Interview Power. Tom Washington
Now I’m not wasting time tracking down lost or late shipments. And my hearing is getting better since people don’t yell over the phone anymore. The best thing is that parts sales to our dealers have increased from $12,000 per month to over $60,000. Our dealers are happy, so they don’t need to go to other suppliers anymore.
Didn’t you actually picture this person on the phone getting his ears burned? Did you imagine the orders getting written down on scraps and then getting misplaced? Could you visualize these three managers who were working at cross purposes? If so, the story was successful. But you were not merely left with a picture. You were left with a result. It wasn’t just that Bruce didn’t get yelled at anymore, but that sales increased dramatically. Employers get excited when you demonstrate that you can make money, save money, solve problems, or reduce the boss’s daily stress and pressure. Bruce demonstrated through this one story that he could do all four. The final point he made was that he could make money. After all, sales increased from $12,000 per month to $60,000. That did some very nice things to the company’s bottom line.
How To Tell A Story
A helpful way to prepare your stories is to remember the acronym SHARE, developed by Paul Green. Make sure that each of your stories contain each aspect of SHARE:
| Situation | Describe the situation and provide some background information. |
| Hindrances | Describe the problems, challenges, or hindrances you faced. |
| Actions | Describe what actions you took. |
| Results | Describe the results you or your team achieved. Quantify when possible. |
| Evaluation | Close with a summary or an evaluation of the experience. |
Situation: Begin by describing the situation as you entered it. If it existed before you became involved, describe all of the negatives. In other words, do all you can to show how difficult the situation was. Your intention will be to create a strong before-and-after contrast. If you simply took on a project, describe the goals and objectives that were set by you or your boss. Explain why you got involved and why the project or your involvement was necessary.
Hindrances: If you are describing a project that you oversaw, describe the problems or challenges in the most graphic terms possible. Describe what made things difficult. It could be that the customer was particularly angry or refused to listen to reason. It could be that the problem was long standing. Then describe your recommendations or the conclusions you came to.
Actions: Explain what you developed and implemented. Describe your analysis of the situation and whatever research you applied to it. Provide a fair amount of detail about your actions because this will reveal a great deal about how you work and operate.
Results: Paint a picture of what things were like after they improved. If it was a project, concentrate on describing those parts of the project which met or exceeded objectives. Complete the story by describing how your work benefited the company. Quantify results whenever possible.
Evaluation: As you end the story, remind the interviewer of the primary skill or strength the story demonstrates. Then you can add another two or three additional skills as well. This could be done by stating: “So I really do believe that experience demonstrates my ability to manage projects effectively (the originally stated strength), as well as my ability to motivate employees and find solutions to really difficult problems.” The interviewer will readily agree that motivating employees and solving problems was fully demonstrated. The interviewer will consciously or unconsciously recognize another half dozen skills as well.
Many questions neither invite nor demand a story. Questions such as “What did you like best about your supervisor?” or “What frustrates you about your current job?” do not invite examples. While one could use specific examples for these questions, typically a person would answer them in a very brief and straightforward manner. If you had indicated that your supervisor often did not keep his staff well informed, the interviewer might possibly ask for a specific example, but that is unlikely. There are other questions which would never require a story, such as asking what public figure you most admire.
Even though many questions do not invite stories, you need to be prepared so that when an opportunity to tell a story presents itself, you’re ready with the best example possible. In fact, as soon as the question is asked, make an instant decision about whether an example is appropriate. If it clearly is not appropriate, you can immediately concentrate just on your answer. If the question does present an opportunity for a story, you may not immediately know which example to use. That’s okay. The human brain has an amazing ability. Go ahead and start your answer, and while you’re speaking, another part of your brain can be searching for a good example. Your goal, of course, is to come up with your best example.
Occasionally you may complete your answer and still not have an example to use. Assuming the interviewer has not demanded an example, you can simply conclude your answer. Since few interviewees use examples in their interviews, the interviewer will not be wondering why you did not share an example. Of course an example would have scored more points on that question, but you will not hurt yourself by not including an example.
Here is an example of a story told in an interview using the SHARE concept where the interviewer asked about Brenda’s greatest asset:
I’d have to say it’s my drive. I’ve been told by several people that they’ve never seen anyone with the drive and determination that I have. I do whatever it takes to make things happen.
Situation. During my second year as manager of a gift store, I had to figure out how to meet or exceed our sales quota for the holidays. I had hired what seemed to be the right number of temporary staff to support our permanent staff. I scheduled them in such a way that we would have sufficient staffing throughout November and December. When November came we were very busy, which led me to believe that either people were simply shopping early or this would be our best holiday season ever. Once December hit it was incredible. I needed to hire more help but was having trouble finding people. I was so busy I couldn’t even find time for lunch. Eventually I managed to hire four college students who were looking for work on their break, and that still didn’t give us enough help.
My staff was amazing! They worked very long hours. We couldn’t get the shelves stocked fast enough and we were running two stocking crews instead of the normal one. I was working from the opening at nine until the closing at ten. And I came in on most of my days off. It was fun, though, because our sales gain was the biggest I had ever seen.
Hindrances. Six days before Christmas Eve one of my assistant managers did not show up for work. We were all worried because she was the “mom” of our crew. She was very dependable and always a big support to the team. A day later she called from Austin, Texas (1200 miles away) telling me that a family emergency had come up and she would not be coming back. I wanted to talk longer with her but the store was so busy all I could say was that I understood. This was going to be a major blow to the crew and I couldn’t afford to have it affect their morale.
Actions. I panicked for about thirty seconds and then told myself I could not let this get us down now. I grabbed the schedule and made whatever adjustments I could, but I knew we were hurting. I asked my four assistant managers to hang in there with me and we would make it through. I ordered pizza and other goodies to keep everyone going for the next five days and told everyone they could wear jeans on Christmas Eve. That night we sang songs and passed out candy canes to the long lines. We made it through the night and actually had fun. By the time we closed everyone was tired, but very pleased that we had helped a lot of people.
Results.