Where a dedicated careerist of old constructed a job-seeking identity through a resume and a few other printed materials disseminated to audiences that seem puny by today’s standards, postmillennial upwardly mobile types are establishing their career identities to vast global audiences using tools such as blogs (short for “Web logs”). And recruiters are responding. Case in point is the notion of the blog as a replacement or accompaniment for a resume. Sarah E. Needleman reported on the Career Journal site that Ryan Loken, a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., recruitment manager, had filled an estimated 125 corporate jobs by reading blogs.

Authors Heraghty and Adams call blogs “a narrative form optimized for the web,” and blogs are unquestionably storytelling devices in which one’s story can unfold via regularly posted entries and also be told on a bio or “About Me” page, such as Rich Page’s example and one by a blogger who goes by “nahliz”. “Once you have a clear idea of who you are and what you want to do, you can start to tell the universe and attract the people who you would like to work with, talk their language and sell your future,” writes Blogging for Beginners author Margaret Stead.

Examples of individuals with a well-branded online presence include Nina Burokas (which, unfortunately is now password-protected), who begins her personal story by writing: “Nina Burokas is a brand strategist and Web 2.0/3D Internet evangelist.” Another that is more lighthearted and personal is that of Brandon Zeuner.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

A major job-seeker advantage is that most of the networks mentioned in yesterday's entry provide an opportunity to build a profile on the networking site, thus a chance to engage in storied personal branding. Let your profile tell your story in a lively, exciting way that truly reflects your personality. Jim Randall of The Raconteur describes a process he takes clients though that can easily apply to crafting a profile for social-networking sites. These components can help you create an engaging story on these sites:

• Who you are: Develop this component using your own authentic voice. You may want to draw from your Quintessential You story (Chapter 1).


• What you do: A good way to frame this part of your story, Deb Dib notes, is to think of how you've made a difference for your employers. What outcomes would not have been possible for your employer without your initiatives?


• How you do it: Offer stories, and when possible, quantified proof of how effectively you have performed.


• What you want to be: Paint a word picture that shows your potential.


• Your value proposition: Incorporate your branding statement into your profile story.


• Your commitment: Express your passion for what you do.

Here are some samples of great social-networking profiles that tell at least part of the stories of the people behind them (registration at LinkedIn may be required to see these). Deb Dib shared these in an article about LinkedIn:

• Jason Alba


• Paul Mullen


• Meg Guiseppi


• Mark Beckford


• Paul Copcutt


• Deb Dib

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

You can pump up your online presence through branded storytelling in a variety of venues. But, it’s not the means of delivering an online presence that is most important; it’s the content, and specifically, the story-supported personal-branding content. Deb Dib notes that “companies and recruiters are looking for passive candidates and active candidates with strong brands - clearly defined value propositions and differentiators. They are looking for fit. They are looking for authenticity and passion - the courage of a candidate to be real.” What better way to be real than by telling your own compelling story? Following are just a few media in which you can do so:

Social/Business Networks, Micro-blogging. Many recruiters and job-seekers connect though online business and social networks. The big three are:

• LinkedIn, with at least 25 million registered users, the most business-like of the three; average user is age 39.
• MySpace, with at least 114 million registered users, the most social of the three and especially popular with users over age 25.
• Facebook, with at least 124 million registered users, falls between business-like and social and is wildly popular with college-age and new-grad users but growing rapidly among those age 25+.

Recruiters, who cite these networks along with the people search engine ZoomInfo, like these venues because they can learn about prospective candidates, as well as find out who else knows these prospects. These and other social-networking sites are exploding. Wikipedia lists more than 100 social-networking sites, and those are just the “notable” ones. Recruiters are using them to find candidates, while job-seekers are using some of the sites to get “found.” Another trend is micro-blogging at tremendously popular sites such as Twitter - telling folks in no more than 140 characters what the user is doing at any given moment. Candidates that recruiters actually source from social networks still represent a small percentage of the total, but as Kevin Wheeler writes on Electronic Recruiting Exchange, “Recruiting is moving rapidly from a find ‘em and screen ‘em, to a court ‘em, stay in touch with them, and sell them profession. These networks will power that charge.”

