By Joe Turner,
Many years ago when I hated what I was doing for a living, I
was encouraged by my career coach to write down several short stories
about times and events in my life where I influenced the outcome. I was
stumped at first, but after a few days, I came up with more than 15
pages of stories of times in my life where I influenced the outcome and
either grew myself and/or bettered the existence of either myself or
others around me.
So what does this have to do with a job
interview? If you read other books on job interviews, you'll notice they
feed you lists of interview questions and answers to memorize. An
interview is not an interrogation, however it's a conversation. To make
it that way you need to come armed with a multitude of small stories
about both your business and personal lives.
When you go into an
interview, you need to leave your nerves at the door. The best way to
prepare is to be yourself. The best way to be yourself is to tell your
own story (or stories). This is especially great for the
competency-based interview being used more today.
In a
traditional interview, the interviewer will ask you questions focused on
whether you have the skills and knowledge needed to do the job. A
competency-based interview goes further by asking you additional
questions about your character and personal attributes that can better
determine whether you fit their corporate culture. These are called
"behavioral competencies." A competency-based interviewer will spend
about half the interview on your job skills, and about half on your
behavioral competencies. He or she will be looking for evidence of how
you have acted in real situations in the past. An employer wants to find
out:
- Are you an asset or liability? In other words, will you make money or save money for the company?
- Are you a team player? Will you fit into the corporate hierarchy or be like sand in the gears? Can you take and give (if appropriate) orders?
- Will you fit into the company culture? They don't want prima donnas.
The
best way to show these traits is to take the initiative and have
several personal stories that you can tell, taking maybe 30 to 90
seconds each. You may want to start by developing your stories around
these seven areas:
1. Times where you either made money or saved money for your current or previous company.
2. A crisis in your life or job and how you responded or recovered from it.
3. A time where you functioned as part of a team and what your contribution was.
4. A time in your career or job where you had to overcome stress.
5. A time in your job where you provided successful leadership or a sense of direction.
6. A failure that occurred in your job and how you overcame it.
7.
Any seminal events that happened during your career to cause you to
change direction and how that worked out for you. I want to emphasize
that an interview should not be an interrogation. It should be a
conversation between two equals. When you accomplish this you come away a
step closer to your goal of landing the job you really want, because...
It's the conversation that wins an interview, and it's the conversation
that wins the job. To have a conversation, have your stories ready.