How to Tell Powerful Stories

And How to Use them to Ace Your Interviews

Author

Abbhi Sekar
January 05, 2023

Read time: 3 minutes

Hey there 👋 - it's Abbhi

Welcome to Career Confidence 🤝 

👋 to everyone reading this newsletter and gaining confidence in your career.

Today I’ll show you how to ace your interviews by telling powerful stories.

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🤯 Most Jobseekers Can't Tell Stories

But without storytelling, interviewers will forget you...

Do you tell stories in your interviews?

If not, you need to start.

But how?

Here’s how to use stories to land your dream job (& be remembered).

Let's dive in 👇

👊 Actionable Steps

Practice Your Stories

  • Write 1-2 stories for each qualification.

  • Relate your stories to your target role

  • Structure answers using SCARL (Situation, Complication, Action, Result, Learning)

Bad structure = confused interviewer.

Let's dive into structure...

Use SCARL to Structure Your Answers

(1) Set the stage

(2) Talk about your problem

(3) Discuss your actions to address the problem

(4) Speak to the results of your actions

(5) Summarize your learnings from the results

Let's talk through an example story:

Tell me about a conflict with a team member?

👇

Step 1: Set the Situation

You need to give context.

Here’s my situation:

I was helping a B2B SaaS company with its go-to-market strategy. They needed help researching their competitors.

This sets the stage for the rest of the story.

Step 2: Address the Complication

Discuss the problem you faced...

Here’s my problem:

A team member explained how they wanted to research competitors. I upset them because I didn't follow their guidance.

This pulls your interviewer into the story.

Step 3: Discuss How Your Actions Address the Problem

Here are my actions:

I listened to my team member’s perspectives and told them I adjusted my research based on my initial findings.

P.S. Use ‘I’ instead of ‘we’ when you discuss your actions.

Step 4: Discuss Your Results

Results show the impact of your actions.

Here are my results:

We resolved our issues and understood each other's perspectives. We moved forward with my research and added my team’s feedback.

Interviewers care about results.

Step 5: Summarize What You Learned

Here’s what I learned:

I learned to trust my team’s guidance and to ask questions instead of continuing to work alone.

Interviewers love continued learning.

Show you learn from every situation.

TL;DR: Use SCARL to Tell Your Stories in Interviews

  • Set the Situation

  • Discuss your Results

  • Talk about your Actions

  • Address the Complication

  • Summarize your Learnings

🙌 Abbhi's Aces:

Content to consume, Tools to use. Best finds of the week.

📚 This post has 4 simple tips to create a killer LinkedIn profile

🔗 This website has free resources for resumes, interviews, and careerg

And if you missed it, this post oulines 6 ways to use ChatGPT to save you 10+ hours in your job search:

Abbhi S. on LinkedIn: ChatGPT Will Save You 10+ Hours | 273 comments

6 ways to leverage ChatGPT to land your dream job (& save you 10+ hours): If you enjoyed this - join 1503 jobseekers and receive tips to land your dream job.… | 273 comments on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abbhisekar_chatgpt-will-save-you-10-hours-activity-7014226828756148224-cBuw

Thanks for reading! I hope you gained some confidence in yourself and your career with this week's lesson.

See you next Thursday ✌️

Abbhi Sekar 🤝

Struggling to land your dream job?

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