How important is telling a story at a job interview? Linda, one of my speech clients had recently been interviewed for a Regional Director position. At the interview, the hiring manager asked her: “What does the mission of our company–which is “Caring for People” mean to you?”
To answer, Linda went on to say that she would work to help her teammates understand one another and focus on improving intradepartmental communication. To which, this hiring manager, slammed his porfolio on the table and said “That is not good enough!” Not knowing what to say, Linda turned the tables and said “What does the mission of your company means to you?” The manager looked her in the eye, smiled and told her a specific story of how he helped his department get to the bottom of a key customer care concern.
“At that moment a light bulb went on in my head,” Linda told me “and I realized that his story is very much like what I have done at my previous job. I told him about that event.”
To me this example illustrates few key points:
- Stories are far more powerful than abstract thoughts or statistics at getting the point across
- At a job interview, the questions are often designed to fluster and challenge, but that is to get the interviewee to get past their curse of knowledge
- Few hiring managers can be as candid as in this example, but all are looking for specific stories with purpose that engage their imagination in order to gain knowledge of their potential hire
Linda did not get this job (as of yet) but she learned an important lesson about the power of stories. They have the power to connect and to inform far better than any other mode of communication. To prepare for her next interview she (with my help) has already armed herself with four key stories that illustrate her mastery. Now she is getting ready to interview for the job of her dreams. Now she is ready to speak with power and GET THAT JOB!
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