April 29, 2025 • 35 mins
Are you a rambler?
Fast talker?
Slow talker?
Nervous when asked a question in an interview and curious just how long that ideal answer should be?
Or, how to deliver it concisely? Powerfully?
Today, it’s all about staying on track when you respond to interviewers.
Whether your response is one minute, three minutes, or five minutes, it needs to be packaged with the right information, powerful words that paint a picture, and phrases that elicit the feelings you want the interviewer to have about you.
That’s right.
They hire you based on feelings.
Why?
Because they have to hire you (or not) based on something.
And, they don’t exactly have enough time to get all the information they’d actually need to know whether you’d be a star. (Even though you and your beloved Coach are already certain that’d be the case.)
What’s more, they think four times faster than you can talk, so that gives them ample time to imagine.
Let’s get them imagining how awesome their lives will be once they hire you!
If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:
1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.
2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.
3. Grab any of my three books related to interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.
4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.
5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!
--Andy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I would love to talk about interview answers i get a lot of questions about how long should my
interview responses be and for those of you that came to this to this video or this show
to know to know what it is well sometimes those questions can be answered in one second with a
yes or a no sometimes it's one minute but not to spoil the uh the punchline here but whenever you
(00:25):
get into an interview and you have a base story I call them power stories but effectively you
are describing a project that you've done that is the most illustrative representation of how
you will perform in their environment based on a project that you've done that's greatly similar to
(00:46):
the kinds of things they want you to do in their environment whether it's sell something market
something account for something build something run a project related to something whatever it
is that you whatever it is that you do I want you to know you should be able to answer that
in three to five minutes that's your answer and if you're wondering how the hey do I do that what I
(01:10):
really want to dive into today is why you're not able to because in three minutes they should know
if they're going to hire you they probably know in 30 seconds but in three minutes if you really
pack a punchworthy story filled with information that checks a lot of their boxes related to the
requirements they're looking for from a features and skills perspective but also sees from an
(01:35):
impact and an accomplishments perspective how you actually helped a previous employer achieve
something or even if it's a thought process that you're going through when when you're actually
walking them through a story you should be able to do it in 3 to five minutes now if you're wondering
well how do I do that or yeah that's about how long my answers are what I would tell you is I
(01:57):
coach people every single day literally not a day goes by except the weekends where I'm not
talking to somebody onetoone where I'm coaching them on how to perform in an interview and I can
tell you there are a host of problems when you are responding to an interview question that are
really costing you points and there are a number of things that have to do with the organization
(02:19):
of your responses that make it take longer that make it weaker that make that just fill it with
dead weight words that don't mean anything and don't paint a vivid picture so what I'd like to
do today is I want to tell you what those problems are why you're not able to pack a powerful punch
in a few minutes and yes there might be shorter answers and some interactive dialogue that you
(02:41):
have with the interviewer but basically what I'm talking about today is when you have a main story
that you're trying to tell you should be able to get the line share of the information that they
need to know and I'm going to stress that the information they need to know and I'm going to
tell you why you struggle to do that cool one of the one of the things I want you to do as
(03:02):
I'm running you through these slides I want you to think about what would be your most representative
story that you are virtually certain dare I say 100% certain that you will want to share with an
employer in an interview because it is the most accurate representation of how you will perform
(03:22):
in their environment all right first first issue that a lot of you have and then I want
you to think about this as you as you hopefully can work your story a little as as I go through
the structure here i want you to take some notes related to your individual stories the first thing
is your answers generally are not organized um I can keep the outline of every interview
(03:45):
answer in my head because it should be the same for any type of question that you get asked
so there's an organizational component to it that needs to be dialed in the story itself
you're trying to share information that doesn't really matter for story purposes and what what
(04:07):
ultimately let me take me off the slides here for a second what ultimately are we trying to
accomplish here's one of the biggest mistakes that I see people that I coach make and I I'm gonna say
a 100% of them when when I'm roleplaying with them and I'm asking them to share their story or I'm
asking them questions to prompt sections of the story that we are trying to assemble what people
(04:30):
do raise your hands if this is you everybody in the chat's going to raise their hand for
this one so don't be bashful you're trying to relay a story based on what actually happened
the way you remember it in your head who does that right you're trying to answer somebody
i asked you a question tell me about this project or whatever it might be or tell me about a project
(04:54):
you can choose it doesn't matter and then what you do is you start you start literally telling
me about it the parameters the steps and things of that nature and that's totally totally wrong
you are in an interview to sell yourself we tell stories for selling and marketing purposes
we only use the information that illustrates what it is we want them to feel about our
(05:21):
qualifications that's right feel because they're thinking four times faster than you're talking so
what they're doing is they're sending their little brains signals about whether you're
organized whether you're smart whether you're a good communicator whether you have the requisite
skills that's what they're doing they're not going to remember what you tell them what they're doing
is they're storing feelings about you to make a decision and they're extrapolating those so
(05:45):
what you're doing is you're filling in a lot of information that is not germanine to the story let
me give you an example from a couple of sessions I had this week and I'm going to dive deeper into
this as we go through the steps so I had a woman on Monday fantastic um highly accomplished nursing
background is going to be mo maybe she's here um going to be moving into an operational position
(06:09):
she's got the qualifications the experience and when I was asking her I start out with "Well what
was the problem?" And she said "Well there was poor communication." As she was trying to describe
some some of the the background which I didn't even actually need to know because even though
you have poor communication that's not central to the skills you're trying to portray and the story
(06:31):
you're trying to tell to market you because ultimately we want to tell the employer how
we actually solved a business problem that they care about poor communication is just going to
lead to something that was a problem and in this person's case it was the nurse's communication to
the patients while poor or the poor communication to the doctors basically meant that the patients
(06:56):
weren't informed they weren't they weren't satisfied ultimately the customer experience
