Pat writes:
I heard you and your wife speak the other day, and while I wanted to stay around and ask this question, I just didn’t have the time to do so.
Can you explain again the importance or relevance of storytelling as it relates to me as a job-seeker?
The Career Doctor responds:
Thanks for attending one of our workshops! Hope you received some useful and practical information that will empower you to the next step in your career.
I should probably let Katharine answer this question since she is the one who conducted research on career storytelling for her doctoral dissertation, but let me take a quick stab at it because the topic is near and dear to me as well.
We’ve always known, from talking with recruiters and hiring managers, that the job-seekers who are evaluated the highest in job interviews are the ones who provide the best and most compelling answers. As you dig a little further, you discover that these best answers are all basically stories that job-seekers tell to describe a situation, task, and accomplishment. We’ve also found that job-seekers better remember details and respond better to interview questions when they have developed stories in response to specific interview questions.
And having these stories gives job-seekers more confidence in the interview, which also leads to a more positive review by hiring managers. Stories can also be incorporated into your resume and career portfolio, providing employers with solid proof of your past performance, something especially important when lying on resumes continues to make news.
One final benefit of career storytelling (though there are many more that don’t fit this blog space): using stories to respond to interview questions showcases your communications abilities, one of the skills that employers constantly rank as a vital skill necessary of employees — and often sorely lacking among job applicants.
Read much more about storytelling in this excerpt from Katharine’s book, Tell Me About Yourself.
