hi there I'm Natalie Fisher and this is the place to be if you want to be
excited for work every morning this question comes from Andy and Mandy
writes I feel nervous about my career stories and the fact that I should tell
stories and interviews drives me bananas I'm not sure if my stories are even any
good for example what's your greatest career accomplishment that's a big
question how am I supposed to answer that how do I know for sure what my
greatest career accomplishment is can you help well Mandy I absolutely can
help and you're definitely not alone on this in this video I'll break down a
simple framework by which you can remember your stories along with a quick
example to give you some inspiration to find your own stories so let's get
started stay tuned
so first we're going to use the formula so to tell a good story you want to keep
it short and sweet but interesting and include the necessary details for the
story to make sense stories are the best way to connect with an interviewer so
stats show that hiring managers are hesitant to bring someone on board who
is so polished and so professional that it's difficult to connect with them on a
human level so you want to be able to loosen up a bit in your stories let some
of your personality shine through and let them see who you truly are being
professional is great but hiring managers want to hire humans not robots
or drones so let them see what's different about you with each story that
you tell so you can use this re formula to develop your storytelling strategy
sorry stands for situation or task action
results and interesting features which are a bonus here's an example
so tell me at a time you showed creativity at work situation I was asked
to do a presentation on behalf of the marketing department action I saw this
opportunity to think outside the box with the presentation so I used
different tools to keep the audience engaged audience participation funny
video clips and photos and of course hard data to make my points while the
rest of the departments were doing death by PowerPoint presentations I chose to
get super creative and actively engage my audience what was the result the
result was we received the highest score amongst all other departments and we
were asked to do the same presentation with some tweaks for some of our
customers at the next user conference interesting features
things you learned or fun highlights you can share quickly engagement is
something you can actively work into presentation too often I see the
audience zoning out on their phones and that's something that I've successfully
changed with this creative endeavor so number two be specific being specific is
so much more effective than being big when you're getting to know somebody so
this includes your interviewer so the goal is to get to know your interviewer
and have them get to know you and so you don't want to waste it by telling big
stories so take this example for example so bana we discussed it over lunch we
discuss it over sandwiches or we discussed it over soggy tuna sandwiches
so the first thing paints a very different picture than the last thing
what a difference right the first one is vague the middle one is a little bit
more descriptive and the last one paints a totally different picture you want to
tell a story about something that you care about you want it to be something
that was successful and you don't just want to recount the events but you want
to paint a unique narrative about how you saw the situation number three take
full advantage of this opportunity to connect so to take advantage of this
fully you need to be a little bit vulnerable in some of your stories if
they ask you to tell them about a time you made a mistake at work or a time you
disagreed with a co-worker or boss you want to tell a story that shows you're
human and you can own up to lessons learned we all don't know what we don't
know so it's common to make mistakes regularly and it's what we learned from
those mistakes that's more important than the mistakes themselves for example
say you forgot something say it was something important you can say how you
felt you can share your plan as to how you'll never let this happen again and
now you set multiple reminders or you ask others to help hold you accountable
a sign of a strong candidate is one that can admit their mistakes and share what
they learned freely a sign of a weak candidate is one that will blame other
people avoid their mistakes and keep making the same ones so unless the
mistake is that you killed somebody or you did something illegal then share
your mistakes and lessons freely you may think it makes you look bad
but in fact most people aren't willing to be that vulnerable and anyone human
makes mistakes so anyone can relate and there we have it I hope this helps I
want you to know that a story about a presentation is enough that can be a
very big career moment for you it can be anything that you feel proud of it
doesn't have to be a huge thing so you don't have to be like climbing Mount
Everest to have a worthy story they just have to be engaging and interesting and
fun so I've put together some example stories in a resource for you called the
ultimate guide to situational interviewing and you can grab that guide
if you just click the link below in the guide include ten compelling example
stories just like in this video but ten more the guide includes
fill-in-the-blank templates for you to fill in your own stories as well as if
you're still getting stuck 25 questions you can ask yourself to help you find
the stories for your next interview you can get a copy of all that right now all
you have to do is click the link below thanks so much for watching I'm Nathalie
and I'll see you in the next video
let's open it up