Being remarkable in a Job Interview

9 May 2018

As the lights are turned out and the conference room door is closed how will the interview panel remember you?  Were you remarkable (able to be remarked upon) enough that you stood out from all the other remarkable people?

One of the most powerful ways to ensure you stay on the minds of your interviewers as they sit down to dinner, as they reflect with their partner about their day, as they drift off to sleep, is to have told them a story.  

Told them a story, or two, not given them examples.

Stories wiggle deep into our sub-consciousness and drape themselves on the hooks that are already there.  Ever since words were invented (probably even before that), story has been the way we learn and remember.

You have amazing stories.  Long, long, long before you have a life changing job interview, learn how to confidently and comfortably tell the stories of your achievements.

Here is the structure that works:

• This was the background – all that was going on around me…
• This was what I did – you as the hero of the story…
• This was the result – the outcome and what you learnt…

Over the next month, take just one of your career achievements and turn it into a story.  Then find a child and tell it so the child is interested enough to listen.  Tell them about the complications and the villains, include the major characters and the supporting ones, take them to once upon a time and deep into the castle where the action all happened.  That there is perfect interview practice.

As always wishing you a flourishing career.

Katherine