was bad the satisfaction scores were low which meant bit future business was going to suffer
because they were not getting positive reviews so they were jeopardizing future business revenue by
not doing great customer service that's going to be more important for me to understand all
(07:20):
the other symptoms are are are secondary i had another person he when I asked him
uh he was designing a new product a system that his company was going to use to operate some of
the back office stuff and one of the things he I said what's the problem and he said well basically
the sales people had bad attitudes they weren't putting you know information in the system that's
(07:43):
not the problem we don't need to know about the salespeople we don't need to know that they have
bad attitudes we don't need to know why they're not doing something that's leading to a problem
that you ultimately need to communicate which is there's information the management team is using
externally with investors with banks with other external parties where the information is inac
(08:08):
inaccurate it could be illegal it's misinformation it could be lack of compliance those are the
issues and so and what he's trying to do is sell himself and how great he is at troubleshooting
problems and bu and getting requirements and building systems the salespeople have nothing
to do with the story other than they were the operators of the of the system he was creating
(08:30):
what he's trying to project is his ability to build a system that contains data with accurate
information do you see what I'm saying and you're and you're wasting time talking about things that
don't represent what you need to represent about you in the interview and so this is really really
important and you're wasting a lot of time upfront with a lot of dead weight information that while
(08:54):
true does not sell you it just takes you longer to explain you follow me do do you see what I'm what
I'm saying this is just a couple of quick examples but what happens is you have a lot of this in your
story that doesn't matter because you don't work your stories backwards which is the way you should
be what is it I'm trying to what is it I'm trying to show them it's all about do you have the skill
(09:20):
sets and and have you helped previous companies transform in these related areas their goals their
problems your responsibilities and so on so you want to keep your story super focused all right
the other things that are at at issue you're not talking about the great eight what I those two
illustrations that I just gave you and we'll go into what the great eight are but every story
(09:44):
that you start should start with a great eight component and I will tell you what that is but
these are what I'm alluding to here is the very very specific accomplishments that employers care
about you make the money you save the money you make it easier for other people to make the money
or save the money or whatever it might be but we'll we'll we'll run through those real quick
(10:06):
um you're you're you're trying to be um specific about the skills you have you never never need
to say I have this skill ever a skill is deduced based on an if then if you were able to do that
you must if you were able to run that project on time and on budget and it was complete then you
(10:34):
must be organized you must be a good project manager you must know how to manage the staff
all of that gets deduced i don't ever need to say it so so this is really really important remember
we're in an interview not on a resume here you're explaining what happened that is never ever ever
your job is to explain what happened not it's it's to tell a story that illustrates how you
(10:58):
will help them transform based on what you did and you can be selective as far as the components that
go into the story it is not your job to answer their questions either ever does that sound odd
it is your job to give them the information they need to know to make a good choice about hiring
(11:20):
you you can ask me any question and I can give you the same answer or same story for it so it makes
no difference it's up to you to think backwards about their goals their problems and what they
truly need to know you got a lot of weight dead weight in there and dead weight comes in multiple
forms it comes with information that doesn't need to be shared information that doesn't need to be
(11:43):
shared that also doesn't sell you i don't care the attitude of the salespeople it makes no difference
that's that's dead weight in the story the story is about how you got a system up that that enabled
your management team to have accurate data so so so keep that in mind and then the other thing that
I have to absolutely take a knife to when people tell me their stories is I have to take out all
(12:07):
the dead fluffy words that don't actually say anything specific strategy plan all a lot of those
words when strung together don't paint a vivid picture in my mind of what's actually happening
so the context up front that you need to provide has to be very very specific and very very
(12:30):
detailed from not not detailed in length detailed in words not number of words the words themselves
need to be descriptive okay you don't paint the vivid picture because you got a lot of that dead
weight and you're not thinking about what is it I want them to feel about me and think about
me when I tell the story does this who who who struggles with this right this is this is this
(12:59):
is really really bad like what what and a lot a lot of people have all of these issues when they
go into an interview and so I want you to think about this because if you have these issues even
if you are a dead 100% bullseye candidate you can still run into trouble who's with me who's
(13:22):
tracking good good is this thing on all right all right so now how do we how do we
eradicate these issues well you can use my car technique that stands for give them some
context so why does the story matter why is it important and you're also going to
tell them the answer upfront as to what your accomplishment was and we'll walk through this
(13:49):
then I need you to very quickly run through your overall procedures the steps the outline and why
do we want to do this because you you want to do it for a number of reasons but basically you want
to give the listener a map of the story you're about to tell here's what I'm going to tell you
(14:09):
i have a system or a playbook or a procedure or if I reverse engineered this on the fly this is what
it would sound like and people who have systems people who have overall programs people who have a
one two three about them they get paid more right i'm going to pay more for somebody who understands
the entire picture so you want to be very vocal verbal and specific about what the overall picture
(14:36):
of in steps in ter in terms of steps takes and just so you know it takes you probably not even
30 seconds to say number one and number two i know step number two takes me 11 seconds to say eight
steps cuz I timed myself so So that's really important that you you start out on the right
(14:57):
foot and then you get to you get to go through the stages of your project with information about each
of the steps and that also does not take very long at each stage it really does not and then you give
them the result again so what does this look like in practice all right so the first thing is I want
(15:18):
to talk about the grade eight so when you start a story the story never starts with the first thing
I did was the story starts with why was this even important so the the you know customer
uh project customer service project manager who's implementing a new project an IT project to build
(15:43):
a new customer service system doesn't say I was asked to build a new customer service system we
know that that's implied i don't even even need to say that and if I say it up front it's really
boring and it doesn't tell me any reason why this was important you score no points for being
important versus versus the IT project manager who said "Well in the past three years we were
(16:10):
losing 25% of our customers every year." That was costing us about $60 million in customers
that were leaving so we needed to figure out how to fix it that's how you open up a story right we