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Chapter 7 on portfolios touched on the growing trend in which employers seek information on candidates by looking them up on Internet search engines and the accompanying importance of creating and managing an online presence. To underscore that importance, Business Week has reported that 87 percent of recruiters use Google and social networks (such as LinkedIn) to decide about candidates. Google searches are so crucial to recruiters that they hold training classes, write manuals, and share secrets on discussion boards about exotic Google search strategies to find candidates. “In executive circles, having a LinkedIn profile is becoming as expected as being searched on Google,” says Deborah Wile Dib, whom we first met in Chapter 3. “Not having one is almost a negative.” A 2007 survey conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity revealed that 65 percent of business professionals are clicking and connecting via personal and professional social networking Web sites, with 35 percent of them reporting they use networks to assist them in finding a job.

Keep in mind, though, that employers and recruiters aren’t just looking for your “Googlability” - how many times your name pops up in a search. They’re also interested in how positive your online image is. Thus, be very careful about how you project your story online. The Internet is a highly public medium, and personal information floating out there in cyberspace could unfortunately work against you. Business Week reported that 35 percent of surveyed employers have eliminated candidates based on online information.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Here's a branding statement I developed about teaching at the college level:

Branding Statement: As a teacher, Katharine Hansen strives to create an active, exciting learning community in which she one of the learners. She may lead and facilitate while providing content and expertise, but she is, above all, a learner. Her greatest source of pride in her teaching career comes from having learned, grown, and improved as an instructor.

The story behind the statement: In my first semester of teaching, I was a horrible teacher. I stood in front of the class and read my notes. As terrible as I was, one student, named Ted, saw something in me. I could have quit since I was so terrible, but Ted's belief in me encouraged me to keep going. I've improved every semester and am now well liked and respected among students. [explains how work has developed and improved]

More examples:

Branding statement: Amy Addison is a rising public-relations professional who relentlessly pursues continuing education and will not rest until she has gained the optimal and most well-rounded qualifications.

The story behind the statement: I have started on a program of self-directed study in business communication to prepare for my goal to graduate from a public-relations program that I have identified. I am also preparing my credentials and reviewing my notes from the marketing, financial analysis, and economics courses that I have studied so I can take tests to exempt me from these courses and finish my degree faster so I can make a greater contribution to my employer's PR agency and its clients. [illustrates consistent pursuit of continuing education and professional development to enhance value to audience]

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Branding Statement: Frank Jameson is a marketing guru who generates innovative and profitable solutions to marketing problems.

The story behind the statement: Give me a marketing problem, and I will produce one or more innovative solutions that result in higher stakeholder satisfaction while achieving the organization's profitability goals. For example, while working as marketing manager for Nabisco, I took over a sagging cookie and cracker division that was losing market share and shelf space, and within a year returned the brand to its position as the dominant brand in its category. While the sales and profits results speak for themselves, it was the multi-pronged attack of working with the marketing staff, the salesforce, and our channel partners that I am most proud of. I collaborated with my marketing team to develop a plan that was easy for our salesforce to implement and that reinvigorated our channel partners. The plan involved updating some of the tired packaging of our flagship brands, developing some unique cross-promotional strategies among products in different categories, reinventing our entire product-line Web presence, offering our consumers multiple connections with our brands, and strengthening our relationships with our channel members by guaranteeing them more store traffic and increased sales. The result of this effort was a more loyal and involved consumer base, higher morale among our salesforce, increased enthusiasm from our channel partners, and high praise from top management and our stockholders for recouping the lost luster of the brands and increasing both sales and profitability. [illustrates how he has positively changed the people and/or organization he worked for]

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For a career-changer:

Branding Statement: As an aspiring special-education teacher, Tricia Turkelson offers calm steadiness and patience while setting high expectations for students prepare them for life beyond school. She believes it is a disservice to students to do anything less. As a career-changer, she is mature, imbued with life experience, and clear about her career aspiration - to make a difference in the lives of students with disabilities.

The story behind the statement: One example of a making a difference is when I worked with an emotionally disturbed student during my field experience. He lacked social skills. I worked with him three times weekly to reinforce the idea that he should ask to join a group of other students. Eventually he built up the confidence to ask others to be a part of the group. The patience and communication skills that I developed during 15 years of managing staff as an office manager will make me a better teacher than I would have been had I started earlier in my life.

Once you establish your brand, carry it through your career-marketing communication. You can use it on your resume (preferably in first-person rather than third-person), in an online or print portfolio, on your personal Web site, in your blog, on networking/business cards, and more. Also consider enhancing your branding by offering yourself to the media for your expertise, speaking in public, generating visibility in professional organizations, serving as an adjunct instructor on consultant at a college or university, writing articles for publication, and serving on advisory boards and boards of directors.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Quintessential Careers has declared Nov. 3 Job Action Day 2008 worldwide — a day for job-seekers and workers to confront the current economic crisis head-on and take action steps to improve their careers.

