Stop Winging It and Start Scripting Your Stories

Looking for a job? Get ready to tell stories about yourself. That may seem obvious, but I've interviewed  thousands of people and will tell you that few are prepared. 

To make an impact in an interview, you need concise, interesting, ready-to-tell stories that you can pull out of your pocket to bring to life what you've done and the great things you bring to a job.

But a lot of people figure they’ll just cross their fingers and go with the flow. They plan to just answer the questions they are asked and hope they aren't too nervous and don't blow it or freeze.

They approach it as if an interview is going to be a simple Q&A where they can just wing it. 

But it's not.

An interview is more like a performance, a presentation, a time to make the best impression that you can. 

That's why winging it is never a good interview strategy. 

In fact, the best way to prepare for interviews is the opposite of winging it.

The best way to prepare is by actually scripting your stories. 

Some of you may not like this advice, because you worry that being overprepared feels phony and not spontaneous.

Here's what you need to know:

Planning and scripting your stories is the most authentic thing you can do. 

When you script your stories, you revisit the high (and often also the low) points of your career that are worth talking about.

You revisit times where you made a difference, and renew your connecion with the things you feel proud to have produced or managed or influenced or completed. 

What you've done says a lot about who you are and how you operate in your job and in the world.

When you think through what you want to say, word for word, and how you're going to answer questions, you are building a picture for talking about yourself.

And all of that will make you more confident and that makes you interview better. 

Stories make your work come alive. 

Most interviews today are built around "behavioral" questions, which usually start with "Tell me about a time..." to have you talk about a situation that gives insight into your work style and approach.

These questions are not looking for short answers.

They are looking to learn more about how you think, how you operate, how much you know, wht you've done in the past, and if you have the experience they need.

These open-ended questions are meant to be answered with a story, which, if you prepare well, will bring depth and context to understanding your history and your capabilities. 

Stories are how you show you know what you're talking about, and how you illustrate how you handle challenges, and the contributions you have made.

And stories let you give the listener a chance to picture you doing your job. 

And the silver lining is that you feel more relaxed and confident because you know you're ready with interesting responses and stories to tell, and you have something to talk about, no matter what they ask you.

Plan five or six strong stories you can use in different ways. 

Few things will bring more value to how you come across in interviews than taking time to plan out your key talking points. 

Start by crafting at least 5 or 6 engaging, informative, and appropriate stories that you can pull out of your pocket in interviews.

Planning and practicing your stories in advance has several advantages:

• You’ll refresh your own memory about the impressive things you’ve done, so they're current in your mind and you can re-frame them in the context of who you are now

• You can plan and refine how you tell each story so it makes sense and you won't find yourself rambling or leaving out important details or misstating anything

• You can prepare your strategy for how many different ways you can use each story so you're ready to repurpose it smoothly to illustrate a range of topics

• You can think through the wordsmithing on how you answer tough questions in advance, so you feel fully ready when you’re talking about a negative or sensitive situation

• You’ll sound smarter and more confident because you'll be prepared, and your responses will quickly become second nature to you
  
  

How to build your own portfolio of interview stories.

1. Find notable moments in your work history that make good stories.

Start by choosing five or six of the accomplishments you feature in your resume. These are things that make you look good and where you felt like your talents and knowhow made a real difference.

And they don't all have to be successes. Stories about failures can have a lot of impact if you plan how you talk about the lessons learned.

2. Script each story using the STARS method to tell a story.

Plan out word for word how to you're going to tell each story. Write it out, say it out loud, keep editing until it feels like your natural language. Make it conversational but to the point. 

The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Results) is a popular structure for answering interview questions and lets you tell a brief and focused story.

Tell what the Situation was, the Task you'd been assigned to fix it, the Actions you took, and the Results of your actions. 

Then add one more important piece – Summary – to bring the attention back to the present job you’re interviewing for, so I call this method STARS.

For example, let’s say one of your accomplishments is when you started a new job... but, on your second day, your boss quit, leaving you with a major client whose project was not complete, and who was very unhappy, and you were able to step up to save the day.

