When you’re interviewing, you want to highlight your:
Skills, accomplishments, and impact.
Your stories need to be: Relevant to the job/industry you’re pursuing.
They need to show Results. Transformation. Impact.
The interviewer needs to understand that your contribution was Significant, particularly given the conditions or context of the industry, the clientele, and the challenges you faced.
Here is a format to help you create fabulous interview stories. As you work with it, note that what makes this the “best” approach is that it helps you keep connecting to describing the impact of your efforts. You want to show how you made a difference. Be sure employers know that – even in the face of difficult, persistent, gnarly challenges – you are able to deliver results, produce winning strategies, and win over difficult clients.
Let’s get started. Open a file for your interview stories. Begin making a list of the accomplishments and skills you want to emphasize. As you work with the format below, you will find that you have several answers for items #2 and #3. That’s great! With each one, you will notice what you want to emphasize. When interviewing, pick the response that is most relevant to the job you’re after and feels the most powerful.
The best interview story format:
1. What did you do? I statements. I (skill/verb). (fill in the blank with skills that you used)
For example, I designed an interview skills workshop.
2. which was in service of (fill in the blank with the goal you were trying to achieve, or the challenge you were trying to address).
which was in service of helping clients be relaxed, prepared and confident at job interviews
3. and that is important/significant because (give information about why this matters, particularly in the context of the industry or client need)
and that is important because most interviews are 40 minutes long meaning that people have to be able to turn on a dime when giving interview responses.
and that is important because many people go years without interviewing and have little opportunity to practice their interview skills.
4. What was the result?
The result was a program that meets an outstanding career search need and gives people concrete help in a job search.
Now, put this altogether:
I designed an interview skills workshop that was in service of helping clients be relaxed, prepared and confident at job interviews. That is important because many people go years without interviewing and have little opportunity to practice their interview skills. The result was a program that meets an outstanding career search need and gives people concrete help in a job search.
Add details and examples as needed!