July 29, 2025 • 9 mins
Question for ya…
When the interviewer asks you to “tell me about a time when…,” do you:
A) Launch into a timeline of tasks you completed?
B) Rattle off a list of responsibilities?
C) Sound like your own resume?
(Oy to the vey.)
If so, don’t worry. You’re not alone.
But you are probably leaving value on the table.
Here is a capital “T” truth…
Most people report work history.
Few, if any, tell real stories.
Almost no one uses those stories to sell who they truly are.
But that’s exactly what interview storytelling should be.
This week’s podcast is one of the most important lessons I can give you on how to elevate your interview game and position yourself as THE standout candidate.
Excitement alert: You will squeal with glee if you’ve ever wondered I’m just a cog in the wheel and my background feels narrow. I’m not sure how to sound valuable or impactful.
- What you’ll learn alert:The real purpose of storytelling in interviews (big hint: it’s not just to explain what you did).
- Why sounding “too junior” is a storytelling issue, not an experience issue.
- Bulletproof way to reframe your stories so they show off your big-picture thinking and leadership qualities.
You’re not just there to fill a role.
You’re there to drive transformation.
To show them what’s possible when they hire you, you need to…
🔴 STOP telling tasks.
🟢 START selling you.
You’ve got more to offer than just your recent “job title.”
Now it’s time to tell that story.
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):
And Phyllis, how can I effectively tell
my story when applying for a position
where I have only two years of direct
experience but over 20 years of closely
related work experience? For example, I
spent the majority of my career in
marketing, analytics, and research where
I All right, let's see. My hands, you're
looking to transition to a broader
marketing role.
Okay, so let me let me um give you two
(00:23):
tips here. And when okay when you are
telling a story remember this write this
down it's the mileage not the age okay
mileage not the age what does that mean
the number of repetitions that you have
at something makes you more valuable so
(00:46):
if I have a project manager who in the
course of a year has done three full
life cycles I don't care if they were
four months age, whatever. Three reps
versus one person who managed a
year-long project. I'm taking the three
the three rep person three times. You
had to go full life cycle three times.
Okay? I want the reps. So, I don't know
(01:08):
in the two years what you've done.
That's point number one. Second thing
is, so you always want to talk. So, I I
I have this great story. Um, a woman I
used to a young lady I worked with,
she's out of California, 24 years old.
I'm going to make this really fast
because I want to get to my second
point.
she had this uh was interviewing. She
was with a she had one year of work
(01:28):
experience and one year off. So she
worked a year and had a year off because
she was taking care of her grandmother.
She had experience working in a
consulting firm doing research in the
healthc care space uh for clinical
organizations but based for drugrelated
activities. she was um gathering
research, did a number of things, and
then ultimately what she needed to do
(01:50):
was help get them data so that they
could get their drugs approved. So, she
was doing a lot of the leg work. And she
says, "Well, I'm interviewing for
organizations, and they're asking me if
I have experience with this one step in
this five-step process that she went
through." And she says, "And it's
difficult because I've only been working
for a year." And I try to explain this.
I'm like, "No." So, how many how many
(02:12):
times have you have you done this fourth
step where you needed to present these
risks of the drug that had to be
properly labeled and all this to the
providers or whatever to the drug
organizations or whatever it was. And
she said, "Oh, well, I've had eight
eight projects where we did that. How
many people in the how many people were
in the present?" She said, "Usually it's
12 people or so, 10 to 12, 15 that I
(02:35):
need to present to and there are these
doctors and the blah blah and this and
that." say, "No, you did it eight times.
Not one year's worth. It's eight
repetitions." And so the minute she
started adjusting her storytelling to
highlight the number of times that's
eight experiences, not one year's worth
of experience. So that's that's the one
(02:57):
point. The second point is remember this
folks. you I know you all struggle with
this because I have to change this for
nearly 100% of the people when I coach
them on an interview storytelling you
are telling a story from your viewpoint
the world revolves around you okay you
(03:21):
see this pen
your work history your jobs they're the
ink in this pen they don't write the
story you do okay so when you think
about I'm on the marketing team. I'm in
analytics. But do you have visibility to
everything else that's going on around
you? You're step five in the process.
