As you are having a conversation / interview with your new employer, you need to connect you need to share stories and situations that they can relate to - remember they are the one hiring you!

As I was preparing that post, I ran across an article by Meridith Levinson, “Job Seekers: How to Tell Stories to Stand Out” that says it well:

Sensory details provide an essential element of good story-telling, says Hansen, because they help draw in audiences. Just as descriptions of a house’s smell or a character’s clothes make a story more believable, details about a job seeker’s professional experience will make their stories more credible and enticing to hiring managers.

“In a job seeking story, numerical details-numbers, percentages-are really important,” says Hansen. Key details to include in résumés and cover letters and in your answers to interview questions are the size of the IT budget you oversaw, the number of people you managed, size and scope of projects, and percents and dollars of revenue generated or costs cut.

Though detail is helpful, job seekers want to make sure they emphasize the particulars that are important to their audience-the hiring manager. They don’t want to waste precious interview time describing what their employer’s office looks like or the taste of the coffee in the break room.

The Two-Minute Rule

All this talk about recounting stories shouldn’t make job seekers think they need to transform simple, straightforward anecdotes about their professional experiences into epic tales. Rambling responses to interview questions bore hiring managers.

Consequently, Hansen says job seekers’ responses to interview questions shouldn’t run longer than two minutes. She recommends that you draft your stories on paper, rehearse them out loud with friends or family who can provide feedback, and revise them as necessary until you can hit all necessary points in two minutes or less.

Delivery

Even well-structured stories can fall flat if they’re not delivered with emotion. This is particularly true for challenge-action-result formats, admits Hansen, so job seekers should speak about their work with enthusiasm. A job seeker’s passion for his or her metier is infectious and demonstrates another quality that hiring managers find irresistible in prospective employees-confidence.

Well, thanks to Meridith for these thoughts. However it is presented-in conversation or the resume, connecting with the person interviewing you is the key!

As a Nationally Credentialed Career and Life Transition Coach, I help people like yourself get more out of life through their career! Is coaching for you? Learn how career and life coaching can help you personally, can help your company, and can help your church. Check out more at www.CCubedCareer.com.