were losing money we had bad customer service and so I'm I'm being brought in to eradicate that now
(16:33):
my part in eradicating that is building a better system i'm not doing everything but that's why
you were doing it in the first place that makes you sound more important it also g gives you that
big picture thinker label it also gives them an idea of how critical this this project was so
what conclusions can I draw from this wow you must be important if they entrusted you with such a big
(16:58):
problem it doesn't matter if it was a $10,000 fix this is a big big issue your solution doesn't need
to be elegant or overwhelming the impact needs to so right away I could just say that I coached
a woman once was a um kind of a chief operating officer type of of person and she was and I were
(17:26):
doing some interview coaching and I was asking her you know let's talk about some of the primary
goals of a chief operating officer right you're going to you're going to run sales you're going
to run marketing you're going to run services or service maybe you got the HR component you've
got a number of these other things so we were talking about one of the major impacts she made in
(17:46):
uh helping a company grow and she said "Well in the you know in the first year I helped the
company grow $17 million." That's revenue increase it could be value creation it could be profit it
could be something of that nature she's going to hit one of the great eight but for context
purposes you don't want to say "I came in and and it was my job to grow the revenue." That's boring
(18:11):
we know that's your job we know that's what you do i can see it on your resume and I know what
you're interviewing for but when she talks about and gives context to how she makes this happen
it's one thing for her to say um you know in in the first year I was able to change the systems
and change the personnel and we we were able to grow $17 million it's a whole another thing to say
(18:36):
I joined this organization because after three years they were stuck at 50 million in revenue
and couldn't figure out how to grow when there is an huge market demand for their whatever product
or whatever service and I knew if I could fix the systems and the people components of this through
a series of projects that there was at least a 40% lift I could make in the first year f and and as
(19:04):
it turned out it was $17 million or something like that that helps the listener understand
that it's not that you lifted at $17 million it's that they couldn't figure that out without
you does this make sense do you understand there has to be context so that I understand that this
problem was really hard that nobody could solve then you came in because you had this experience
(19:27):
and you're going to tell me right away what the opportunity was or what you were trying to fix
and I'm going to make the natural assumption if you tell me you're losing 25% of your clients in
that $60 million I'm going to make the assumption that you fixed that because you otherwise would
not have told me that this is so important i spend the most time in the beginning part of the answer
(19:52):
changing the way my clients think about how they respond and it takes them a number of iterations
to get it right and it takes them a number of iterations to reprogram their mind of where a
story starts you start with the impact you start with the end result you don't wait until the end
you want them thinking immediately this is what you solved that's part of the context if you
(20:17):
use the STAR technique you're not going to get to the result until I'm already tuned out does that
make sense okay and you always want to give them the business problem or goal or opportunity you
achieved or problem you solved or how you made it go away upfront the next thing is then what
you're doing is you're foreshadowing this and here's where you get a chance to actually say
(20:42):
something explicit about your qualifications but only after you've impressed them with the impact
this project ma that you made so then what you're going to do is you're going to segue with I was
brought in i was recruited to figure out how to grow this because I have a track record of
helping companies grow their business i was the IT project manager assigned to this because of
(21:08):
my specific experience implementing customer relationship management systems because I've
done that 20 times before this is where this is where you get to stuff your qualification
in but you use it in the wake of a because this is why I was assigned that that's a little chest
pumping right there but it's just the fact right you guys with me so far this only takes seconds
(21:36):
to say so if you put a clock on you this should not take more than 15 seconds or so to say all of
that it's pretty quick and then every single one of you no matter what it is you do I want you to
think for a second think about what you do every day day in and day out project in and project
(21:58):
out what is it that you do do you run IT projects do you handle customer calls it doesn't matter
every single one of you any single project that you've done looks like this you did some kind of
research you did some kind of assessment then you identified a solution then you presented a
(22:24):
business case then you built the fullout plan if that was not already built maybe the plan
was built and that was part of the business case you implemented it you operated it you
gathered data and you iterated okay that's what the template looks like every answer that you
give for a base story a power story where you're going to walk them through something I want you
(22:47):
to think about this really quickly i don't care if you researched for five minutes i don't care
if it took five months i researched i did an assessment i did a diagnostic why cuz you have
to understand what you're about to do if somebody already built the strategy for you you still had
(23:10):
to do an assessment of the strategy to ensure the steps you're about to take are in alignment with
the strategy you have all the eyes dotted the tees crossed every single one of you never does
anything without an assessment of some kind okay then you created a solution i don't care if the
(23:31):
solution was already designed you confirmed and and designed architected and and and blueprint
the solution or the alternatives then do not skip this step because you're losing major points by
skipping it i presented the business case i presented the approach i presented my plan i
(23:54):
presented my new idea whatever it is to whomever it was so I want you to think about this i pulled
a business case together i drafted the statement of work that included the plan the cost the return
on investment the resources the risk profile the whatever and then I presented it to the management
(24:17):
team that's one way of saying it or I presented it to my boss who is the executive vice president
of or I presented it to the board of directors i presented it to the CEO the CFO it doesn't matter
i don't care if you're a 25-year-old junior staff person you presented it to your management team
or your manager or somebody and why do we want to get this step in what does this say think
(24:42):
about this you're sending the feel they're getting feelings about you that a you know how to make an
argument you know how to prepare a business case or a plan you have an understanding you must be
persuasive because you wouldn't be telling me this unless your plan got approved right i need to make
that assumption and so you're saying this very quickly but what I'm feeling is organized knows
(25:07):
how to pull the presentation together knows how to communicate it obviously is persuasive
i'm running through those check check check check check and you spent three seconds telling me that
do you see the return on investment when you're using economical wording okay then what well then
I built out the full plan once I got the green light great then I hired the team i recruited
(25:32):
the whatever i implemented the plan we put the software in place we did whatever then we turned
it on then I gathered data for 6 months to see if our customer attrition rate was going down or our
