Interviews: Stop giving examples, start telling stories.
There is a lot of advice out there these days about preparing for a job interview but how do you stand out from the crowd? For example, we all know these days that you should have a look at the company’s website, see what news articles come up when you Google them, and of course to have a few questions for the panel at the end of the grilling. It’s all good advice.
But I’ve found that if you’re not careful you can prepare so hard, you forget to be you.
I used to prepare for interviews like an exam. I would look at the job description and make sure I had something to say for every aspect of the role responsibilities. Sounds sensible doesn’t it? But I found that this meant I turned the interview into a memory test where I was so busy trying to remember the right example for the right question, that I stopped thinking. My answers were robotic, my personality non existent and most importantly (and perhaps ironically) I wasn’t demonstrating what I knew and how I could do the job.
It took me a few ‘unfortunately on this occasion you’ve not been successful’ outcomes before I realised I needed to stop parroting examples and start telling stories. And here’s why:
You will be more engaging version of you through story telling. We tell stories all the time. When we are in the pub, in the office or with family we talk about things that have happened to us. It might be about what happened at the match, the terrible meeting you had last week or about a great meal you cooked last night. Our stories are all unique and the ones we choose to talk about, tell people a little about us; how we think, what we like, or dislike. They bring people to life. It’s the same when in a job interview, they tell the panel a little bit more about you; for example how you think, communicate and how you work.
An interview panel will remember you. We love hearing stories and our brains listen and remember them in a different way. A few years ago I was being interviewed by a couple of very senior people for a press office role. I was feeling a bit nervous because it was a bit more corporate there than I was used to. During the conversation I told them a story about how in a previous role, I had taken reams of data and worked out that during that year there had been a fly-tip (illegally dumping rubbish) every 32 seconds and how it became a big media story. I just told them about what I did, but in doing so I was bringing the whole thing to life and giving an insight into how I work. I got the job and a month later, I saw the very senior person who had interviewed me. What do you think the first thing he said to me was.....how he had loved the 32 second fly tip story.
Stories are easier to remember than examples. A friend of mine recently had an interview for a job and it was their first one in a while. Consequently, although have an impressive career and had just the kind of experience that would fit the role well, they couldn’t seem to remember any of the ‘good examples’ to demonstrate it. She was getting pretty stressed by this. I told her to stop trying to remember what she did and think about incidents or things that happened while on projects of campaigns at previous roles. After a short pause, the stories started to come out about how x didn’t work and so picked up the phone to the Director to see if they could help change x...so on and so on. Suddenly things are easier to remember. Not only that, you will find them easier to recall when in the interview.
So when everyone is doing the same prep there is one easy way you can stand out from the crowd, tell a story.