Stop Preparing for Their Interview Questions and Start Focusing on Your Stories

0:00 Job interview questions do not matter. And if that's true, why is it that so many job candidates spend so much time trying to think of all of those most commonly asked job interview questions, preparing individualized answers for them, you're trying to remember them. It's stressful. It puts you back on your heels. You're scattered. You don't have cohesive stories. It's exhausting. And so I I want to get you away from that and I want to get you more on offense and I want to get you off a defense. And one thing that I want you to understand is interviewers themselves are are very simple. They they simp they want to understand a few key things about you. Regardless of what they ask you, what they're looking for is this. They're trying to evaluate. Can you do the job?

0:55 Can you help them, you know, solve their problems, achieve their goals? It's very simple. That's all they're trying to ascertain. That's really all they're trying to check off. Can you do that? And they don't they aren't skilled interviewers. They get paid to do something else. So, they've got a loaded set of questions in front of them, of which you're worried about, of which are really irrelevant. And also, I want you to remember and keep in mind, they're also they have a mental checklist, I like to say. And as you're responding to their to their questions, what they're doing for almost any position type is does the person just know our industry, know our solution, know our market, know what we do? Those kinds of things. How's their communication skills? Are they organized? Can they lead? Are they good servicesers? Could they service the customers or service the internal customers, whatever it or the team or whatever it might be? Are they good at problem solving? That's all they're doing. And when you're answering them, or what I like to say, telling your stories, that's all they're doing. They're just trying to check those things off. So, how do we get you to stop reacting and get on offense? Because what I what I want the mindset I want you to have is you are not answering their questions. It's up to you to tell them stories that show them proof that you were the right person for the job.

2:18 And so today's lesson is going to be about why it doesn't matter what they ask you. I want you to share with them the stories you want to tell because you know that they provide the best proof that you're a great candidate for the job that you know how to do the job that you'll help them achieve their goals by overcoming their problems because you've implemented the kind of solutions they think it's going to take to do that. Cool. Okay. So that's how I want you to start thinking.

2:46 I it is not my job as the job seeker or job candidate to answer the interviewer's questions. I know that sounds odd, but the most important thing is that you provide them evidence of the fact that you will be a great employee. Okay. So, how do I want you to consider this? So, you've been through interviews or if this is your first time going into an interview, the interviewers are there and they ask you questions. Now, when you're preparing for what you're going to share with them, I want you to remember this. Here's the concept for today. Any question they ask you, and when I say any question, I really mean all the most commonly asked interview questions. If they ask you stupid stuff like what's your favorite cartoon character or what what board games did you play as a as a child, those have completely different answers, but you know the ones I'm talking about. Tell me about a time when you solved a problem. Tell me about something challenging, something you organized. How do you lead? Those kinds of things. Every question has an entry point. Has an entry point. All you need to do is find the entry point and open it. And it's super simple to do. I'm going to show you exactly how to do that with a handful of examples. But this is the concept for today. What I'd like you to do is as you're thinking about the employer and you're thinking about the job you're interviewing for or even if you don't have a job description, you still basically know generally what they want from you because you know what kind of services and ex you can provide and expertise that you have. I want you to pick a power what I call a power story and I will give you a a super quick definition for this today. And I have a technique that I want you to use to tell the story which I call my car technique. We're not going to go heavy into this today because the most important thing that I want to cover today is how you map their questions to your answers. But when I say a power story, what I generally mean is you will have a scenario in your history somewhere where you have run a project, solved a problem, implemented a solution, whatever it might be. That is the very thing that they are hiring you to do. You're the corporate counsel who understands deal structures and how to ensure the contracts are in order for M&As. You're the accountant who knows how to close the book, you know, costbased accounting. You're the IT project manager who knows how to implement an IT solution. You're the seller who knows how to sell that service or that complex product, whatever it is. Basically, you're looking for the story that is your best illustration that what you've done in your past is exactly what you need them to do in your future. Now, in the higher paid job search, the free workshop that I talked about, we're going to go at this at length and I'm going to show you how to map all this stuff. But for purposes of what we're talking about today, I just want you to recognize you are going to have a story that you believe is your best and most representative story that provides the most proof that you have what they need and you know how to do what they need you to do in their environment. So I just want you to pick a power story. The car technique it's it stands for context which is really context and result. The approach one is basically the outline or your steps that you took, just the steps. The A2 is a little more detail about what each step entailed. And then the R is the result that you foreshadowed in the C as well as all the benefit extensions and all the other great things that happened as a result of you doing whatever it was that you did or accomplished. Okay? I have teen videos on power stories, car stories on my YouTube channel. you can check them out. All right. Now, once you have that story, does everybody Does everybody have the story? Give me a show of hands in your mind, whatever you're interviewing for, before I go on to the next card, give me a show of pink wies in the chat. Let me know you've got your story. I want to see a few of these before I go on and I'm going to take a sip of my delicious coffee. We're totally leaded today in my L cup, which is not for lasa. I think my wife Linda, one of her school gal pals gave it to her for for a gift. I I don't know what it was, but let me know. You got your story.