retention rate was going up we evaluated whatever we evaluated the new patient survey forms right i
(25:55):
implemented the system with the more accurate data and each month we were able to reconcile it with
the invoices and the accounting books and the so on and the so forth right this is really really
important and then you tuned it if if if need be now you don't have you don't have to say "Okay
I went through eight steps here they are boom boom boom boom boom." It might be five you might
(26:16):
combine a few but the point is you can use this as a starting point because when you say "Well I went
through you know seven steps to implement this i did an assessment i identified a solution i built
the business case i presented it to management." and you're rattling this off and they're hearing
you say things in sequence in this slide took me 11 seconds to say literally the whole slide so you
(26:43):
could do it even shorter if you have three steps or five steps or whatever it is but the point is
you now are giving them the map so they know when they're listening to you exactly where you are
in the story and you also you also are showing them I have a system i know exactly what to do
make sense okay that's the second part of the answer you start with the context that includes
(27:10):
the impact and the result then you give them your formula whatever your formula is okay but
a lot of you it's going to look like this then what I want you to do is I want you to go back
I want you to go back through this and you're going to go back to the beginning and just say
so in the assessment again what did I say in the beginning of the of the show here what a lot of
(27:35):
you do is you start with step one and then I did this well I did an assessment and then I had to
interview these people and here's the questions I asked them and the data I was trying to gather
and then I was going to use the data and then here's how I use the data and so this is why
it takes you 10 minutes instead of two minutes to to tell the story we speak in inventories
(27:57):
we don't speak in steps even though I gave you a formula of the steps that I went through I'm
not actually going to blow out any of those steps in sequence form i'm only going to give you the
inventory of the factors that I assessed so what did your assessment entail so I did an assessment
(28:18):
that required me to look at the 17 satellite locations make sure I understood our prospect base
i evaluated the last year's worth of of revenue the last year's worth of expenses i gathered
all the data so I could draw my conclusion do you follow me that's an inventory i just told you what
I assessed i didn't take you through the whole assessment do you understand what's happening in
(28:42):
the listener's mind oh you obviously know what you need to look at and you must know how to evaluate
it because you use that information just like you said to draw a solution did do you see give me a
hey in the chat this is really really important you speak in inventories you speak in lists
(29:06):
give me a Hey I'm
tracking it's inventory only on only information that sells you so I once
uh helped a woman actually I've told this story a couple times but I absolutely love it um and
she was building a new product line and when we got to her researching step she said "Well Andy
(29:28):
um there you know we had like uh seven people from Boston Consulting Group or Bane or one of the two
um and they were gathering this data and it took them like six weeks or whatever." I'm like "No
don't don't say any of that you don't need any of that it doesn't matter how you got the data
you got the data what's the important What's the important thing about your story i know what data
(29:50):
I need i know how to look at it and I know how to draw conclusions that's it that's all they need to
know do you see how I get amped up about this this is why your answers are taking so long that's not
gerine to the story that you had seven consultants that were helping you get you data i don't need to
know that you don't need to share that and as a matter of fact that weakens your story okay and
(30:14):
the other thing is it's illustrative purposes why is illustrative in caps because it's not exactly
everything that happened i'm giving you a year of experience distilled down to 3 minutes only what
sells you best so the part about the consultants didn't sell her best she didn't need to say that
(30:35):
so when you strip out all the A's and B's and C's and D's and all the way through the alphabet and
you're only left with what am I trying to convey write that down every single time you need to be
asking yourself what am I trying to convey what she was trying to convey is I know how to run a
new product launch because I know all the steps and one of the steps is to gather the data about
(30:59):
existing customer insights the demographics down to what they buy how much they spend where they
buy where they live right that's data I need i don't care how you got it that doesn't matter
to me you'll figure it out okay so when you go back through your list that only took you
11 seconds to articulate you're going to hit each step with a few more seconds to explain each the
(31:27):
assessment to I I interviewed I looked at the 17 satellite offices i interviewed everybody who was
in charge of the offices i collected the survey data right that's it a few seconds just give
them the insights and then you're going to you're going to confirm the what you told them initially
at the end of the first year I generated $17 million but then what you're going to do is you're
(31:51):
going to pile on top so your results your results are said twice and then you extend the result
meaning what I what I wanted the chief operating officer to say was so after the end of the first
year I generated almost 40% more 38 whatever it was in new revenue 17 million but on top of that
(32:17):
I had also set us up for the subsequent year where we already had a $10 million renewal rate that was
up from five the year before okay that's an that's an additional i am the little project manager and
I did this great project and I delivered it on time and on budget and you're not going to use
(32:40):
the words but exactly like I told you two and a half minutes ago and because it was so awesome and
because I'm so awesome the entire company is now using my internal project management methodology
as the best practice i built all the tools and templates right that's a result and that's a
benefit extension or an additional benefit that you are now going to reap the rewards of in future
(33:03):
years and everybody else is benefiting from your awesome work so you just want to make sure that
you are talking about what then happened and what you positioned the company to do for the future
okay so this so so when you think about everything you're about to say look at the way you're look at
(33:28):
what you're including you do not need to script out your interview answers what you need are when
I say the thing about the assessment what's the color I need to add in so context up front then
you sweep through very quickly in 10 seconds your outline of your steps then you go back and you
spend a few more seconds at each step and then you confirm it with the result if you like this
(33:56):
um Cara maybe we can um we'll hold this first and then I'll mention about the book package
but there's a couple of great resources that we have that I would certainly help you with
your interviewing one is this job interview playbook it's a free webinar you can watch it
at your leisure all you need to do is sign up for it we'll have Cara swap the pins out the
(34:18):
other one is I know a lot of you have grabbed this um we still have some copies left although we're
we're going to be we're going to be running out in the notsodistant future so for $7 I'll
ship you this $29 hardcover book i'll also give you the $9 ebook and an audio book you can't get
anywhere but from me and some other goodies that total up to nearly a hundred bucks worth of value
(34:43):
uh for $7 US dollars i'll send it anywhere in the world while supplies last that's this promotion
it's still going on it's been going on since April of 2018 um but this promotion is going to
be ending at some point soon because we're out of books and I need to do a reprint and we're going