(QUINTESSENTIAL CAREERS: DeLand, FL) - To rally those who have lost their jobs or are facing possible job loss in the current devastated economic climate, Quintessential Careers has created Job Action Day, to be implemented on Monday, Nov. 3. Job Action Day 2008 aims to empower workers and job-seekers to take proactive steps to shore up their job and career outlook, said Quintessential Careers Founder and Publisher Dr. Randall S. Hansen.

“For job-seekers,” Hansen said, “Job Action Day is a chance to take a break from the daily grind of job-hunting to take a look at the bigger picture of their careers and job-search strategies. It’s a day to strategize plans for developing new job and career options and devising new and better ways to track down job leads and position themselves for employment opportunities.”

For workers facing possible job loss, Job Action Day is a time “to not only examine their current job and employer, but also evaluate both the stability of that job and employer as well as their personal fulfillment with their jobs,” Hansen said. “It’s a day to take stock of their careers and develop a plan for their next career steps.”

Hansen said he deliberately set Job Action Day 2008 for the eve of the U.S. presidential election to encourage voters to think about job creation and the avoidance of further job losses as they cast their votes. Beyond the election, Hansen said, “workers and job-seekers must hold the next president’s feet to the fire.” Echoing Hillary Rodham Clinton’s battle cry at a recent rally in Orlando, FL, the concept of “Jobs, Baby, Jobs” must be a top priority for the new leader, Hansen said.

Quintessential Careers will mark Job Action Day 2008 with service-oriented articles and blog entries to provide workers and job-seekers with information, ideas, and concrete steps that they can take to secure their futures — both in the short-term and the long-term.

In addition, the Quintessential Careers family of blogs, including the Quintessential Careers Blog, Career Doctor Blog, Quintessential Resume and Cover Letter Tips Blog, and A Storied Career, will feature Job Action Day entries.

Hansen has invited bloggers in the employment and careers sector to join in blogging on Job Action Day about the importance of being proactive in their jobs and careers.

Pointing to a hurting U.S. economy — and ailing economies around the globe — along with daily announcements of employer retrenchments, mergers, and layoffs, Hansen explained that “no job is safe in these situations, but opportunities for hiring and promotions still exist - under the right conditions and with the right strategies.” Job Action Day is intended to empower workers and job-seekers to confront the economic climate and take control for a brighter career future, Hansen said.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Here’s a sample story-supported branding statement from my partner, Randall Hansen, that branded his career as a college professor:

Branding Statement: Dr. Randall Hansen is an educator who thrives on empowering people to achieve their personal success.

The story behind the statement: Education is not about lecturing; it is not about describing the steps or procedures of something - it is about opening someone’s mind to learning, and that’s what I am all about. It’s about turning the helpless or lost person into someone who is self-actualized and can find his or her own way out of the situation. For example, I had a graduating senior who was feeling great pressure to find a job, and while he knew some basics of job-hunting, he was allowing circumstances to overwhelm him. I did not need to lecture him about the best methods of finding a job, nor did I have to create or edit his resume; instead, I served as the calming voice in his head that mentored him and allowed him to truly start his job search. Because I worked one-on-one with him and provided guidance and support when he needed it, he was able to develop and follow up on several job leads that eventually led to a job offer that was the perfect opportunity for him. And by accomplishing this task on his own, he not only was able to land this job, but he also now has the skills, confidence, and ability to move forward in his career and conduct future job-searches with ease.

If the preceding exercise didn’t provide enough food for thought, consider Chris Hilicki’s challenge: Write your autobiography in 300 words. Another exercise, which Hilicki attributes to business coach Scott Jeffrey, is to imagine you have only 24 hours to live; “What would your message be to the world and who would your audience be?” Also think about Hilicki’s belief that “the best brands are built from true stories that have been picked apart and analyzed and edited.” Ponder the following types of stories as the potential basis for your statement, then pick apart, analyze, and edit your results:

