The Best Job Candidates Are the Best Storytellers

If you’re one of the people seeking a new work opportunity, then you’re probably prepping for a job interview (or a few).

You don't have to spend all your time memorizing facts about the company and your role. Learning as much as you can about the company you’re interviewing with is smart, but everyone does this. The interviewer knows what their company already has, and they’re looking for what you can add.

Are you Googling “tips for a successful job interview” and reading the top articles?

Rehearsing “your greatest strengths and weaknesses?” Yawn. Instantaneous boredom.

Without the context of how you show up when it counts, you won’t impress the interviewer.

Your impression will stay at the surface level, leaving the interviewer with no emotional reaction to compel them to take a deeper look at you.

We’re all familiar with the most popular interview questions:

• “Can you tell me about yourself?”
• “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?”
• “Can you explain a challenge you overcame?”

Every situational question your interviewer asks you can benefit from a great story. And understanding how to tell an authentic story about yourself in a way that leaves a permanent mark — in a way that allows your prospective employer to really see you — is the key to standing out

A great story takes the audience on a journey. It has a clear beginning, middle, and end.

The “before” version of you was met with a challenge that forced you to learn, grow, and ultimately do something differently (the beginning). You made a decision you never would have made before (the middle). Sometimes you succeeded. Other times you failed. Either way, you walked away with a lesson. You survived a challenging and emerged as a more powerful version of yourself (the end).

Every one of us has faced challenges at work. Your task is to unpack some of those moments — something few of us have taken the time to do — and practice relaying them in a compelling and authentic way.Maybe you saved the day by speaking up when you saw something unjust. Maybe you salvaged a client account with a fantastic idea. Maybe you supported your coworker through a difficult day. Or maybe from time to time you’ve failed, walked away recognizing your mistakes, and are a stronger and more strategic performer as a result.

When you share your story during an interview, you’re trusting your interviewer with a handful of unique details about your life and identity. That extension of trust is far more likely to be met with trust in return than a series of rehearsed responses.

Your goal in sharing your story during an interview is not to portray yourself as amazing all the time. The last thing you want to do is come off as a one-dimensional, cartoon hero. (That’s likely what every other job candidate is doing.)If you want to distinguish yourself and make a real impression, you need to display the fullness of your character. As in our original example, you can do this by choosing to balance your stories of success with a story or two of failure

Vulnerable authenticity tells your interviewer that you won’t show up to work every day pretending everything is always awesome (a false reality and untruthful in the long run). And that means that anybody who works with you won’t have to show up as one-dimensional, either.

Suddenly, your interviewer can relax because they are talking to a human being and not the caricature of one. A successful interview is a memorable one. Vulnerability is memorable.