(03:43):
Somebody's doing segmentation.
Somebody's doing demographic analysis.
Somebody's doing product usage,
conversions, whatever this is. You're
capturing data from all of these things.
If I want to know your view on how your
organization does a campaign, can you
not tell me here was the problem we were
(04:05):
trying to market to whatever? Even
though you're over here, tell me the
story from over there and you this is
your viewpoint of what's happening.
Well, you if you have 20 years abroad
experience, two years specifically here,
I could look and say what was going on
in all of these areas. When you tell a
(04:25):
story, you start at the problem. We Viv
Viv Vivian's here. Yesterday, I coached
a session with Vivian. We're talking
about um you know this this integration
that she was doing and a and a system
that she had to implement and there was
a problem with um the integration
between two systems between the medical
(04:46):
system and the pharmaceutical system.
And there was a gap and in her her issue
was she was assigned to basically fix
the system, make the solution. But the
real problem is they were spending $50
million in paid claims that shouldn't
have been paid because they didn't have
the data integrated and there wasn't
full visibility. Well, she had nothing
(05:08):
to do with the 50 million. But when
she's telling the story, it's there was
50 million in o in in paid claims that
shouldn't have been paid. And so there
was this issue because we had this
inability to see data holistically that
was causing the claims adjudicators or
whoever was paying these things to pay
(05:29):
things that they shouldn't have been
paying. Vivian had nothing to do with
that, right? She's fielding a problem,
but the story starts where the story
starts. What was the problem? What was
the marketing problem that you were
addressing? So if you don't have an
understanding of at least that and can't
tell the story, then I can't hire you
(05:49):
for a broader position, I need to pull
you in and then give you experience in
my company. But the point is it when you
think holistically about what was
actually happening and I really cut
Vivian's story there short because then
we had to build out everything that she
did till the time it got to what she
what her forte was and then she finished
something but then the project success
(06:11):
continued beyond her. So her story went
from before Viven to well after Viven.
And then we just basically told it from
her vantage point. And so this is
really, really important for any of you
that don't have the full spectrum of
what it is you're being assigned to do
or shooting for. You need to be able to
tell the story from from your vantage
(06:33):
point, what was happening in every step.
Does that make sense? So Phyllis, this
is a is important that you understand
enough
to tell the story and right and and and
my primary function was to ensure that
once the thing was done and this we
targeted this and then I refined that
and I went on to this and that. Right?
(06:55):
But you're telling the story from your
vantage point who struggles with this
show of hands. Right? I'm going to put
you all up here. Right? It's hard, isn't
it? Why? Because you want to tell me
what you did.
Remember this. I'm I'm going to need to
write this down and say this in every
session forever and ever. Just remember
my pen analogy, okay? That your job is
(07:18):
not to answer their questions in an
interview. That's not the purpose. And
your job is not to recite your skills
and your job is really not to report
history. So what happens in a lot of my
coaching sessions is people say, "But
wait, wait, wait, there's this other."
Anytime I get a but wait, wait, wait. I
know that what's likely going to come in
is going to be superolous information
(07:38):
that only creates inertia in the story.
Remember, you're compressing three years
worth of stuff into three minutes or a
year-long project into three minutes. It
is your job to tell stories that help
the other party understand how you're
going to transform their life or their
company. And you're going to enable them
to deduce that you have the experience
and the skills that are required in
(07:59):
order to make results like that happen.
You're going to use scenes from your
life and you are going to cherrypick the
heck out of them to for illustrative
purposes to only help them understand
what they need to understand to hire
you. It is not your job to relive what
you did, exactly how you did it. That
doesn't sell you. That just reports all
(08:22):
the things that happened along the way.
That's not what an interview is about.
So you got you got to become you got to
retrain yourself not to be inclined to
do that.
Cool.
Is everybody as charged as I am right
now? I'm like so I'm like I I just I
want the best for you all. I like I know
(08:42):
I need to repeat myself because most
people need to be reminded more than
they need to be taught. And I try to
teach it to you different ways. And I'm
hoping one of them registers. But the
first thing is wherever you think the
story starts, back up. That'd be my
first That'd be my first thing. And when
(09:04):
so when I was talking with Vivian
yesterday, I said, "What's the problem?"