• A story that demonstrates your understanding of and experience with your audience’s needs (in most cases, your audience will be employers or clients)
• A story that shows how you are uniquely qualified to meet your audience’s needs
• A story that illustrates how passionate you are about your field
• Stories that exemplify the validity of your point of view or school of thought
• Stories that demonstrate that your previous audiences hold you in esteem, respect you, trust you, and contribute to your credibility and excellent reputation
• Stories that illustrate alliances and partnerships that support you
• Stories that describe life-changing events and how they’ve shaped your values and beliefs
• Stories that reflect recurring patterns in your life/career and what those patterns mean
• A story that shows how you fit in with the history of your field
• A story that illustrates how you’ve positively changed people you’ve worked with and/or organizations you’ve worked for
• A story that exemplifies how you’ve contributed to the success of people you’ve worked with and/or organizations you’ve worked for
• A story that demonstrates a pioneering idea you’ve developed
• A story that shows that people seek you out for your skills and expertise
• A story that explains how your work has developed and improved
• A story that includes an award, honor, accolade, testimonial, or other positive quotation that exemplifies your value proposition
• A story that illustrates that you consistently seek continuing education and professional development to enhance your value to your audience
• A story about volunteer or philanthropic work that shows what you are passionate about
• A story that demonstrates the roots of your ethics and values

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

An effective way to begin your personal-branding effort is to develop a very brief branding statement that sums up your value proposition. Tom Peters advises that this statement be just eight words long, while a single sentence is the recommendation of William Arruda and Kirstin Dixson, whose free, downloadable workbook on personal branding accompanies their book, Career Distinction. This branding-statement element will guide your subsequent branding activities and can be used in such media as your resume, Web site, or blog. In their book Brand Yourself, David Andrusia and Rick Haskins present a simple formula for a branding statement: Skills + Personality/Passion + Market needs = Branding Statement. It’s a great formula, but you can enhance it further with one or more stories that support your statement. You can also compose stories that will help you develop your branding statement.

Why should your branding statement generate and be supported by a story? Chris Hilicki makes a strong argument: “When you build your brand identity on your true experiences, you will bring to the world the only thing that no one else can. Your true story conveys your unique value and is the “strongest foundation of your brand identity,” Hilicki contends.

What stories should you tell to brand yourself? Try this exercise: Take about a minute to write down what you are most known for. In what area(s) can you offer yourself as an expert? Ideally you are considered an expert in some area of your career or professional life, but hobbies and interests can be fair game, too. Now, compose a brief story about your expertise in each area, perhaps how your expertise has made a difference or changed someone’s life. Note that branding statements are usually written in the third-person.

Next entry: Examples

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Personal branding, an emerging trend in career-marketing communication, is variously defined as image, reputation, connection, a promise of the unique value of a product (you), expertise. Randall Hansen, publisher of the career-development Web site Quintessential Careers, writes that “branding is the combination of tangible and intangible characteristics that make a brand unique. Branding is developing an image - with results to match.”

Branding (some call it self-branding when talking about individuals) is essential to career advancement because it helps define who you are, in what ways you are a great performer, and why you should be sought out. Branding is about building a name for yourself, showcasing what sets you apart from others, and describing the added value you bring to a situation. Your brand describes your essence and the significance you bring to employers.

Most job-seekers are not proactive in establishing and building their career brand, hoping instead to let their actions speak for them when seeking promotions or new jobs. But you can make yourself a much more attractive employee or job-seeker by taking the time to master some basic tactics that can help build your career brand. In this book’s introduction, Annette Simmons cautioned that when people wonder who you are, “if you don’t take the time to give a positive answer to that question, they will make up their own answers - usually negative.” The same is true of branding; if you don’t brand yourself, others will for you.

Management guru Tom Peters, writing in his book, The Brand You 50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an “Employee” into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion!, states: “Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are the CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc.” He adds, “You’re not defined by your job title and you’re not confined by your job description.”

Branding, especially personal branding, is primarily storytelling, and another advantage of branding yourself is that your story is unique. “When you learn to put words to your unique story, you can use it and the values you’ve developed to define you in a way that no one can copy,” writes Chris Hiliki in May I Have Your Attention, Please?

Noting that most people are marketers to some extent, author of popular marketing books Seth Godin (Purple Cow, The Big Moo, All Marketers Are Liars), does not believe marketing without story is possible: “Either you’re going to tell stories that move people, or you will become irrelevant,” he writes. Organizational storytelling expert Steve Denning similarly notes that “narrative is increasingly recognized as central in branding,” and when he refers to a “storied product,” he could easily be referencing a job-seeker.