through some new solutions how to do all that so anyway but it's still here it's still here while
(35:05):
I'm talking so grab this and then watch um the job interview playbook webinar you'll get more like I
talked about today 11:36 okay if you enjoyed this uh whether you're here with me live or
you're watching this on a on a video or recording if you enjoyed it click the like button please
share it people need help everybody needs help when it comes to selling themselves in a in a job
(35:28):
interview and their job search in general uh make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're
here with me live we're going to the Q&A if you're watching this on the recording I'll see you next
I would love to talk about interview answers i get a lot of questions about how long should my
interview responses be and for those of you that came to this to this video or this show
to know to know what it is well sometimes those questions can be answered in one second with a
yes or a no sometimes it's one minute but not to spoil the uh the punchline here but whenever you
(00:25):
get into an interview and you have a base story I call them power stories but effectively you
are describing a project that you've done that is the most illustrative representation of how
you will perform in their environment based on a project that you've done that's greatly similar to
(00:46):
the kinds of things they want you to do in their environment whether it's sell something market
something account for something build something run a project related to something whatever it
is that you whatever it is that you do I want you to know you should be able to answer that
in three to five minutes that's your answer and if you're wondering how the hey do I do that what I
(01:10):
really want to dive into today is why you're not able to because in three minutes they should know
if they're going to hire you they probably know in 30 seconds but in three minutes if you really
pack a punchworthy story filled with information that checks a lot of their boxes related to the
requirements they're looking for from a features and skills perspective but also sees from an
(01:35):
impact and an accomplishments perspective how you actually helped a previous employer achieve
something or even if it's a thought process that you're going through when when you're actually
walking them through a story you should be able to do it in 3 to five minutes now if you're wondering
well how do I do that or yeah that's about how long my answers are what I would tell you is I
(01:57):
coach people every single day literally not a day goes by except the weekends where I'm not
talking to somebody onetoone where I'm coaching them on how to perform in an interview and I can
tell you there are a host of problems when you are responding to an interview question that are
really costing you points and there are a number of things that have to do with the organization
(02:19):
of your responses that make it take longer that make it weaker that make that just fill it with
dead weight words that don't mean anything and don't paint a vivid picture so what I'd like to
do today is I want to tell you what those problems are why you're not able to pack a powerful punch
in a few minutes and yes there might be shorter answers and some interactive dialogue that you
(02:41):
have with the interviewer but basically what I'm talking about today is when you have a main story
that you're trying to tell you should be able to get the line share of the information that they
need to know and I'm going to stress that the information they need to know and I'm going to
tell you why you struggle to do that cool one of the one of the things I want you to do as
(03:02):
I'm running you through these slides I want you to think about what would be your most representative
story that you are virtually certain dare I say 100% certain that you will want to share with an
employer in an interview because it is the most accurate representation of how you will perform
(03:22):
in their environment all right first first issue that a lot of you have and then I want
you to think about this as you as you hopefully can work your story a little as as I go through
the structure here i want you to take some notes related to your individual stories the first thing
is your answers generally are not organized um I can keep the outline of every interview
(03:45):
answer in my head because it should be the same for any type of question that you get asked
so there's an organizational component to it that needs to be dialed in the story itself
you're trying to share information that doesn't really matter for story purposes and what what
(04:07):
ultimately let me take me off the slides here for a second what ultimately are we trying to
accomplish here's one of the biggest mistakes that I see people that I coach make and I I'm gonna say
a 100% of them when when I'm roleplaying with them and I'm asking them to share their story or I'm
asking them questions to prompt sections of the story that we are trying to assemble what people
(04:30):
do raise your hands if this is you everybody in the chat's going to raise their hand for
this one so don't be bashful you're trying to relay a story based on what actually happened
the way you remember it in your head who does that right you're trying to answer somebody
i asked you a question tell me about this project or whatever it might be or tell me about a project
(04:54):
you can choose it doesn't matter and then what you do is you start you start literally telling
me about it the parameters the steps and things of that nature and that's totally totally wrong
you are in an interview to sell yourself we tell stories for selling and marketing purposes
we only use the information that illustrates what it is we want them to feel about our
(05:21):
qualifications that's right feel because they're thinking four times faster than you're talking so
what they're doing is they're sending their little brains signals about whether you're
organized whether you're smart whether you're a good communicator whether you have the requisite
skills that's what they're doing they're not going to remember what you tell them what they're doing
is they're storing feelings about you to make a decision and they're extrapolating those so
(05:45):
what you're doing is you're filling in a lot of information that is not germanine to the story let
me give you an example from a couple of sessions I had this week and I'm going to dive deeper into
this as we go through the steps so I had a woman on Monday fantastic um highly accomplished nursing
background is going to be mo maybe she's here um going to be moving into an operational position
(06:09):
she's got the qualifications the experience and when I was asking her I start out with "Well what
was the problem?" And she said "Well there was poor communication." As she was trying to describe
some some of the the background which I didn't even actually need to know because even though
you have poor communication that's not central to the skills you're trying to portray and the story
(06:31):
you're trying to tell to market you because ultimately we want to tell the employer how
we actually solved a business problem that they care about poor communication is just going to
lead to something that was a problem and in this person's case it was the nurse's communication to
the patients while poor or the poor communication to the doctors basically meant that the patients
(06:56):
weren't informed they weren't they weren't satisfied ultimately the customer experience
was bad the satisfaction scores were low which meant bit future business was going to suffer
because they were not getting positive reviews so they were jeopardizing future business revenue by
not doing great customer service that's going to be more important for me to understand all
(07:20):
the other symptoms are are are secondary i had another person he when I asked him
uh he was designing a new product a system that his company was going to use to operate some of
the back office stuff and one of the things he I said what's the problem and he said well basically
the sales people had bad attitudes they weren't putting you know information in the system that's
(07:43):
not the problem we don't need to know about the salespeople we don't need to know that they have