And she says, "The medical system wasn't
talking to the pharmaceutical system."
That's not the problem. The that's
something that you might need to fix.
The problem is you're spending money
that you shouldn't be spending, right?
You go all the way to the grade eight.
you go all the way to the end and then
(09:25):
you had an issue which you had to
discover and troubleshoot the analysis
part of the car technique. The the
second stage is the analysis that where
you discovered the two systems didn't
talk to each other. That was what needed
to be fixed. But the goal was stop
spending money you shouldn't be
spending.
(09:46):
So this is this is really important for
you to for you to for for you to
And Phyllis, how can I effectively tell
my story when applying for a position
where I have only two years of direct
experience but over 20 years of closely
related work experience? For example, I
spent the majority of my career in
marketing, analytics, and research where
I All right, let's see. My hands, you're
looking to transition to a broader
marketing role.
Okay, so let me let me um give you two
(00:23):
tips here. And when okay when you are
telling a story remember this write this
down it's the mileage not the age okay
mileage not the age what does that mean
the number of repetitions that you have
at something makes you more valuable so
(00:46):
if I have a project manager who in the
course of a year has done three full
life cycles I don't care if they were
four months age, whatever. Three reps
versus one person who managed a
year-long project. I'm taking the three
the three rep person three times. You
had to go full life cycle three times.
Okay? I want the reps. So, I don't know
(01:08):
in the two years what you've done.
That's point number one. Second thing
is, so you always want to talk. So, I I
I have this great story. Um, a woman I
used to a young lady I worked with,
she's out of California, 24 years old.
I'm going to make this really fast
because I want to get to my second
point.
she had this uh was interviewing. She
was with a she had one year of work
(01:28):
experience and one year off. So she
worked a year and had a year off because
she was taking care of her grandmother.
She had experience working in a
consulting firm doing research in the
healthc care space uh for clinical
organizations but based for drugrelated
activities. she was um gathering
research, did a number of things, and
then ultimately what she needed to do
(01:50):
was help get them data so that they
could get their drugs approved. So, she
was doing a lot of the leg work. And she
says, "Well, I'm interviewing for
organizations, and they're asking me if
I have experience with this one step in
this five-step process that she went
through." And she says, "And it's
difficult because I've only been working
for a year." And I try to explain this.
I'm like, "No." So, how many how many
(02:12):
times have you have you done this fourth
step where you needed to present these
risks of the drug that had to be
properly labeled and all this to the
providers or whatever to the drug
organizations or whatever it was. And
she said, "Oh, well, I've had eight
eight projects where we did that. How
many people in the how many people were
in the present?" She said, "Usually it's
12 people or so, 10 to 12, 15 that I
(02:35):
need to present to and there are these
doctors and the blah blah and this and
that." say, "No, you did it eight times.
Not one year's worth. It's eight
repetitions." And so the minute she
started adjusting her storytelling to
highlight the number of times that's
eight experiences, not one year's worth
of experience. So that's that's the one
(02:57):
point. The second point is remember this
folks. you I know you all struggle with
this because I have to change this for
nearly 100% of the people when I coach
them on an interview storytelling you
are telling a story from your viewpoint
the world revolves around you okay you
(03:21):
see this pen
your work history your jobs they're the
ink in this pen they don't write the
story you do okay so when you think
about I'm on the marketing team. I'm in
analytics. But do you have visibility to
everything else that's going on around
you? You're step five in the process.
(03:43):
Somebody's doing segmentation.
Somebody's doing demographic analysis.
Somebody's doing product usage,
conversions, whatever this is. You're
capturing data from all of these things.
If I want to know your view on how your
organization does a campaign, can you
not tell me here was the problem we were
(04:05):
trying to market to whatever? Even
though you're over here, tell me the
story from over there and you this is
your viewpoint of what's happening.
Well, you if you have 20 years abroad
experience, two years specifically here,
I could look and say what was going on
in all of these areas. When you tell a
(04:25):
story, you start at the problem. We Viv
Viv Vivian's here. Yesterday, I coached
a session with Vivian. We're talking
about um you know this this integration
that she was doing and a and a system
that she had to implement and there was
a problem with um the integration
between two systems between the medical
(04:46):
system and the pharmaceutical system.