Getting your brand story out there raises your visibility and builds your aura as an attractive candidate for hire. Symbiotically, elevating the world’s awareness of you creates new opportunities for networking. Increasingly, in the Information Age, success can spring not just from who you know, but also from who knows you and your story.

“Personal branding is about differentiation,” writes William Arruda, founding partner and president of the Reach Branding Club. “It’s about using what makes you outstanding to stand out from the myriad others who offer seemingly similar services. There are numerous others who compete for the same jobs and clients. Personal branding helps you stand head and shoulders above the competition by highlighting your unique promise of value.”

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

At long last, we have reached the end of this longest chapter in the book. Here are additional resources on integrating storytelling into interviewing:

Enelow, W., & Goldman, S. (2005). Insider’s Guide to Finding a Job. Indianapolis, IN: JIST.

Martin, C. (2004). Boost Your Interview I.Q. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Quintessential Careers: Guide to Job Interviewing Resources.

Terwelp, W. J. (2005). Strategy to boost your credibility. Career Hub

Washington, T. (2004). Chapter 5: “Master the Art of Story Telling.” In Interview Power. Bellevue, WA: Mount Vernon Press.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

We tested this Writing-to-Learn approach to interview prep on three sections of a basic marketing class consisting mainly of college juniors, with a small number of sophomores and seniors also participating. Students in the sections who were assigned to complete the written interview-preparation assignment were given a list of 20 common interview questions for college students and asked to submit written responses to each. A local human-resources professional with many years of interviewing experience was recruited to interview and score the participants. He was instructed on how to complete the evaluation forms, but at no time did he know that one group of interviewees had previously prepared written responses to the potential questions and that the other group hadn’t. The group that prepared the written responses to the interview questions scored higher on the study’s evaluation instrument than the group that did not. Although the difference we saw did not prove to be statistically significant, it may be trend-indicative.

Based on the possible trend indication of the study, as well as previous scholarly research dealing with interview preparation and Writing-to-Learn, we are confident of the relationship between written interview preparation and interview success. We are committed to the idea that preparing written answers to common interview questions will make job-seekers more confident and allow them to focus their energies on other aspects of the interview while providing detailed, yet concise stories in response to questions.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Why are these writing exercises effective in enhancing interview performance? We credit Writing-to-Learn theory. James Britton, considered by many to be the father of the Writing-to-Learn movement, asserts that writing is learning because writing enables learners to organize their knowledge “and extend it in an organized way so that it remains coherent, unified, reliable.” Janet Emig notes that “writing through its inherent reinforcing cycle involving hand, eye, and brain marks a uniquely powerful multi-representational mode for learning.” Other scholars expand on Emig’s “reinforcing cycle.” “It’s a physical activity, unlike reading,” writes William Zinsser. “Writing requires us to operate some kind of mechanism - pencil, pen, typewriter, word processor - for getting our thoughts on paper.” David Joliffe asserts that this physical act of writing compels writers to become “actively involved” with what they’re writing about. Through writing, Joliffe says, participants “generate challenging ideas … engage in a substantial process … practice analysis and synthesis … and demonstrate a personal commitment to their ideas…” Suzanne Cherry calls writing “thinking on paper.”

Composing written stories in response to interview questions works because it helps candidates learn and remember concepts and content, improve thinking and cognitive abilities, organize their thoughts, enhance communication skills, bolster their self-image, and make connections. The story form is easy to remember because we think in narrative form, our neural networks having been shaped in childhood through storytelling.

Demonstrating thoughtfulness and organized thinking is positively associated with interview performance, according to a study by Maurer, Solamon, Andrews, and Troxtel. Noting that cognitive ability in applicants has been shown to be a “strong and consistent predictor of job performance,” and, in fact, to predict job performance more “accurately and universally” than other constructs (largely because this ability indicates candidates’ ability to rapidly learn job requirements), Huffcutt, Roth, and McDaniel posit that applicants with higher cognitive ability may exhibit greater effectiveness than other candidates in responding to situational and abstract questions. The Writing-to-Learn technique’s claims to help its practitioners organize their thoughts and make connections suggests that the Writing-to-Learn approach would be one way to sharpen communicative abilities for interviewing.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Research by Perry and Goldberg in 1998 suggested that interview preparation is important because their study showed that when recruiters were asked about college students they interviewed, interviewing skills surpassed the students’ background or experience in recruiter assessments of the likelihood that their companies would consider hiring a given student. We can then speculate that students (and other job candidates) who have better interview skills than others may have dedicated more effort to interview preparation than others.

