Stop Reporting Work History, Start Telling Job Interview Stories That Sell You

Key Concepts

• Mileage vs. Age: Emphasizing repetitions and full life cycles completed over the duration of experience.
• Storytelling from a Vantage Point: Framing your experience within the broader context of the problem and the organization's goals, not just your specific tasks.
• Pen Analogy: Your work history is the ink, but you are the pen writing the story.
• Interview Purpose: To demonstrate how you can transform the company, not just report history or recite skills.
• Cherry-Picking Scenes: Selectively using experiences to illustrate your capabilities and fit for the role.
• Problem-Oriented Storytelling: Starting with the overarching problem the organization faced, not just the immediate task assigned.

Telling Your Story Effectively

• Mileage, Not Age: The speaker emphasizes that the number of repetitions or full life cycles completed is more valuable than the total time spent in a role. For example, a project manager who has completed three full project life cycles in a year is more valuable than someone who managed a single year-long project.
• Example: A young woman with one year of work experience and one year off was struggling to convey her experience in interviews. She had worked on eight projects involving presenting drug risks to providers. The speaker advised her to highlight the eight repetitions of this process, rather than focusing on the single year of experience.

Storytelling from Your Vantage Point

• The Pen Analogy: The speaker uses the analogy of a pen to illustrate that your work history (jobs, roles) is like the ink in the pen, but you are the pen itself, writing the story. This means you should not just report what you did, but frame it within the broader context of the organization's goals and the problem being addressed.
• Holistic View: Even if you are only involved in one part of a process (e.g., step five in a marketing campaign), you should be able to tell the story from a broader perspective, including the problem the campaign was trying to solve and the various elements involved (segmentation, demographic analysis, etc.).
• Example: The speaker discusses coaching a client named Vivian who was tasked with fixing a system integration issue between medical and pharmaceutical systems. The real problem was that the company was losing $50 million in paid claims due to the lack of data integration. Even though Vivian was not directly responsible for the financial losses, the speaker advised her to start the story with the $50 million loss to highlight the significance of the problem she was addressing.

The Purpose of an Interview

• Transformation, Not Reporting: The speaker emphasizes that the purpose of an interview is not to recite your skills or report your work history. Instead, it is to tell stories that demonstrate how you can transform the company and enable them to achieve results.
• Cherry-Picking Scenes: You should selectively choose scenes from your life and work experience to illustrate your capabilities and fit for the role. It is not necessary to relive every detail of what you did, but rather to focus on the aspects that are most relevant to the employer's needs.
• Avoiding Superfluous Information: The speaker notes that people often include unnecessary details in their stories, which can create inertia and distract from the main point. It is important to compress your experiences and focus on the key elements that demonstrate your value.

Problem-Oriented Storytelling

• Starting with the Problem: The speaker advises to always start your story with the problem that the organization was facing. This helps to frame your work within a broader context and demonstrate your understanding of the organization's goals.
• Example: In the example with Vivian, the speaker points out that the initial problem was not simply that the medical system wasn't talking to the pharmaceutical system. The real problem was the $50 million in losses due to the lack of data integration. Identifying the root problem is crucial for effective storytelling.

Conclusion

The key takeaways are to focus on the "mileage" (repetitions and full life cycles) of your experience, tell stories from a broader vantage point that highlights the problem being addressed, and remember that the purpose of an interview is to demonstrate how you can transform the company, not just report your history. By selectively choosing scenes from your experience and focusing on the key elements that demonstrate your value, you can effectively convey your capabilities and increase your chances of getting hired.