Pick Your Mini Stories!

If you haven’t sat down to think about 1. where you are career wise and 2. how you got (t)here, I’d advise you do that before you start looking for a new opportunity. Your story is everything and while you’ve lived your life, no one else has so they don’t know you who you are. It’s your job to tell them who you are to get a job.

I think the best way to think about your story is through small vignettes. Think of 3-4 defining career moments - an accomplishment, a decision, a failure and one that incorporates one of your values. One of my values is “empower & uplift others” so I have a specific story about how I helped a co-worker shine in a way she never had before. It’s one of my proudest accomplishments.

These vignettes are the anchor to the question “So walk me through your career.” It will help you tell a cohesive focused story so you aren’t just rambling. These vignettes should also be the foundation for the questions you answer during an interview “Tell me about a time when you failed”, “What is your proudest accomplishment”, “Why this job?” or “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” To all of these questions you should have strong, familiar to you, answers.

Use the traditional structure of a story- setting (where/when), characters (you and who else), plot (sequence of events), conflict (a challenge ps this adds suspense) and theme (accomplishment, failure, decision, demonstration of your value). Even in an accomplishment there was a conflict you had to overcome. Map out each one of your vignettes and practice them on friends, family and yes, interviews. The better your can articulate who you are through a story, likely, the better your chances at landing the job!