And there was a gap and in her her issue
was she was assigned to basically fix
the system, make the solution. But the
real problem is they were spending $50
million in paid claims that shouldn't
have been paid because they didn't have
the data integrated and there wasn't
full visibility. Well, she had nothing
(05:08):
to do with the 50 million. But when
she's telling the story, it's there was
50 million in o in in paid claims that
shouldn't have been paid. And so there
was this issue because we had this
inability to see data holistically that
was causing the claims adjudicators or
whoever was paying these things to pay
(05:29):
things that they shouldn't have been
paying. Vivian had nothing to do with
that, right? She's fielding a problem,
but the story starts where the story
starts. What was the problem? What was
the marketing problem that you were
addressing? So if you don't have an
understanding of at least that and can't
tell the story, then I can't hire you
(05:49):
for a broader position, I need to pull
you in and then give you experience in
my company. But the point is it when you
think holistically about what was
actually happening and I really cut
Vivian's story there short because then
we had to build out everything that she
did till the time it got to what she
what her forte was and then she finished
something but then the project success
(06:11):
continued beyond her. So her story went
from before Viven to well after Viven.
And then we just basically told it from
her vantage point. And so this is
really, really important for any of you
that don't have the full spectrum of
what it is you're being assigned to do
or shooting for. You need to be able to
tell the story from from your vantage
(06:33):
point, what was happening in every step.
Does that make sense? So Phyllis, this
is a is important that you understand
enough
to tell the story and right and and and
my primary function was to ensure that
once the thing was done and this we
targeted this and then I refined that
and I went on to this and that. Right?
(06:55):
But you're telling the story from your
vantage point who struggles with this
show of hands. Right? I'm going to put
you all up here. Right? It's hard, isn't
it? Why? Because you want to tell me
what you did.
Remember this. I'm I'm going to need to
write this down and say this in every
session forever and ever. Just remember
my pen analogy, okay? That your job is
(07:18):
not to answer their questions in an
interview. That's not the purpose. And
your job is not to recite your skills
and your job is really not to report
history. So what happens in a lot of my
coaching sessions is people say, "But
wait, wait, wait, there's this other."
Anytime I get a but wait, wait, wait. I
know that what's likely going to come in
is going to be superolous information
(07:38):
that only creates inertia in the story.
Remember, you're compressing three years
worth of stuff into three minutes or a
year-long project into three minutes. It
is your job to tell stories that help
the other party understand how you're
going to transform their life or their
company. And you're going to enable them
to deduce that you have the experience
and the skills that are required in
(07:59):
order to make results like that happen.
You're going to use scenes from your
life and you are going to cherrypick the
heck out of them to for illustrative
purposes to only help them understand
what they need to understand to hire
you. It is not your job to relive what
you did, exactly how you did it. That
doesn't sell you. That just reports all
(08:22):
the things that happened along the way.
That's not what an interview is about.
So you got you got to become you got to
retrain yourself not to be inclined to
do that.
Cool.
Is everybody as charged as I am right
now? I'm like so I'm like I I just I
want the best for you all. I like I know
(08:42):
I need to repeat myself because most
people need to be reminded more than
they need to be taught. And I try to
teach it to you different ways. And I'm
hoping one of them registers. But the
first thing is wherever you think the
story starts, back up. That'd be my
first That'd be my first thing. And when
(09:04):
so when I was talking with Vivian
yesterday, I said, "What's the problem?"
And she says, "The medical system wasn't
talking to the pharmaceutical system."
That's not the problem. The that's
something that you might need to fix.
The problem is you're spending money
that you shouldn't be spending, right?
You go all the way to the grade eight.
you go all the way to the end and then
(09:25):
you had an issue which you had to
discover and troubleshoot the analysis
part of the car technique. The the
second stage is the analysis that where
you discovered the two systems didn't
talk to each other. That was what needed
to be fixed. But the goal was stop
spending money you shouldn't be
spending.
(09:46):
So this is this is really important for
you to for you to for for you to
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