Here's an example of how you could talk about this accomplishment, using the STARS method:

Situation:  Describe the situation you were in with some who-what-when-where details.

"I'd only been in my new job for two days when my boss suddenly resigned, and I was asked to step in with a key client who was upset because we had missed our delivery deadline."

Task:  Say what you were tasked with and had to make happen.

"I was asked to get up to speed immediately about the client’s project to save their business, and at the same time, l had to learn how things worked in my own new company, so I could figure out how to get the problem fixed and the product delivered. I welcomed the chance to show the CEO and our big customer that I can get things done."

Action:  Outline the specific actions you took, focusing on your skills and talents.

"I started by calling a meeting with the Product, Customer Service, and Engineering leads for the project, to understand what had gone wrong and how we could fix it.

Then I set up a meeting with the client and the team of leads, and we explained what our next steps could be, and we were able to get them to agree to delivery in 30 days. 

To keep it on track, I created the internal schedules and deliverables, and touched base with the teams every day to check progress and keep on track, which was a great chance to get to know them and how internal processes worked." 

Results:  What was the end result, in terms of numbers or other signs of success?

"We ended up delivering the product in just 28 days, 2 days ahead of schedule, and the customer went from furious to grateful and even wrote the CEO of my company a letter telling her that I had been the catalyst for getting the project complete."

Summary:  Bring home the point with a summary that comes back to the job.

"That was a crazy four weeks, but I loved it and saving that client was a great way for me to prove I can tackle problems head on, I can get up to speed fast, I know how to bring people together to make a workable plan and systems that work, and then I can keep everyone on track to get it all done on schedule. These are my superpowers.

And that’s  why I'm so interested in your program manager position, because it sounds like it will use all of that, and I can help deliver results." 

3. Practice, practice, practice.   

Any speaker or performer will tell you that memorizing your script is one thing, but the magic happens when you internalize it and the words roll out naturally, and that takes practice.

Write your scripts down and try to memorize them. Practice and keep continuing to edit until the language sounds like you and the story feels easy and spontaneous.

This way, you’ll sound prepared without sounding rehearsed, and you won’t get sidetracked or forget what you wanted to say.

4. Plan which stories you can use for which kinds of interview questions.

Once you script a story, make a list how many things you might use this story for.

A review of job requirements and company information should help you anticipate what kinds of open-ended, behavioral questions you should be prepared to answer about your experience or abilities.  

Think about which of your stories might work as a talking point to illustrate what you've done in that context.  

For example, in the STARS example above, you could use that story about your boss quitting two days after you got there to show how resourceful you are under pressure... and you can also use it to show how well you facilitate work with different stakeholders on projects... and  you can also use it to show how creative and determined you are to solve problems for difficult or unhappy clients...  and a whole slew of similar things you can expect to be asked about.

You can use that same story verbatim and just adapt the summary statement for multiple questions or jobs.

For example, instead of ending with "that’s why I'm so interested in your program manager position," you might say... 

"...and that's what led me to focus my career on systems design for Customer Success, because I saw how having the right processes already in place helped me move faster to make a key customer happier..." 

or... 

"...and that's what I inspired me to pivot into Technical Project Management, because I can keep all of the interconnected complicated technical details and cross-functional teams on the same page and moving forward even under pressure."

5. Keep building your story repertoire.

Five is a good number to start with for your job search story bag, but once you get the hang of the STARS method of interview storytelling, you can add more, as long as you keep them interesting, memorable and planned.

And some stories will age out or you'll find a better one to replace it as your career progresses. But once they're memorized and part of your repertoire, you may find yourself calling on them for years to come. 

Always keep in mind how to adapt each story so it works for a variety of questions and topics and you’ll find yourself with a new level of interview confidence.

Start with one story and you'll get the hang of it.

I promise that when you stop trying to wing it and start preparing and practicing your stories, it becomes so much easier to interview, and you'll seem natural and not in the least canned or phony.