Okay, you’ve done a great job so far and they like you. Job 1 is done but creating a favorable impression is the foundation. You’ll need to build upon this and get them to see you working for them. There is an old adage that goes, “The best predictor of future behavior is past performance.” This is where your success stories come to play.
In last blog post of December 2009 I first wrote about using success stories (link one) as a means of telling the potential employer about your value. Then in January 2010 (link two) I offered additional insights to building your success stories for an interview. In this posting, I’d like to focus on how to employ your success stories.
Whether you’ve learned from an inside contact what the company really needs or you’ve gleaned it from the interviewer during the early part of the interview, you want to tell your success story in relation to their needs, problems, or opportunities. In other words, what stories best describe you solving their problems? What stories best describe you answering an opportunity and capitalizing on your action? What stories highlight what you could do to fill a gap in their team or organization?
Tell your story in such a way that the listener is excited by the potential of having you on the team. You must tell that story such, that they picture you doing what needs to be done for them. This is very subtle and it is a common technique used by the great storytellers throughout the ages. Allow your listener, the interviewer, to fill in the details in their own mind just like old time radio allowed the listener to create the scenes of Little Orphan Annie, Jack Armstrong or The Shadow in our parents and grandparents minds.
You do this by offering only as much detail as is needed to set the stage; this allows them to identify your story with their challenge, problem or situation. When the interviewee goes into too much detail about the problem, it draws attention to the differences with the problems that the interviewer is faced with. When the candidate drops the name of the past company or the vendors and customers, it prevents the listener from envisioning current company’s vendors and customers.
Then you end your story by describing the results of the actions you took. Relate how you saved the customer’s business that equated to $100,000.00. Or how you helped a new employee be successful and changed the whole team’s attitude and esprit-de-corps. Or whatever the outcome was in your story.
Telling your stories to interviewers in this way drive home that you are the right candidate for the job. It gives them that material they need to justify hiring you over the others interviewed. They like you best because you were a wonderful guest and provided them with all they need to feel good about hiring you.
In last blog post of December 2009 I first wrote about using success stories (link one) as a means of telling the potential employer about your value. Then in January 2010 (link two) I offered additional insights to building your success stories for an interview. In this posting, I’d like to focus on how to employ your success stories.
Whether you’ve learned from an inside contact what the company really needs or you’ve gleaned it from the interviewer during the early part of the interview, you want to tell your success story in relation to their needs, problems, or opportunities. In other words, what stories best describe you solving their problems? What stories best describe you answering an opportunity and capitalizing on your action? What stories highlight what you could do to fill a gap in their team or organization?
Tell your story in such a way that the listener is excited by the potential of having you on the team. You must tell that story such, that they picture you doing what needs to be done for them. This is very subtle and it is a common technique used by the great storytellers throughout the ages. Allow your listener, the interviewer, to fill in the details in their own mind just like old time radio allowed the listener to create the scenes of Little Orphan Annie, Jack Armstrong or The Shadow in our parents and grandparents minds.You do this by offering only as much detail as is needed to set the stage; this allows them to identify your story with their challenge, problem or situation. When the interviewee goes into too much detail about the problem, it draws attention to the differences with the problems that the interviewer is faced with. When the candidate drops the name of the past company or the vendors and customers, it prevents the listener from envisioning current company’s vendors and customers.
Then you end your story by describing the results of the actions you took. Relate how you saved the customer’s business that equated to $100,000.00. Or how you helped a new employee be successful and changed the whole team’s attitude and esprit-de-corps. Or whatever the outcome was in your story.
Telling your stories to interviewers in this way drive home that you are the right candidate for the job. It gives them that material they need to justify hiring you over the others interviewed. They like you best because you were a wonderful guest and provided them with all they need to feel good about hiring you.
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