Short Stories and Job Interviews

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

You know when many people put their kids to sleep, they tell stories. The stores are designed to engage the child and also to relax them.

As adults, we forget the power of stories and there’s no place more powerful to tell stories than the workplace, particularly on an interview.

There is a winning format you need to follow called SOAR and you need to be prepared with a few stories that might be relevant to the job you are being interviewed for every interview you go to.

You start off with the SITUATION that you were involved with — what did you just step into, what was the problem that you were asked to address, the OBSTACLES that you overcame when you dealt with those situations, the ACTION that you took, what did you take a more to solve that problem and the RESULTS you achieved.

Results need to be quantified. You can’t just say, “Everyone lived happily ever after (you can joke about that on an interview).  However, use the format of a story following the situation you were involved with, the obstacles that you faced, the actions that you took, and the results that you achieved quantified by money earned or money saved wherever possible quantifying using metrics. There’s no better way to stand out from the competition than using metrics.  After all, your competition isn’t using them.

When employers are trying to evaluate what you did, as a recent guest of mine on “Job Search Radio” said, employers are looking for measurements of results, whether it is the size and scope of a project that you worked on, or the results of what you did, numbers are very important.

Follow the format of situation, obstacles, actions, and results in your interviews; it will definitely help your next interview soar.  That’s true of in-person interviews and phone interviews alike.

© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC  2016, 2021, 2024

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