bad attitudes we don't need to know why they're not doing something that's leading to a problem
that you ultimately need to communicate which is there's information the management team is using
externally with investors with banks with other external parties where the information is inac
(08:08):
inaccurate it could be illegal it's misinformation it could be lack of compliance those are the
issues and so and what he's trying to do is sell himself and how great he is at troubleshooting
problems and bu and getting requirements and building systems the salespeople have nothing
to do with the story other than they were the operators of the of the system he was creating
(08:30):
what he's trying to project is his ability to build a system that contains data with accurate
information do you see what I'm saying and you're and you're wasting time talking about things that
don't represent what you need to represent about you in the interview and so this is really really
important and you're wasting a lot of time upfront with a lot of dead weight information that while
(08:54):
true does not sell you it just takes you longer to explain you follow me do do you see what I'm what
I'm saying this is just a couple of quick examples but what happens is you have a lot of this in your
story that doesn't matter because you don't work your stories backwards which is the way you should
be what is it I'm trying to what is it I'm trying to show them it's all about do you have the skill
(09:20):
sets and and have you helped previous companies transform in these related areas their goals their
problems your responsibilities and so on so you want to keep your story super focused all right
the other things that are at at issue you're not talking about the great eight what I those two
illustrations that I just gave you and we'll go into what the great eight are but every story
(09:44):
that you start should start with a great eight component and I will tell you what that is but
these are what I'm alluding to here is the very very specific accomplishments that employers care
about you make the money you save the money you make it easier for other people to make the money
or save the money or whatever it might be but we'll we'll we'll run through those real quick
(10:06):
um you're you're you're trying to be um specific about the skills you have you never never need
to say I have this skill ever a skill is deduced based on an if then if you were able to do that
you must if you were able to run that project on time and on budget and it was complete then you
(10:34):
must be organized you must be a good project manager you must know how to manage the staff
all of that gets deduced i don't ever need to say it so so this is really really important remember
we're in an interview not on a resume here you're explaining what happened that is never ever ever
your job is to explain what happened not it's it's to tell a story that illustrates how you
(10:58):
will help them transform based on what you did and you can be selective as far as the components that
go into the story it is not your job to answer their questions either ever does that sound odd
it is your job to give them the information they need to know to make a good choice about hiring
(11:20):
you you can ask me any question and I can give you the same answer or same story for it so it makes
no difference it's up to you to think backwards about their goals their problems and what they
truly need to know you got a lot of weight dead weight in there and dead weight comes in multiple
forms it comes with information that doesn't need to be shared information that doesn't need to be
(11:43):
shared that also doesn't sell you i don't care the attitude of the salespeople it makes no difference
that's that's dead weight in the story the story is about how you got a system up that that enabled
your management team to have accurate data so so so keep that in mind and then the other thing that
I have to absolutely take a knife to when people tell me their stories is I have to take out all
(12:07):
the dead fluffy words that don't actually say anything specific strategy plan all a lot of those
words when strung together don't paint a vivid picture in my mind of what's actually happening
so the context up front that you need to provide has to be very very specific and very very
(12:30):
detailed from not not detailed in length detailed in words not number of words the words themselves
need to be descriptive okay you don't paint the vivid picture because you got a lot of that dead
weight and you're not thinking about what is it I want them to feel about me and think about
me when I tell the story does this who who who struggles with this right this is this is this
(12:59):
is really really bad like what what and a lot a lot of people have all of these issues when they
go into an interview and so I want you to think about this because if you have these issues even
if you are a dead 100% bullseye candidate you can still run into trouble who's with me who's
(13:22):
tracking good good is this thing on all right all right so now how do we how do we
eradicate these issues well you can use my car technique that stands for give them some
context so why does the story matter why is it important and you're also going to
tell them the answer upfront as to what your accomplishment was and we'll walk through this
(13:49):
then I need you to very quickly run through your overall procedures the steps the outline and why
do we want to do this because you you want to do it for a number of reasons but basically you want
to give the listener a map of the story you're about to tell here's what I'm going to tell you
(14:09):
i have a system or a playbook or a procedure or if I reverse engineered this on the fly this is what
it would sound like and people who have systems people who have overall programs people who have a
one two three about them they get paid more right i'm going to pay more for somebody who understands
the entire picture so you want to be very vocal verbal and specific about what the overall picture
(14:36):
of in steps in ter in terms of steps takes and just so you know it takes you probably not even
30 seconds to say number one and number two i know step number two takes me 11 seconds to say eight
steps cuz I timed myself so So that's really important that you you start out on the right
(14:57):
foot and then you get to you get to go through the stages of your project with information about each
of the steps and that also does not take very long at each stage it really does not and then you give
them the result again so what does this look like in practice all right so the first thing is I want
(15:18):
to talk about the grade eight so when you start a story the story never starts with the first thing
I did was the story starts with why was this even important so the the you know customer
uh project customer service project manager who's implementing a new project an IT project to build
(15:43):
a new customer service system doesn't say I was asked to build a new customer service system we
know that that's implied i don't even even need to say that and if I say it up front it's really
boring and it doesn't tell me any reason why this was important you score no points for being
important versus versus the IT project manager who said "Well in the past three years we were
(16:10):
losing 25% of our customers every year." That was costing us about $60 million in customers
that were leaving so we needed to figure out how to fix it that's how you open up a story right we
were losing money we had bad customer service and so I'm I'm being brought in to eradicate that now
(16:33):
my part in eradicating that is building a better system i'm not doing everything but that's why
you were doing it in the first place that makes you sound more important it also g gives you that
big picture thinker label it also gives them an idea of how critical this this project was so
what conclusions can I draw from this wow you must be important if they entrusted you with such a big
(16:58):
problem it doesn't matter if it was a $10,000 fix this is a big big issue your solution doesn't need
to be elegant or overwhelming the impact needs to so right away I could just say that I coached