7:06 M Dopper. Yes. Nice. Ebd Elena, what's up? All right. I see him coming in. Chris Roit, what's up? Melanie, I love it. Okay, now it doesn't matter what they're going to ask you. What I want you to do is this. You get asked whatever question you get asked. Doesn't matter. You're going to do this. You're going to connect it before you go right into the beginning of the car story. You're going to acknowledge what they asked. You're going to connect it.

7:36 And then throughout the story, you're going to emphasize whatever you need to wherever you need to emphasize it. Okay. What does that look like? All right. So, I threw a little sample together. If you get asked something like, "Tell me about a challenge." That's probably not going to be the first question in the interview, but even if it was, you have your story. What's a challenge? A challenge is a problem that you solved. You're going to lean into that. So, so what you're going to say is something like, "Here's the issue. We were losing 50% of our customers per year." Right? This is the power story that you want to tell. and you're the IT project manager or customer care manager or customer success manager or customer service manager or call center rep or whatever it is that helped your organization overcome this. Now, in the car technique with the context, you always start with a problem or an aspiration and this is it. But if you get asked what's the challenge, you're going to lean into the fact that you had a challenge. We had this challenge because we had we were losing 50% of our customers each year. And then you're going to go right into your story. That's it. That's all you need to do. That's all you need to do. And then you're going to tell the story you want to tell. What's the next What's the next one? Tell me about a major success. If it's a success, you're going to talk about the initiative and the outcome first. You're going to go right into then the problem or the aspiration.

9:09 So tell me about a raging success. All right. Well, we had this initiative that I implemented because we were losing 50% of our customers a year and it was my job to implement a system that kept them that reduced the attrition rate that increased the retention rate however you want to say it. That's all you need to do literally and tell the same story. What's the next one? Can you tell me about a time you influenced someone? It's the initiative again and you're going to highlight persuasion. There was this very complex multi-unit crossf functional project that I ran where there were 50 individuals that I needed to organize and influence. We were losing 50% a year of our customers and I was the project manager that was responsible to run the project to save the day.

10:08 any single question they ask you, you're just going to do the same thing. How do you lead people? I had this 30 person project where I was the project manager driving all of these resources because we had this issue where we were losing 50% of our customers every year. And then throughout the car story, you might want to spend a moment or two longer on any of the actual issues. So, let me just pull up the cards at random cuz they're now scattered all over my desk. Persuasion. If you needed to influence somebody, for those of you that go to the Andy School of of Interview storytelling, you know that the third step in the A1 part of the car technique is that you presented your solution to whomever you presented it to. Some of you are presenting it to the CEO, some of you are presenting it to your boss, some of you are presenting it to the stakeholders, the board of directors, or whatever. When you get into that step, you just hang out a little longer.

