Recalling your Best Stories

If you haven’t interviewed for a job position in awhile, either because you have been satisfied with your current position or just the thought of interviewing dredges up fear of not measuring up. The exercise of recalling your best stories helps you by bolstering your self-esteem and gets you ready to talk about yourself.

People coming to my job support group at St. Raymond for the past 5 years usually were there because they had lost their job, many times through no fault on their part. Being laid off feels just like you have been fired and your self-esteem takes a big hit. I give a simple first homework assignment to everyone who attends the group: come to the next meeting with a list of accomplishments, from any point your life, where you had an achievement that you are proud of, that you did well, and you enjoyed doing it.

I often hear people say that they can’t recall any accomplishments; that the exercise is very hard. It can be a bit like “writer’s block” but once we get the list started it can take on a life of it’s own. One fellow procrastinated until the night before, with nothing on his list to start but showed up for the meeting with a list of 60 accomplishments.

Another person, a woman, born in Africa and lived in a small village without running water nor electricity. She had to get help from her sister and mother to come up with the list. This woman was the first lawyer from her area. She was educated in a boarding school for girls where she became the “head girl” of the school at age 17. Her life was all accomplishments, but she could not see that fact.

Sometimes, even high achievers have trouble acknowledging their accomplishments. I recommend that they keep a spiral notebook with them because they will remember achievements in bunches and they need to write them down, before they escape their memory like dreams.

Why is this exercise so important? One obvious reason is that people tend to be negative about themselves when preparing to interview. They see their faults, imperfections and handicaps. This exercise counter balances this natural tendency.

The exercise also prepares the person to talk about themselves in a positive way. It is my experience that personal stories about achievements makes a person more interesting and sets them apart from their competition for a job position.

Recalling the stories is the first step, next the story needs to be condensed so that it can be used in the interview and doesn’t take to long to explain. Most stories need to be at least 30 seconds but not longer than 2 minutes. Then the story can be used to answer questions like, “Tell me when you had to solve a difficult problem?” And then the story teller can use a little trick the politicians use, “That reminds me of the time when...”

The first step is simply remembering accomplishments. The next step is making them useful in the interview. I use a process called the StaR process; recall a difficult work “Situation,” the “Tactics” used to solve the problem and the successful “Results” of the actions. The story is not going to be useful unless it can be articulated in an efficient manner.

Sometimes I get some resumes from people that don’t include any accomplishments. For each position on the resume, the job seeker lists the duties and responsibilities which really is pretty boring stuff. The reader can’t determine if the job seeker is a productive employee or a wall flower just filling the position. It is the stories that set people apart from each other. To make your resume interesting, you must include your top achievements.

Take the fellow about, who showed up for the meeting with 60 accomplishments, some recruiter wanted him to list his 17 patents, by number at the top of his resume. No explanation, no ranking, just a paragraph of numbers. I ask the fellow not to send that resume to anyone. That wasn’t a useful use of the fact that he had 17 patents credited to him. What he did was to create and addendum to his resume with a StaR for each patent. We did use the top 3 patents at the beginning of his resume, so we could get the reader’s attention, so they would look at the addendum.

Let’s say that you are one of these people who have an “old school” resume with little or no accomplishments listed in your resume. I would ask you to try and recall significant problems that you encounter when working in that position. Usually we all have had significant issues to resolve, every year, in every position. How we solved those problems tells a story about our effectiveness as a worker.

One key reason that most resumes are boring is because they are not written to any reader; they are written “to whom it may concern.” To make the resume powerful we need to use stories to get the reader’s attention. If you don’t know who is going to read the resume, write it to the CEO of a company that you admire. Read up on his background, study his company, now use your resume to get his attention.

What job position do you want at his company. What sets you apart from others that could want that same position. This is where your stories come into play. You don’t need the whole story, an ultra condensed version will do nicely. Give proof of your skill using your stories at the top of your resume. Send it to the CEO with a nice cover letter, with T Chart, and request an interview. Chances are the CEO will like what he is reading and walk it into HR and request them to talk with you.

When they call you, you can expect them to ask you why you decided to contact the CEO – and you can tell that story. Then, as they read the opening to your resume, you can expect them to ask you questions about your accomplishments. What a great way to start off the interview.