Most career experts agree that few interviewees prepare adequately for interviews. In 1995, Barone and Switzer went so far as to note that, while college students spend in excess of 4,000 hours studying and attending class to prepare for their career, the average interviewee spends less than an hour preparing for a job interview. These experts also agree on the reason for the lack of preparation: job-seekers have no idea what questions will be asked in interviews, so they assume there is no way to prepare. Finally, career authors agree that this typical job-seeker rationale for lack of preparation is faulty because interview questions, or at least general areas of interview questions, actually can be predicted to some degree, and lists of frequently asked interview questions are available in any number of books, articles, and on numerous Web sites. See, for example, the Interview Question Database and lists of interview questions.

Agreeing that it is impossible to predict exactly what questions a given interviewer will ask of a job-seeker, interviewing guru Carole Martin nevertheless notes that “the secret to success in any interview is preparation.” Author Tom Washington points out that since so few job-seekers prepare for interviews, those who do will “gain a real edge over others through preparation.”

Career experts are virtually unanimous in their view that responses to interview questions should not be memorized but should be prepared, in some fashion, ahead of time.

Since you know that lists of typical interview questions are widely available, you can review them to gain an idea of what types of information the interviewer likely seeks. Taking this advice a step further, you can use these question lists to organize your thoughts about high points you want to share with employers and develop a list of the characteristics that might be needed for success in the position for which you are interviewing. You can then craft stories about these characteristics using the guidelines in Chapter 2. You can also engage in verbal mock or rehearsal interviews; however, Janet Emig points out that “writing tends to be a more responsible and committed act than talking.” Thus, writing-as-interview-prep includes these suggestions:

• Writing an autobiography, which can reveal areas that you may not wish to discuss with an interviewer
• Practicing describing yourself by citing professional characteristics with examples from school and work experience
• Writing detailed proof statements/success stories that are tantamount to 30-second commercials about yourself
• Identifying about 30 accomplishments and writing 100-400 word stories on the top 12 of these, followed by isolating skills demonstrated by each accomplishment.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

OK, so you're sold on the idea of telling stories in your job interviews. Can you simply think about the stories you want to tell? Sure, but composing written story responses to questions typically asked in job interviews provides a relatively painless way to prep effectively for a job interview.

Based on our research, personal experience, and anecdotal evidence from the college students we have taught, we are convinced that preparing written stories in response to job-interview questions will accomplish these goals:

• Increase the interviewee's level of confidence in responding to questions;


• Show evidence of preparedness by providing thoughtful, non-rambling responses;


• Increase the level of relevance by specifically addressing the questions;


• Provide more detail and thoroughness in responding to questions;


• Allow the interviewee to focus more on response delivery in the interview setting.

A number of years ago, we discovered that preparing written answers to job-interview questions helped us perform better in job interviews. That discovery prompted us to assign our students to compose responses to frequently asked interview questions. Because this assignment frequently has seemed to enhance performance both in mock interviews and actual job interviews, we turned to two disparate areas of research to understand why the technique was effective. We concluded that the phenomenon is closely related to Writing to Learn theory.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Dagliano next coaches clients them through the process of thinking through a story to illustrate how they used each skill they have listed - again using the SOAR process. Once they have developed the details of their stories, Dagliano advises them to give their story a title (using as few words as possible) and write that title on the right side of the “T” on their cheat sheet.

“Once they have the stories worked out,” Dagliano says, “they will be ready to answer almost any interview question that comes their way. To prove it, I ask a few typical - and some not so typical - interview questions and coach them on how to use elements of the story in answering. I encourage them to take the cheat sheet to the interview with them and have it with the notepad where they take notes during the interview.”

Dagliano notes that our brains have a remarkable ability to locate things in a pinch as long as we have “told” the brain where we have filed them. Dagliano says that if clients draw a blank on how to answer a question, by merely glancing down at their cheat sheet and seeing the story title, their brains will quickly retrieve the details of the story and the best answer.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

To flush out key accomplishments from her clients, resume writer and job-search Coach Norine Dagliano encourages them to tell her specific stories, guiding them through the SOAR or STAR process. Among the questions she asks to trigger these stories are these:

• What was challenging about that job?
• How have things changed from the time you took the position (or joined the company) to the present?

