Every Job Seeker Needs a Good Story

The New York Times Shifting Careers blog recently featured a post about the art of storytelling and how mastering this skill can add value to your career. During a job search, several tools and strategies can be used to weave together a compelling story of your value to an employer. Resumes, interviews, and networking meetings should be rich with memorable information about you and the problems you have solved for organizations. Your story should be so good that the interviewer can't wait to repeat it to the next person in the hiring chain. Here are some tips for making that happen.

Create an exciting resume that the reader just can't put down. Don't just write about job tasks and don't just list statistics. Build a story around your accomplishments that succinctly communicates the impact you had on an initiative or an organization as a whole.

Tell your story with pictures. Try adding some charts or graphs to your resume to create a visual representation of your impact. For example, if you increased sales 500% over a 5 year period, create a bar graph to show the year over year growth.

Showcase samples of your work. Bring examples of the types of reports, business communications, or design work you do to the interview. Consider including links to websites, photographs, videos, or project prototypes to your portfolio when appropriate.

Answer interview questions using the Challenge-Action-Result story format. Employers are interested in learning about your past successes because they feel that past successes are a good indicator of future success. By describing the challenges you faced, the actions you took to address those challenges, and the corresponding results for the organization, you are more likely to create interest and excitement about your candidacy.

Ask questions that invite the interviewer to tell their story. In order to build a strong rapport with the hiring authority, you need to share information. Asking the interviewer to also share information helps deepen this relationship. Ask what issues the department is struggling with and what types of strategies they have tried in the past to address these issues. Asking questions shows your interest and concern for the company's problems and also positions you as the right person to address them.

Posted by Barbara Safani

Comments

[Karen P. Katz]

Barbara-

Well said, as usual. It comes down to engagement - the client must be engaging, and engage the interviewer(s).

Sometimes I encourage clients to tell their stories in a way that resembles a made-for-TV drama. I refer to this as the "10 O'Clock Dead-Person." I am comparing the P-A-R format to the simple structure of a crime show: viewers are sufficiently engaged in the flow and structure of the story to remain engaged through 20+ minutes of commercial messages.

Interviewers are like TV-viewers: they want to be interested in the story, to become engaged in the story, and to identify with and like the story-teller.

[Barbara Safani]

Karen,

I love the analogy to the crime show. I guess everyone needs a little "Law and Order" in their interview strategy. Thanks for commenting!

[Jacob from JobMob]

I especially like the idea of giving the interviewer something they can't wait to tell others.

Stumbled this for you:
http://jobmob.stumbleupon.com/review/25494107/

[Resume Service]

"Build a story around your accomplishments that succinctly communicates the impact you had on an initiative or an organization as a whole" -- what an excellent idea. A resume that's informative and entertaining! If you can pull it off, go for it. A good trick is to read your resume aloud after you complete it. If it sounds interesting aloud, then it will definitely be an interesting read for potential employers.

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Resume and Career Services
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