Once upon a time, a person was looking for a job, and an interviewer contacted him. After that first call from the recruiter, he could be aware of her euphonic voice. That call did not last more than two minutes, but he just glimpsed the possibilities that he was about to have to get that desired job. With that motivation, he took a pen and paper and wrote and wrote.
He remembered his most difficult argument with his previous boss and how they solved it. He reviewed his achievements and thought about how he could give his story a victorious and unique touch.
Once the face-to-face interview happened, he enjoyed a pleasant conversation during which both professionals explained their work experiences and the possibilities of collaborating on this new project. This is the story of a friend of mine. He achieved that goal and got his dream job by only working on his storytelling.
What Does Storytelling Mean?
Storytelling is the art of telling stories. This process is a structured narrative that can be used to communicate a message through events. These events can be natural or fictional to catch the attention of those who listen to them. Storytellers seek to use emotions and values to frame said message and create harmony with people. This process aims to achieve a larger audience and provide value to people through a message and a lesson.
In Case Of Using Storytelling In The Selection Interview
It would be the art of telling your story about situations related to your work experiences. Start answering the interviewer’s questions in a way that would convince him of how suitable you are for the position.
How Does The Brain Process Storytelling?
The human brain is more active when listening to a story. Before presentations or speeches, from decoding the data, our brains activate several areas. Besides activating these areas, the sensory cortex is activated once faced with a story. That’s because we are living the story they are telling us. And the brain releases oxytocin, a hormone that facilitates approach, trust, and empathy with another person.
Summarizing a good story makes us feel, experience, and remember it. We become emotionally involved and can identify ourselves or relive our memories and experiences.
Stories Make Us Human
We all experience emotions and can share feelings of hope, neglect, and anger. Telling a story creates a sense of community among many people who otherwise might not get along. Stories are a universal language that presents many possibilities.
Stories bring people closer together and create a sense of belonging in a world divided by many circumstances. Stories connect us due to how we feel and respond to emotions despite language, religion, or politics differences.
How Can You Structure Storytelling?
We can describe storytelling as an art: the wit and aptitude to tell stories. Like all art, it requires creativity, vision, skill, and practice. Storytelling is not something you can master overnight or after taking a course. It is a trial-and-error process that leads to mastery.
It’s structured in this way:
- Beginning: where the situation and the characters are presented.
- Context: that will give the desired authenticity to what is told.
- The appearance of the hero: who is the character who wields the idea/need to be conveyed.
- End: where the story ends.
- Moral: with which the link with the story is reinforced.
Failing at any of these points will result in a structure that cannot stand up properly and could have the opposite effect on the consumer.
Storytelling Turns Abstract Concepts Into Concrete Ones And Simplifies Complex Messages
We have all felt confused when trying to understand a new idea. Stories give us an alternative to avoid that confusion. Think about times when stories helped you better understand a concept. Perhaps a teacher told an anecdote to explain a problem, or a colleague used a case to explain complex data.
Stories help ground abstract and complex concepts. One of storytelling’s most outstanding qualities is its ability to relate an abstract concept to concrete ideas.
How To Tell Your Story In The Job Interview?
You may wonder what aspects you should take into account when practicing storytelling; here are some fundamental points:
Consistency
It would be best if you were sure that the situation you are pointing out is related to what the interviewer has asked you. It is common for a recruiter to ask about difficult situations because, in complex and challenging conditions, the consistency of our skills is tested.
In these cases, do not seek to turn the story around so that it ends up being artificially cheerful. If you do not offer a story that allows you to test the skills the recruiter wants to measure, they will insist on you until he finds the answer that helps them identify the skills they need to measure.
Honesty
The story must be accurate and based on your own experience. You must narrate it with power, voice, and a spontaneous rhythm.
Empathy
It would help to express empathy with the people around you and whoever receives your story. It is one of the elements that connect quickly and effectively. When describing things, look for specific examples. Those can be even more effective if they appeal to or are similar to the characteristics of the people listening.
Do Not Go Off On A Tangent
Make it brief and straightforward. You have to focus on what the interviewer has asked you and the main idea you want to convey about what interests you that they learn from your story.
Context
You must give the interviewer enough information to involve them in the story. This information will form a reference and recreate the outlook that makes sense for the story.
