I am heartened by how often I come across career experts these days who share my support for using storytelling in the job search. The headline is almost not far-fetched — that I come across one almost every week.
This week it’s Ford Myers, who was kind enough to send me a copy of his new book, Get the Job You Want Even When No One’s Hiring.
Myers describes interviewing as “two-way storytelling,” noting that the job-seeker must tell the interviewer “accurate, relevant stories about career achievements and job performance,” while the interviewer must tell the story of the company, the position, and the fit he or she sees for the job-seeker there. Like many storytelling advocates, Myers points to the beginning-middle-end aspect of stories.
He also contends that accomplishment stories are the job-seeker’s most powerful selling tool. His twist on the well-known Situation-Action-Result story is a series of questions that help the job-seeker develop an accomplishment story:
- What was the problem, challenge, or need [in a past job or other environment]?
- What did you do about it?
- How did you do it, specifically?
- What positive, tangible results did you produce? (quantify if possible)
- What skills did you demonstrate? (list 3-4 skills for each story)
He then provides a checklist of accomplishment-based items to help job-seekers brainstorm their achievements — not dissimilar to the Accomplishments Worksheet on A Storied Career’s parent site, Quintessential Careers.
Myers provides a nice value-added feature for buyers of the book and others who complete a quick, free registration on his site, lots of downloadable worksheets and other goodies. One of the downloads is a worksheet for accomplishment stories.
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Here's an that I would love to hear your thoughts on. As a job candidate, in addition to telling your story and eliciting the story of the company and its people from the interviewer, should they also be trying to trigger stories about themselves by doing something remarkable (in that the interviewer tells that story) in the interview?
I was chatting to Terrence Garguilo a few weeks ago and we were referring to this triumvirate as a leader's narrative triple threat (sounds a bit threatening however) much like an actors triple threat is to dance, sing and act (al la fellow countryman Hugh Jackman).
Is this something a candidate would want to do or is it too dangerous?
Sean, I think you are onto something. I think that -- within reason -- you've suggested an excellent idea.
The question is: What is the appropriate "doing something remarkable?"
It could be giving an unexpected presentation in the interview. Or doing such comprehensive research on the employer that the candidate demonstrates extraordinary insight into meeting the employer's challenges. Or telling the interviewer a story that makes a profound emotional connection.
I would love to hear other ideas for remarkable things candidates could do so the interviewer tells stories about them.
LOVE Hugh Jackman, by the way!
Many recruiters I have spoken too emphasize the importance of storytelling during an interview but not enough experts are writing about it online. I'm glad to see that you and Ford Myers are helping to spread this important message and backing it up with tools to help candidates figure out how to do it.
I love your comments on storytelling in the jobsearch. We all remember stories better than facts, and it's a great way to leave a lasting impression. Thanks for the specific outline -- I know a lot of people will benefit from using it.
@Shawn Callan: Your job search decision to jump out of the ordinary should depend on your position in the search (a likely front-runner, or a long-shot). I talked about it a bit at Ignite Chicago a few weeks ago (not the upcoming music festival): http://ignitechicago.blip.tv/
Steve
Thanks for sharing this, Steve. I will watch it when I can. Have to wait for our DSL line to be installed as we used 3X our Internet quota last month, which was very costly.
Thanks, Frank. There's actually a growing cadre of us in the job-search world who evangelize about storytelling, many of whom I've cited in this blog: Rob Sullivan, Judy Rosemarin, Frank Traditi, Carole Martin, and Susan Britton Whitcomb, to name a few, and I'm seeing more and more written about it online. It's also the subject of my newly released book, Tell Me About Yourself.