I.I.F.M throughout your telling of your story, so make sure it’s apparent by the end of your description. What is W.I.I.F.M? It stands for ‘What’s IN It For Me?” Anyone that has interviewed others for a job and is tasked with listening to an interviewee speaking, is doing this either consciously or subconsciously. The best storytellers are ones that keep this question in mind as they tell their story, and most importantly they will make sure the listener has a good understanding of what is in it for them to keep their attention throughout the tale. When preparing for your interview and examples you would like to share, make sure it is clear what is in it for them.
Preparing for your interview should include some basic groundwork of anecdotes and stories to share, so remembering a few of these suggestions should help you in this preparation. Many times these stories are what your interviewer will remember best about your meeting, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that after you are hired your future coworkers will want to know more about these narratives for years to come.