For example:
“In a place in Canada, whose name I don’t want to remember, not long ago lived a friend of a friend, with a big book collection, a red house, and a cheerful Dalmatian”
Characters: You And Us
You are the main character; the rest are secondary in the story. It is advisable to distribute the successes to be a team player, but without losing sight of the fact that you are the protagonist.
Situation And Solution
Describing the situation is essential to convey the relevance of how difficult that moment was. But the central part is where you tell what you did to solve it. That’s where your skills and competencies come into play. That’s what the recruiter wants to see.
“The End”
What happened in the end, and what resulted from your actions? How did they affect the company, the relationship with the co-worker, or yourself?
If the story does not end well, focus on telling what you learned from it and how it has worked for you afterward. In a work environment, sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you don’t. It’s part of the game. Making mistakes doesn’t make you a failure. The recruiter won’t judge you as a failure if you know how to “sell” it well.
Storytelling As A Means To Sell Your Job Application
An interview process is a part of selling your services as a professional. It is very beneficial for your application to know how to communicate your values, qualities, skills, and knowledge without many words so the recruiter can feel engaged.
To “Sell” Your Application, Talk About Your Passions
If you talk only about yourself and how you solved an X or Y problem, you miss the opportunity to leave a more significant mark on the interviewer. Talk about how you enjoyed working with your team, the productive meetings, and the learning obtained… Anything explained with true passion has a plus of confidence.
Take The Opportunity To Talk About Your Potential
It is clear that people tend to judge others, and as a general rule, we try to look to the future. A recruiter has to check if you fit in the company in the present and future. Thus, taking advantage of your skills is critical in companies. By researching the company, you can know what they are looking for.
Create A Coherent Story, Including Your Nonverbal Language
If you tell a story about how you used your social skills to solve a problem, use them in the conversation. Don’t talk for a long time, avoid interrupting the interviewer, and let your talents show through subtlety.
Build Trust From Your Story By Seeking Empathy With The Interviewer
A story has to be coherent and focused on the interviewer’s questions. You have to answer clearly and display your skills during the conversation. Avoid getting carried away trying to make the story end up positively. Instead, show how you handled the situation, as this is Storytelling’s base.
It is clear that to generate trust, you must consider a couple of points:
1. Choosing the moral message. Once you have practiced self-knowledge, you can convey your professional worth differently.
2. Knowing the Recruiter. This point is more complicated, but by using social media such as LinkedIn or Twitter, you can research the professionals who will do the selection interview. This can also help you incorporate details that touch them emotionally into your speech.
Try to incorporate the following questions into the creation of your story:
- What do I want the interviewer to know?
- What do I want the interviewer to feel?
- What do I want the interviewer to ask?
If an interviewer asks you: What skills did you develop in your last job? It’s not the same to say:
I worked as a Human Resources manager, where I developed empathy, active listening, and the problem resolution that may arise at work.
It is brief, but how do you feel when reading this story? Do you find it interesting, or are you curious to know more about this person?
Instead, you might say:
I worked as a Human Resources Manager in a Social Services Center in Toronto. I connected with people and improved my empathy and active listening. This experience made me realize that many people had problems getting employment despite their higher education. We worked to create a project where they could perfectly plan a job search. After finishing the project, 65% of users managed to get hired.
Do you see the difference between the two stories?
In the last story, you can appreciate active listening and empathy when noticing people’s demands. You can understand proactivity when this person created a project that did not exist, and you can understand the valuable ability to solve problems, creativity, and the attitude to face challenges.
You Can Try To Practice With The Following Exercise
As a plan to help you to create a good story, take a notebook and a pen.
1. List all your previous jobs
2. Write two achievements, two problem situations, and two solutions to problems.
And then ask yourself:
- What did you do, and what skills did you develop with it?
- How did you do it?
- Where did you do it?
- Why did you do it?
Results
The creation of a story about how you solved a problem entails the explanation of action. To achieve a more significant impact, you must know how to mix quantitative information with technical experience and explain the characteristics that make you unique.
Storytelling not only works to do a good interview process and answer questions about how you describe yourself. You can also use it in conversations with friends, to explain your skills in the CV, or if you think of working independently as a freelancer.
As you just read, the art of storytelling is much more than telling stories. It is a communication technique with certain elements that seek to be as effective as possible when bringing a message to a person.
Communication has changed over the centuries, but people are still perfecting this technique. After all, we are full of stories, and within those stories, there are messages.
See more articles by Carla Fattal.