When teaching interviewing classes or conducting interview coaching, Dagliano teaches clients how to create an “interview cheat sheet.” She asks them to draw a big “T” on a sheet of paper. On the left side of the “T,” clients write the word “Skill” and on the right side, the word “Story.” Dagliano then guides them through the job posting or job description they are targeting to pick out key skills mentioned. She also instructs them to go through their resume to pick out the key skills that they want to talk about in the interview. They then list all these skills on the left side of the “T.”

To be continued …

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

What suggestions do you have for our organization?

After examining several sources, including your company’s annual report and Web site, as well as some of your competitors’ sources, I see that you have a strong product line with good demographic segments, in a growing industry. I did notice that your competitors seem to direct more of their efforts to the baby-boom market, and while that is certainly a large market for your products, I think you have a great opportunity to expand your target market and increase your market share by marketing your product line to the Baby Boomers’ kids - Generation Y. These teens and preteens are extremely brand-conscious and have a high discretionary income - and you are in a great position to attract them to your product and build a very large core of brand loyal consumers on top of your existing customer base. In fact, I recently walked by a store display of your wall art and t-shirts centered on 1960s rock-star themes. I expected to see mature folks looking at the products, but what I saw was a group from middle-school age to college age clamoring excitedly around the display. I also know my teenage nieces and nephews have grown up highly influenced by their parents’ devotion to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Beach Boys, and they all own at least one of your products.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

What would a good manager do to build team spirit?

Most importantly, any plan to build team spirit has to be authentic. We’ve all seen — or experienced — work environments like in Office Space or “The Office.” Anything less than authenticity will be seen as simply rah-rah — or going through the motions.

A good manager brings the team together — perhaps even a retreat - to foster communications and develop common goals and objectives. During this meeting, the manager should also show how all the team members play a role in making the team successful — and that only by working together and respecting each other can the team fully succeed.

Sometimes, too, when the team is from different departments or backgrounds, it’s important for the manager address this issue from day one — if possible. I was once put in a team with a mix of marketers and accountants and the manager sat us all down and told us a story of a successful competitor and how their accounting team thought like marketers and how their marketers understood the importance of return on investment for new marketing initiatives. The story of a successful competitor helped us realize that we had more in common than we had differences and that we could come together as a team and be successful.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The situational question is fairly common in job interviews and is similar to the behavioral question. Instead of asking you how you handled a certain situation in the past, the interviewer asks how you would handle the situation in the future. You can answer this kind of question with the same kind of story you would use to answer a behavioral question. Simply explain that this is the story of how you handled the situation previously, and you would expect to use the same skills and knowledge to handle the situation if you are hired for this job.

Occasionally an interviewer will ask a hypothetical question about what you would do if you were hired by the employer, such as what would be the first few things you would do in the job or what suggestions you have for improving the organization. Here, too, you have the option of responding to the question by telling a story from your past experience, but another option is to tell a future story. The future story is different from any other story discussed in this book because it’s essentially fiction; it hasn’t happened (yet). But you have the opportunity to describe a future scenario in which you would play a major role in meeting the employer’s needs and solving its problems. You can paint a vivid picture of what it would be like if you were hired.

Example[s]:

How would you organize the steps or methods you’d take to define/identify a vision for your team or your personal job function?

I believe a good team vision starts first with a strong understanding of the organization’s mission. So, my steps would be as follows. First, review my organization’s vision. Second, develop some rough ideas of how I would word a team vision statement in preparation for a team meeting to discuss the issue. Third, I would call a meeting of the team and have a discussion of what we do best, how what we do fits with the organization. Then I would discuss the organization’s vision and ask for ideas and suggestions for the team’s mission. If asked, I would mention some of my thoughts on our team vision. Fourth, following the meeting, I would craft a vision statement - perhaps with the help of one or two other team members - and then distribute it to the team and ask for feedback. Fifth, I would finalize the vision statement from the comments and feedback from the team… and then post our vision statement in places where all the team members could see it on a regular basis.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The remainder of this chapter contains typical interview questions, both behavioral and traditional, and sample story-based responses to them. Note that many of these stories contain emotional content to draw the interviewer in and help him or her identify with the interviewee.

My organization was undergoing an accreditation process. I developed two detailed accreditation self-evaluation reports that documented how the organization met accreditation standards. These self-evaluations served as basis for accreditation site visits and enabled all eligible programs to be accredited in record time.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The remainder of this chapter contains typical interview questions, both behavioral and traditional, and sample story-based responses to them. Note that many of these stories contain emotional content to draw the interviewer in and help him or her identify with the interviewee.

