Storytelling 101
As a Career Advisor, I have the opportunity to interact regularly with passionate excited young people who look forward to charging out after graduation to save the world. I remember being 21. It's an exciting time.
I also am blessed regularly with experiences that effect the way I parent my own child. I see what happens after teens graduate from high school, pack up, and move out! When parents send their children to this particular institution of higher learning, I am now the one with the inside scoop. I'm not sure what my students tell their parents about some of the ways they spend their time, but I know that most of them get very good at storytelling as a survival tool.
Why is it then that it can be so difficult for some students to do an interview? In my opinion, interviewing well goes hand in hand with the ability to tell a good story. Students seem to have little trouble talking about other people and what scandals are falling into place around them. They do however seem to struggle when asked to discuss who they are in the context of something that has happened to them.
A very typical interview question might run something like this:
"Tell me about a time when you failed to meet a deadline. What things did you fail to do? What were the repercussions? What did you learn?"
The answer to this question will tell the employer a bit about your personality but it will also reveal to them if you are one that takes responsibility, can engage in creative problem solving, honest self reflection, and can learn from mistakes.
The students that I see most often are the dedicated overachievers. They come in to practice interviewing before they head out to the real thing. I'm glad they do, and I fear greatly for the ones that don't because even top students need to be coached in the art of storytelling.
Stories have a beginning, middle and an end. They also have a point to make that is fairly obvious. Some of the easiest stories to remember have clear points. Case in point... "Little Red Riding Hood." The beginning starts with a warning and a goal. The middle explains how the character lost track of her goal because she didn't pay attention to direction and got distracted. The end is what happened because she was careless, who helped her out and what she learned from the experience.
Little Red Riding Hood should have been able to answer that interview question pretty easily if she had taken a moment to really reflect on how her choices had contributed to a less than optimal experience.
A good story sticks to the point, holds our attention and doesn't meander much. The stories that did this for us as children were probably those that could be read in the 15 minutes before bedtime. They most likely included colorful illustrations, and the reader was able to share them with expression.
This example holds true for one who is interviewing and one who is the interviewer. You aren't going to get 15 minutes to answer a question though... if it takes you that long to get to the point you can pretty much kiss that job goodbye.
You're going to have to create super short stories. It's your job as the candidate interviewing to come in armed with some that can illustrate clearly to the employer who you are, what you are about, and how you fit into their program.
You can't tell a great story if you don't understand who it is for. Connect to the listener by learning a little bit about who they are and what they need ahead of time. Know ahead of time if this is honestly a good fit, what you can bring to the table and then get your stories ready.
I think the term "literacy" is too often reserved for the ability to read and write at a functional level. Another part of literacy includes the ability to speak and tell coherent stories that connect to an audience.
This seems to come easily to relatively few people. We can talk about other people, but it is harder to share stories about ourselves that include elements that are going to matter. As with learning to read, learning to tell stories takes time and practice.
Before you go to that interview think of yourself as a "Chronicles of (fill in your name here)" book. Open the book to the short story that is going to prove that you are who you say you are and convince your employer that you are someone worth getting to know better.
I also am blessed regularly with experiences that effect the way I parent my own child. I see what happens after teens graduate from high school, pack up, and move out! When parents send their children to this particular institution of higher learning, I am now the one with the inside scoop. I'm not sure what my students tell their parents about some of the ways they spend their time, but I know that most of them get very good at storytelling as a survival tool.
Why is it then that it can be so difficult for some students to do an interview? In my opinion, interviewing well goes hand in hand with the ability to tell a good story. Students seem to have little trouble talking about other people and what scandals are falling into place around them. They do however seem to struggle when asked to discuss who they are in the context of something that has happened to them.
A very typical interview question might run something like this:
"Tell me about a time when you failed to meet a deadline. What things did you fail to do? What were the repercussions? What did you learn?"
The answer to this question will tell the employer a bit about your personality but it will also reveal to them if you are one that takes responsibility, can engage in creative problem solving, honest self reflection, and can learn from mistakes.
The students that I see most often are the dedicated overachievers. They come in to practice interviewing before they head out to the real thing. I'm glad they do, and I fear greatly for the ones that don't because even top students need to be coached in the art of storytelling.
Stories have a beginning, middle and an end. They also have a point to make that is fairly obvious. Some of the easiest stories to remember have clear points. Case in point... "Little Red Riding Hood." The beginning starts with a warning and a goal. The middle explains how the character lost track of her goal because she didn't pay attention to direction and got distracted. The end is what happened because she was careless, who helped her out and what she learned from the experience.
Little Red Riding Hood should have been able to answer that interview question pretty easily if she had taken a moment to really reflect on how her choices had contributed to a less than optimal experience.
A good story sticks to the point, holds our attention and doesn't meander much. The stories that did this for us as children were probably those that could be read in the 15 minutes before bedtime. They most likely included colorful illustrations, and the reader was able to share them with expression.
This example holds true for one who is interviewing and one who is the interviewer. You aren't going to get 15 minutes to answer a question though... if it takes you that long to get to the point you can pretty much kiss that job goodbye.
You're going to have to create super short stories. It's your job as the candidate interviewing to come in armed with some that can illustrate clearly to the employer who you are, what you are about, and how you fit into their program.
You can't tell a great story if you don't understand who it is for. Connect to the listener by learning a little bit about who they are and what they need ahead of time. Know ahead of time if this is honestly a good fit, what you can bring to the table and then get your stories ready.
I think the term "literacy" is too often reserved for the ability to read and write at a functional level. Another part of literacy includes the ability to speak and tell coherent stories that connect to an audience.
This seems to come easily to relatively few people. We can talk about other people, but it is harder to share stories about ourselves that include elements that are going to matter. As with learning to read, learning to tell stories takes time and practice.
Before you go to that interview think of yourself as a "Chronicles of (fill in your name here)" book. Open the book to the short story that is going to prove that you are who you say you are and convince your employer that you are someone worth getting to know better.
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