Interviewing & Story Telling

As I think about the interviewing successes of our candidates over the last two decades, there are many reasons that some people excel at interviewing. For some it has to do with their track record of achievements, for others it may be due to the diversity of experiences they have, and for others it may come down to the amount of effort they put into their preparation. But interestingly, we've seen candidates that check each of those boxes, yet still don't perform to their full potential when interviewing.?

One factor, that we?believe makes a difference in those cases is how well they can tell a story.? At the end of the day, that's what much of interviewing is about - effectively telling a story. In our interviewing program, we spend hours talking about and practicing the STAR format for answering interview questions. If you are not familiar with STAR,? it stands for?Situation, Task, Actions, and Result. This technique is well known and can be very effective for answering a variety of interview questions. But at the end of the day, it's just a template to hang a story onto. In and of itself, it's not a story.

Teaching someone to tell a story is a tall order for a short article like this or an instructional video. I've searched many resources but most didn't seem to fit because they were too focused on aspiring novelists and screenwriters. So much of that storytelling centers around things like plot and character development. These are essential elements if you aspire to be the next Hemingway, but not so relevant to interviewing. Plus, these resources place?their?focus on?writing?stories as opposed to?telling?stories.?And there is a big difference.

The good news is that I have finally found a resource that you might find helpful. There is a non-profit organization called The Moth based out of NYC but with a global reach. I'll not distract you with the details of their strange name yet (read to the end if interested), but they began as a local form of entertainment where brave volunteers would get on stage and tell short stories to strangers. Today, they hold "open-mic" StorySLAMS and contests around the world.

Here's what caught my attention. They have some important stipulations for their storytellers. For example, the stories must be less than 5 minutes, must be true, and have conflict and resolution. Oh, and no notes are allowed. When I discovered this I thought it sounded much like interviewing for a job.

That brings me to what you can do with this information. I have three recommendations.

1. Read the book they published called "How to Tell a Story." I went for the audio version and am glad I did because it played excerpts from their various live events.
2. Subscribe to their podcast or listen to their radio show (The Moth Radio Hour) which is broadcast nationally.
3. Pick up their game called?A Game of StoryTelling. I can't testify to how fun the game is to play, but I like the premise of having to quickly develop stories based on prompts randomly drawn from a deck of cards. Again, it sounds an awful lot like simulating an aspect of the interviewing experience.

If nothing else, just go to their?website?and start clicking around. You'll find information about live events, workshops, etc.

As for their unusual name, their founder George Dawes Green went back to his Georgia roots and fondly remembered how moths were attracted to the porch lights where he would spend summer evenings?sharing stories with his friends.