11:09 It was really important that I showed them the business case. It took some persuading because I had to highlight for them the ROI, the payback period. It was an expensive project because we had 30 resources where we were going to be working for a year. This was a $5 million project. So, I really needed to show them all the and then you just hang out there a little longer. Let's see what else. the success itself, you don't even need to hang out anywhere where it was a challenge, where there was a problem maybe as part of the solution. That's step two in the A1 section or the A2 section. It's still step two where you're going to you're going to talk a little bit about how you came up with the solution. We had this really difficult problem I needed to overcome with the solution because and I created a solution that that's all you need to do. There's almost no way you can ask me any question that I cannot acknowledge what it is you want to hear, connect it into my the beginning of my car story, and then wherever in the car story that you want to spend a little more time emphasizing that that position, then that's what you do. Okay? And so what this what I I want you to really understand this, I I wrote this out for you because I really want this to register. It's the same story that you're going to tell no matter what you get asked.

12:29 There's a different entry point, but it's all the same message because you're you're trying to check off as many of those mental boxes that they have. When they're listening to your story, they're not remembering the details. Their meter is running and they're saying, "Yeah, that's organized. Yeah, those are the seven steps we would do if we ran that project. Yes, I know how difficult it is to pitch that to the board of directors. That's what they're doing. Okay? And all they're saying is check, check, check. And if you miss a checkbox, that's bad, right? Because you want to and and your power story, which is showing the most proof in the most encapsulated compressed amount of time because it's your best example and analogy of what they need you to do. You're going to rack up a ton of points very early in the interview process. And what that does is that that shifts their biases because everything else that you say from then on, they're just assuming you know what you're doing because you came out of the blocks and you scored so many points so quickly. So it's really really important that you recognize this. There's no barrier to to it prevent you from sharing what it is that you want. And one other thing I want you to know, I started in the beginning and I said you're, you know, you're you're creating all of these answers for all of these questions and then you're scattered all over the place and you think, well, this is a great story to explain that and that's a great story to explain that. I don't want you to think like that. You want to control, you want to control the stories, you want to control the interview, you want to do it with proof, but what carries the day is clarity and depth always supersedes variety. It it it's a better illustration for me as a career coach to you if I take you through one case study of someone who likely has 80% of the same challenges you do. Then if I take you through 10 different case studies for one minute each and I say here's what she had, here's what we did. Here's what he had. Here's what we did. But if I take you through one story, one case study, and you can see the transformation of the individual who likely is got the same issues you do, it's going to be more powerful. I want you to remember this. Less is more. Don't get me wrong, you will have subs stories to your power story, but I want you to I want you to realize this, okay? To wrap all of this up because my cards are all mixed up now. Okay? I do have action items for you. Here's what I want you to do.

15:01 I want you to identify one to two stories. Don't go nuts. One is good. Two is fine. One is probably better. I want you to go back to my great eight accomplishments. I'm going to refresh you on what those are. I have videos out there. Eight ways to prove your value to the employer. But ultimately, when you pick a power story, the opener and the accomplishment needs to be one of the great eight. If you don't know what the great eight are, it's revenue generation, market awareness, so you're generating money or you're increasing the brand. You're also acquiring customers. Now, you could be a salesperson to acquire customers or you could be the engineer who optimized the website that makes it more SEO friendly. And so now you're coming up at the top of Google or ChatGpt or whatever. Okay, so customer acquisition, that's three. Customer happiness, that's four, that's service. The fifth one is corporate growth. And corporate growth doesn't just include growth. It includes risk management, right? Compliance, all of those good things. That's number five. Number six, employee happiness. Maybe you're the manager of people or maybe you're the HR person who's workforce planning for everybody's happiness. Okay. Then you've got cost reduction. So expense management.

16:21 Maybe you are looking for ways to economize things or prevent spend. And then the eighth one is process efficiency which automatically saves money because you streamline things with best practices that gets results faster. So you want to pick a story that aligns to one or more of those. And then you want to practice your entry points. Just practice the entry point. Pick five or six different questions. I gave you four today. success, a challenge, leading and persuasion. But I want you to just pick a story, align it to the grade eight, pick your car story, watch my videos on on my car technique or join me for the higher pay job search and practice your entries. Cool. Awesome. I got it in in 20, which was my goal for today. If you enjoyed that, please click the like button. If you are here with me live, we're going to the we're going to the chat.

17:14 If you're watching this on the recording, lots of luck on your search and I'll see you next week.