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The Secret to Being an Interview Star

April 1, 2009 RSS Feed Print

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Karen Burns

It’s hard enough just getting a job interview--when you do get one, you definitely want to make it count. Of course you’ll be punctual, appropriately clad, armed with extra resumes, and brimming with enthusiasm.

But if you really want to stand out, you will do this: Learn to tell a good story.

Humans are hard-wired to love stories. You know, the kind with a beginning, middle, and end. Your interview will have more impact and be more memorable if you talk about yourself and your qualifications in story format.

For example: “At my last job we missed a lot of deadlines. I figured out the problem was inventory, so I found a new supplier who delivered on time. We went from meeting only 20 percent of our deadlines to meeting 90 percent.”

You’ll need to hone your stories in advance and practice them. Try to make them no more than three sentences long—one for the problem, one for the solution, and one for the happy ending. You can use stories to answer all sorts of questions. Say the interviewer asks why you want to leave your current company. You could reply, “I’m seeking to advance my career” and leave it at that. But if you tell a compelling story about why you want to advance, what brought you to the point you’re at now, your answer will be tons more compelling.

Hint: When you can, use numbers. People love numbers almost as much as they love stories.

Karen Burns, Working Girl, is the author of The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, to be released by Running Press in April 2009 (but available now for pre order at Amazon!). She blogs at karenburnsworkinggirl.com .

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once there was
once there was four beatles
today there are two - alive as you and me
anyone can see they all wrote songs called "rock and roll"
not rap cuz you see put a C in front of rap and you get CRAP!
Paul and Ringo one sings and the other played the drums
they both do not have to work but still they do.
there is a program in the states called "idol'
American Idol yet this is just a promotion of people who try
to sing and the ones that win and go on really suck out loud
cuz they can NOT sing might as well call it crap
it's really rap we just put a c in fron and you get CRAP.

with held of GA 4:15AM May 13, 2010

walk right in sit right down
this clowns got an awful frown
who said that ? well I did cuz ain't nobody heard the message yet
who killed rockin robin, or why must you get stoned again
people fighting in afghanistan I can and we can win
notice that the old poiticians son and daughters don't fight
on foreign shores think about it some more and you will find
that you've lost your mind
author unknown- just out there
somewhere no deadline to meet no snoopy people scurrying about
on the land of the free but a price we have and still will pay.
How do you sleep ? counting sheep or are you still dog tired
one must ask these questions cuz thoghts are things
if you believe and conceive.
Was einstein a genious yes, he was yet he did fail at life.

withheld of AZ 4:06AM May 13, 2010

You gave me a lightbulb moment here, Karen. I know stories are the way to go, but I always tend to think in terms of paragraphs and long descriptions. (I tend to be an overshare-er.) The brief, three-sentence story is genius. And if they say, "tell me more," THEN I've got license to ramble a bit :)

Julie O'Malley of MA 3:10PM April 09, 2009