It takes the ability to meet every customer with a smile, and a solution - whatever it takes. Though I’ve worked in a number of industries, I have always been a salesperson and a consistent top producer. Let me elaborate. Early in my career, I sold memberships at a family fitness center. An angry man once came to me demanding a refund. He began yelling at the membership workers and complaining about the swimming program, saying that it was a rip-off. Though the other workers were flustered, I calmly asked the man what was wrong. He that his son had been in swimming lessons for four weeks and was still afraid of the water. Instead of instantly giving him the refund, I offered to personally arrange for private swim lessons for his son for a week, explaining to him that sometimes children react differently to each instructor’s teaching techniques. He finally agreed to accept without the refund. After a week of private lessons, his son was no longer afraid of the water, and he could swim nearly a lap of the pool. At the end of the lessons, not only did the father sign his child up for another paid session of private lessons, but he also bought a family membership and apologized to me for his behavior the week before.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The remainder of this chapter contains typical interview questions, both behavioral and traditional, and sample story-based responses to them. Note that many of these stories contain emotional content to draw the interviewer in and help him or her identify with the interviewee.

It takes the ability to meet every customer with a smile, and a solution — whatever it takes. Though I’ve worked in a number of industries, I have always been a salesperson and a consistent top producer. Let me elaborate. Early in my career, I sold memberships at a family fitness center. An angry man once came to me demanding a refund. He began yelling at the membership workers and complaining about the swimming program, saying that it was a rip-off. Though the other workers were flustered, I calmly asked the man what was wrong. He that his son had been in swimming lessons for four weeks and was still afraid of the water. Instead of instantly giving him the refund, I offered to personally arrange for private swim lessons for his son for a week, explaining to him that sometimes children react differently to each instructor’s teaching techniques. He finally agreed to accept without the refund. After a week of private lessons, his son was no longer afraid of the water, and he could swim nearly a lap of the pool. At the end of the lessons, not only did the father sign his child up for another paid session of private lessons, but he also bought a family membership and apologized to me for his behavior the week before.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The remainder of this chapter contains typical interview questions, both behavioral and traditional, and sample story-based responses to them. Note that many of these stories contain emotional content to draw the interviewer in and help him or her identify with the interviewee.

I like to work for a supervisor who allows me the autonomy to perform my job to the best of my abilities. I also like constructive criticism and feedback so I can improve myself and the organization. One example was my boss at a hospital. He hired me as an administrative manager because of my administrative and organizational skills. He knew that I had many new ideas and allowed me the opportunity to implement many new programs. Of course, I kept him constantly informed and sought advice when needed. I improved communications in the department by implementing a departmental Web page. I also streamlined the check-in process by preparing the amount of work that could be done the day before. I improved staff morale by implementing an administrative-staffer-of-the-month, which led to lower turnover. These are just a few examples. I earned the Outstanding Employee Award for my efforts and unique ideas. I gained not only my boss’s confidence and support but his respect as well.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The remainder of this chapter contains typical interview questions, both behavioral and traditional, and sample story-based responses to them. Note that many of these stories contain emotional content to draw the interviewer in and help him or her identify with the interviewee.

I have prepared myself to transition into the work force through real-world experience involving travel abroad, internship, and entrepreneurial opportunities. While interning with a private organization in Ecuador, I developed a 15-page marketing plan composed in Spanish that recommended more effective ways the company could promote its services. I also traveled abroad on two other occasions in which I researched the indigenous culture of the Mayan Indians in Todos Santos, Guatemala, and participated in a total language immersion program in Costa Rica. As you can see from my academic, extracurricular, and experiential background, I have unconditionally committed myself to success as a marketing professional.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The remainder of this chapter contains typical interview questions, both behavioral and traditional, and sample story-based responses to them. Note that many of these stories contain emotional content to draw the interviewer in and help him or her identify with the interviewee.

Last summer, I wanted to help organize a summer camp for local low-income children. My supervisor knew the demand would be there but feared we would not have enough staff. I convinced her that since I went to the facility daily, I could network with acquaintances and convince them of the importance of this camp. My supervisor trusted me. We had hundreds of children sign up for the program, and I had reached so many people that we were able fully staff the camp as well as have a backup supply of people who were willing to volunteer their time and services to the organization.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.