At the
Interview, Don't Answer Questions, Tell Stories
Instead
Many years ago when I hated what I was doing for
a living I was encouraged by my career coach to write
several short stories about times and events in my life
where I influenced the outcome. I was stumped at first,
but after a few days, I came up with over 15 pages of
stories of times in my life where I influenced the
outcome and either grew myself and/or bettered the
existence of either others or myself.
So what does this have to do with a job
interview?
If you read other books on job interviews,
you'll notice they feed you a ton of interview questions
to learn answers to. The big problem with this is
that an interview is not an interrogation. It's a
conversation. To make it that way you need to come armed.
Arm yourself with a multitude of small stories about both
your business life and your personal life.
When you go into an interview, you need to leave
the nerves at the door. The best way to prepare is to be
you. The best way to do this is to tell your own story
(or stories). So have your stories all in line and ready
to go.
Here's Why
Competency-based interviewing being used more
often today. In a traditional interview, the interviewer
will ask you questions focused on whether you have the
skills and knowledge needed to do the job. A
competency-based interview goes further by asking you
additional questions about your character, soft skills
and personal attributes that can better determine whether
you fit their corporate culture. These are called
"behavioral competencies".
A competency-based interview will spend about
half the interview on your job skills, and about half on
your behavioral competencies. The interviewer will be
looking for evidence of how you have acted in real
situations in the past. So having your stories ready to
go plays very well for this type of interview.
Here is What a
Company Wants to Find Out About You:
1. Are you an asset or liability, ie. Will
you either make money or save money for the
company.
2. Are you a team player (will you fit
into the corporate hierarchy or be like sand in the gears) Can
you take and give (if appropriate) orders
3. Will you fit into the company culture
(they don't want loners or prima donnas)
The best way to do that is to take the
initiative and have several personal stories that you can
tell, taking maybe a half minute to 90 seconds
each.
You may want to start by developing your stories
around these areas:
 Several times where you either made money
or saved money for your current or previous
company.
Focus on a crisis or two in your life or
job and how you responded or recovered from it.
A time when you functioned as a part of a
team and what contribution was.
A time in your career or job when you had
to deal with stress
A time in your job when you provided
successful leadership or a sense of direction
What failures in your job did you face
and how did you overcome them.
What seminal events happened during your
career that caused you to change direction and how they
worked out for you.
I want to emphasize that an interview should not
be an interrogation. It should be a conversation among
two equals. When you accomplish this you come away a step
closer to your goal of landing the job you really want,
because…
It’s the conversation that wins an interview,
and
It’s the conversation that wins the job
To have a conversation, have your stories
ready.
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