a woman once was a um kind of a chief operating officer type of of person and she was and I were
(17:26):
doing some interview coaching and I was asking her you know let's talk about some of the primary
goals of a chief operating officer right you're going to you're going to run sales you're going
to run marketing you're going to run services or service maybe you got the HR component you've
got a number of these other things so we were talking about one of the major impacts she made in
(17:46):
uh helping a company grow and she said "Well in the you know in the first year I helped the
company grow $17 million." That's revenue increase it could be value creation it could be profit it
could be something of that nature she's going to hit one of the great eight but for context
purposes you don't want to say "I came in and and it was my job to grow the revenue." That's boring
(18:11):
we know that's your job we know that's what you do i can see it on your resume and I know what
you're interviewing for but when she talks about and gives context to how she makes this happen
it's one thing for her to say um you know in in the first year I was able to change the systems
and change the personnel and we we were able to grow $17 million it's a whole another thing to say
(18:36):
I joined this organization because after three years they were stuck at 50 million in revenue
and couldn't figure out how to grow when there is an huge market demand for their whatever product
or whatever service and I knew if I could fix the systems and the people components of this through
a series of projects that there was at least a 40% lift I could make in the first year f and and as
(19:04):
it turned out it was $17 million or something like that that helps the listener understand
that it's not that you lifted at $17 million it's that they couldn't figure that out without
you does this make sense do you understand there has to be context so that I understand that this
problem was really hard that nobody could solve then you came in because you had this experience
(19:27):
and you're going to tell me right away what the opportunity was or what you were trying to fix
and I'm going to make the natural assumption if you tell me you're losing 25% of your clients in
that $60 million I'm going to make the assumption that you fixed that because you otherwise would
not have told me that this is so important i spend the most time in the beginning part of the answer
(19:52):
changing the way my clients think about how they respond and it takes them a number of iterations
to get it right and it takes them a number of iterations to reprogram their mind of where a
story starts you start with the impact you start with the end result you don't wait until the end
you want them thinking immediately this is what you solved that's part of the context if you
(20:17):
use the STAR technique you're not going to get to the result until I'm already tuned out does that
make sense okay and you always want to give them the business problem or goal or opportunity you
achieved or problem you solved or how you made it go away upfront the next thing is then what
you're doing is you're foreshadowing this and here's where you get a chance to actually say
(20:42):
something explicit about your qualifications but only after you've impressed them with the impact
this project ma that you made so then what you're going to do is you're going to segue with I was
brought in i was recruited to figure out how to grow this because I have a track record of
helping companies grow their business i was the IT project manager assigned to this because of
(21:08):
my specific experience implementing customer relationship management systems because I've
done that 20 times before this is where this is where you get to stuff your qualification
in but you use it in the wake of a because this is why I was assigned that that's a little chest
pumping right there but it's just the fact right you guys with me so far this only takes seconds
(21:36):
to say so if you put a clock on you this should not take more than 15 seconds or so to say all of
that it's pretty quick and then every single one of you no matter what it is you do I want you to
think for a second think about what you do every day day in and day out project in and project
(21:58):
out what is it that you do do you run IT projects do you handle customer calls it doesn't matter
every single one of you any single project that you've done looks like this you did some kind of
research you did some kind of assessment then you identified a solution then you presented a
(22:24):
business case then you built the fullout plan if that was not already built maybe the plan
was built and that was part of the business case you implemented it you operated it you
gathered data and you iterated okay that's what the template looks like every answer that you
give for a base story a power story where you're going to walk them through something I want you
(22:47):
to think about this really quickly i don't care if you researched for five minutes i don't care
if it took five months i researched i did an assessment i did a diagnostic why cuz you have
to understand what you're about to do if somebody already built the strategy for you you still had
(23:10):
to do an assessment of the strategy to ensure the steps you're about to take are in alignment with
the strategy you have all the eyes dotted the tees crossed every single one of you never does
anything without an assessment of some kind okay then you created a solution i don't care if the
(23:31):
solution was already designed you confirmed and and designed architected and and and blueprint
the solution or the alternatives then do not skip this step because you're losing major points by
skipping it i presented the business case i presented the approach i presented my plan i
(23:54):
presented my new idea whatever it is to whomever it was so I want you to think about this i pulled
a business case together i drafted the statement of work that included the plan the cost the return
on investment the resources the risk profile the whatever and then I presented it to the management
(24:17):
team that's one way of saying it or I presented it to my boss who is the executive vice president
of or I presented it to the board of directors i presented it to the CEO the CFO it doesn't matter
i don't care if you're a 25-year-old junior staff person you presented it to your management team
or your manager or somebody and why do we want to get this step in what does this say think
(24:42):
about this you're sending the feel they're getting feelings about you that a you know how to make an
argument you know how to prepare a business case or a plan you have an understanding you must be
persuasive because you wouldn't be telling me this unless your plan got approved right i need to make
that assumption and so you're saying this very quickly but what I'm feeling is organized knows
(25:07):
how to pull the presentation together knows how to communicate it obviously is persuasive
i'm running through those check check check check check and you spent three seconds telling me that
do you see the return on investment when you're using economical wording okay then what well then
I built out the full plan once I got the green light great then I hired the team i recruited
(25:32):
the whatever i implemented the plan we put the software in place we did whatever then we turned
it on then I gathered data for 6 months to see if our customer attrition rate was going down or our
retention rate was going up we evaluated whatever we evaluated the new patient survey forms right i
(25:55):
implemented the system with the more accurate data and each month we were able to reconcile it with
the invoices and the accounting books and the so on and the so forth right this is really really
important and then you tuned it if if if need be now you don't have you don't have to say "Okay
I went through eight steps here they are boom boom boom boom boom." It might be five you might
(26:16):
combine a few but the point is you can use this as a starting point because when you say "Well I went
through you know seven steps to implement this i did an assessment i identified a solution i built
the business case i presented it to management." and you're rattling this off and they're hearing
