#6 How to tell your story in the interview

In this video, we’re going to walk through how to incorporate your stories into your interview.

No matter which company you are interviewing with or who interviews you, you can easily incorporate your most potent and powerful stories in response to their questions.

For instance, many interviewers use behavioral interview questions to try and understand who you are as a person.

Let’s say they ask you something like, “Tell me about the last time a customer or co-worker got upset with you.”

There are 2 steps to incorporating one of your stories into this question:

First, start with how you came to be _______________ — in this case it could be calm under pressure or good with conflict resolution — and respond with something like: “I’d like to start first by sharing a quick story about how I learned to be calm under pressure…”

An example of this could be one of the stories I shared in video #4 ….

“For two years, I worked as a backcountry guide in the remote wilderness of Montana. There was no cell service or help nearby. I was in charge of my life and the lives of our guests and livestock. It really helped me be calm under pressure. This became an experience I now measure every stressful situation against.”

The second step is to then loop back to answering the question with how you applied this skill…

“So, a year ago, when my boss came to me really upset about XYZ, I responded in this way…”

Can you see how responding in this way will give the interviewer much deeper and more well rounded picture of how you might contribute and collaborate?

It also gives them an opportunity to ask more about either experience and really expand their understanding of you.

Another way you can incorporate your story, especially if there are no behavioral questions and instead they ask you things like, “tell me about ABC project on your resume while you were at XYZ Company…”

Again, there are just two steps to this:​

For instance, you could respond with something like, “You know the truth is, the success of that project was 100% reliant on the work ethic I developed as the daughter of migrant farmers.”

Then, shift back to talking about the project itself and how it unfolded.

You don’t need to use your stories in response to every question—just look for two or three opportunities during the interview to share.

And finally, as we discussed in video #5, you should have a number of stories to choose from so you can easily apply the best ones.

That’s it for this video.

I wish you all the best in your interviews!