3 Wonderful Ways Storytelling Can Help You Crack A Job Interview

Interviews are conversations between two people (maybe more) with the primary objective of judging an applicant by the recruiter. The interview is a complex process where oral communication, persuasion, negotiation and storytelling work in tandem to help recruiter judge a candidature. The job of the candidate is to persuade the recruiter to judge in his/her favour.

Storytelling has a wider use in today’s world whether it’s marketing a brand or marketing self to a Recruiter, storytelling can do the magic for you. My interactions with students just out of the interview room, at UPES as an employability coach, give me a sneak peek of what works and what does not. Those who come out smiling have a story to tell and those with a frown are lost for words.

The emotional connections that stories make are engaging and move the audience. Storytelling persuades listeners to be more attentive. Those who understand the power of stories do their best to widen their outlook and those who withdraw into their shelves and do not see anything but the walls of their shells.

Using stories is scientific as research shows while listening to stories our brain releases happiness hormones like, Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphins (DOSE). Dopamine enhances focus whereas Oxytocin induces trust and generate empathy. Serotonin supports memory and Endorphins help the listeners to relax and focus on creativity. Focus, Empathy, Trust, Imprinting memory and Creativity are the major ingredients that help interviewee persuade a recruiter to judge in his/her favour, and a story helps you do that.

‘The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms’ said Muriel Rukeyser.

    We all have trunks full of stories, we just have to reflect and collect them on paper.

 I suggest students sit with pen paper and replicate all their experiences in and out of the classroom on their college journey. Then index your stories to sort them and use as per the questions asked in the interviews. It may be an event you hosted or a contest you won, a paper published. A project is done right or even a failed experiment is a story to showcase your values, interests and abilities to the interviewer.

Stories that follows Aristotle’s principle of Ethos Pathos and Logos are interesting and impactful.

Ethos-Personal Credibility/Authenticity- using personal experiences as ways to communicate skills and abilities entice focus and better judgment as recruiters can assess that with your skills they will be able to solve problems at their workplace or not.

Pathos- Appeal to emotions using Personal Stories-the anecdotes of personal triumphs and tribulations engage the listener. It helps to build rapport and trust which are underline factors of decision making. Whether the recruiter can trust you with their work depends on your ability to build rapport and connect. Storytelling can help to overcome the bias of confirmation and selection to shift decision in your favour.

Logos-Using facts and evidence – Use of facts and numbers in illustrating skills make you sound credible. Showing than just telling helps to create credibility. To demonstrate team building skills narrate an incident where you support a project group to come together to brainstorm and deliver better results with accurate project results.

Short is better than long, simple is engaging than complex and less is always more. SHE model of answering any interview question with your story helps to hold recruiters attention to persuade.

S-Succinct- (logos)-Dopamine

H-Honest - (Ethos)-Oxytocin

E-Engaging- (Pathos)-Serotonin and Endorphins

Experiences may be different but they are a unifying thread. So, own your stories, tell them with openness, and create a feeling of wonder to evoke the interest of recruiters in you. I am sure using your stories to let a recruiter know your skills and strengths will help you win that interview.

Happy Storytelling!