you say things in sequence in this slide took me 11 seconds to say literally the whole slide so you
(26:43):
could do it even shorter if you have three steps or five steps or whatever it is but the point is
you now are giving them the map so they know when they're listening to you exactly where you are
in the story and you also you also are showing them I have a system i know exactly what to do
make sense okay that's the second part of the answer you start with the context that includes
(27:10):
the impact and the result then you give them your formula whatever your formula is okay but
a lot of you it's going to look like this then what I want you to do is I want you to go back
I want you to go back through this and you're going to go back to the beginning and just say
so in the assessment again what did I say in the beginning of the of the show here what a lot of
(27:35):
you do is you start with step one and then I did this well I did an assessment and then I had to
interview these people and here's the questions I asked them and the data I was trying to gather
and then I was going to use the data and then here's how I use the data and so this is why
it takes you 10 minutes instead of two minutes to to tell the story we speak in inventories
(27:57):
we don't speak in steps even though I gave you a formula of the steps that I went through I'm
not actually going to blow out any of those steps in sequence form i'm only going to give you the
inventory of the factors that I assessed so what did your assessment entail so I did an assessment
(28:18):
that required me to look at the 17 satellite locations make sure I understood our prospect base
i evaluated the last year's worth of of revenue the last year's worth of expenses i gathered
all the data so I could draw my conclusion do you follow me that's an inventory i just told you what
I assessed i didn't take you through the whole assessment do you understand what's happening in
(28:42):
the listener's mind oh you obviously know what you need to look at and you must know how to evaluate
it because you use that information just like you said to draw a solution did do you see give me a
hey in the chat this is really really important you speak in inventories you speak in lists
(29:06):
give me a Hey I'm
tracking it's inventory only on only information that sells you so I once
uh helped a woman actually I've told this story a couple times but I absolutely love it um and
she was building a new product line and when we got to her researching step she said "Well Andy
(29:28):
um there you know we had like uh seven people from Boston Consulting Group or Bane or one of the two
um and they were gathering this data and it took them like six weeks or whatever." I'm like "No
don't don't say any of that you don't need any of that it doesn't matter how you got the data
you got the data what's the important What's the important thing about your story i know what data
(29:50):
I need i know how to look at it and I know how to draw conclusions that's it that's all they need to
know do you see how I get amped up about this this is why your answers are taking so long that's not
gerine to the story that you had seven consultants that were helping you get you data i don't need to
know that you don't need to share that and as a matter of fact that weakens your story okay and
(30:14):
the other thing is it's illustrative purposes why is illustrative in caps because it's not exactly
everything that happened i'm giving you a year of experience distilled down to 3 minutes only what
sells you best so the part about the consultants didn't sell her best she didn't need to say that
(30:35):
so when you strip out all the A's and B's and C's and D's and all the way through the alphabet and
you're only left with what am I trying to convey write that down every single time you need to be
asking yourself what am I trying to convey what she was trying to convey is I know how to run a
new product launch because I know all the steps and one of the steps is to gather the data about
(30:59):
existing customer insights the demographics down to what they buy how much they spend where they
buy where they live right that's data I need i don't care how you got it that doesn't matter
to me you'll figure it out okay so when you go back through your list that only took you
11 seconds to articulate you're going to hit each step with a few more seconds to explain each the
(31:27):
assessment to I I interviewed I looked at the 17 satellite offices i interviewed everybody who was
in charge of the offices i collected the survey data right that's it a few seconds just give
them the insights and then you're going to you're going to confirm the what you told them initially
at the end of the first year I generated $17 million but then what you're going to do is you're
(31:51):
going to pile on top so your results your results are said twice and then you extend the result
meaning what I what I wanted the chief operating officer to say was so after the end of the first
year I generated almost 40% more 38 whatever it was in new revenue 17 million but on top of that
(32:17):
I had also set us up for the subsequent year where we already had a $10 million renewal rate that was
up from five the year before okay that's an that's an additional i am the little project manager and
I did this great project and I delivered it on time and on budget and you're not going to use
(32:40):
the words but exactly like I told you two and a half minutes ago and because it was so awesome and
because I'm so awesome the entire company is now using my internal project management methodology
as the best practice i built all the tools and templates right that's a result and that's a
benefit extension or an additional benefit that you are now going to reap the rewards of in future
(33:03):
years and everybody else is benefiting from your awesome work so you just want to make sure that
you are talking about what then happened and what you positioned the company to do for the future
okay so this so so when you think about everything you're about to say look at the way you're look at
(33:28):
what you're including you do not need to script out your interview answers what you need are when
I say the thing about the assessment what's the color I need to add in so context up front then
you sweep through very quickly in 10 seconds your outline of your steps then you go back and you
spend a few more seconds at each step and then you confirm it with the result if you like this
(33:56):
um Cara maybe we can um we'll hold this first and then I'll mention about the book package
but there's a couple of great resources that we have that I would certainly help you with
your interviewing one is this job interview playbook it's a free webinar you can watch it
at your leisure all you need to do is sign up for it we'll have Cara swap the pins out the
(34:18):
other one is I know a lot of you have grabbed this um we still have some copies left although we're
we're going to be we're going to be running out in the notsodistant future so for $7 I'll
ship you this $29 hardcover book i'll also give you the $9 ebook and an audio book you can't get
anywhere but from me and some other goodies that total up to nearly a hundred bucks worth of value
(34:43):
uh for $7 US dollars i'll send it anywhere in the world while supplies last that's this promotion
it's still going on it's been going on since April of 2018 um but this promotion is going to
be ending at some point soon because we're out of books and I need to do a reprint and we're going
through some new solutions how to do all that so anyway but it's still here it's still here while
(35:05):
I'm talking so grab this and then watch um the job interview playbook webinar you'll get more like I
talked about today 11:36 okay if you enjoyed this uh whether you're here with me live or
you're watching this on a on a video or recording if you enjoyed it click the like button please
share it people need help everybody needs help when it comes to selling themselves in a in a job
(35:28):
interview and their job search in general uh make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're
here with me live we're going to the Q&A if you're watching this on the recording I'll see you next
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com