5 Strategies for Building Success Stories to Land the Job: Deliver Your Ultimate Results Message, not a Script!

Your accomplishments-based resume is just a starting point. The real work begins when you get the call or email inviting you for an interview.

Traditionally, coaches and career advisors have urged jobseekers to prepare and rehearse scripts based on the achievements they documented on their resumes and then recite the scripts in response to interview questions. This approach is no longer good enough for today’s competitive job market.

There are several reasons this approach falls short. First, interviewing is a speaking skill. Most of us write differently from the way we speak, so our discussion does not sound authentic when we recite a speech we have memorized or a speech we read from notes. They may not communicate a cohesive message about the results you will deliver, and they may not show how your experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes align with the employer’s needs.

A success model, or tool, to overcome the limitations of traditional interview prep includes:

1. Thorough industry and company research,
2. Analysis of the job description,
3. Developing “I statements” to begin a value message,
4. Using accepted verbal communications practice to authentically demonstrate your value, and
5. Practicing your message.

Do your research first.

The first interview prep step we recommend is to conduct company research. Specifically, we urge jobseekers to take the following steps as a starting point:

• Ask your favorite AI for a company overview, the company’s mission, and information on its leadership and the department or function you are interviewing to work in,
• Use LinkedIn and your personal network to find people you know in the company, or people who can put you in contact with relevant people they know,
• Look up and read company public financial statements when available,
• Use Glassdoor and other relevant sites to learn about common interview questions at the company.

Interviewers may ask you about your knowledge of the company. This question will be a “showstopper” if you can’t answer.

Your research will be useful even if interviewers do not ask you about it.  The research will help you relate company information to your unique value as a prospective employee.

Company research once required hours in a university or main public libraries or business bookstores. Now, much of it can be done in just a few minutes online.

The tasks suggested above are intended to be a starting point. Add other research based on your own industry and professional knowledge.

Analyze the job description.

Your next step is to analyze the job description for the position you will be interviewed for. Start by identifying the experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes (EKSAAs) the company looks for. Most job descriptions will require quite a few EKSAAs for the role. You can go line-by-line through the job description to find the EKSAAs that apply to you.

You can do the analysis yourself or ask an AI to do it. The AI will need detailed instructions, known as prompts to provide the correct information. Among other things, your prompts may ask the AI to include information based on the company’s mission, culture, and industry trends. Specifically request the AI to avoid making inferences to mitigate the risk of AI hallucinations.

AI technology and traditional computer algorithms will provide incorrect output when the input data, programming logic, or both are incorrect or unclear. Machines do exactly what we tell them to do, not what we thought we told them to do. Review your AI output carefully to be sure it makes sense.

Also, remember that the formal job description may be written to conform with legal, compliance, and corporate policy needs so it may not fully reflect the hiring managers’ needs. That is one of the reasons to be flexible and focus on your message and value proposition instead of a script.

Develop “I statements” for your interviews.

Most of us write and speak differently. You probably wrote the accomplishment bullets on your resume in a “telegraphic” style that does not lend itself well to a conversation. When you expand your bullet points into accomplishment vignettes, or stories, you still may not sound conversational when you read from notes or recite memorized notes. Certain AI-based interviewing systems will even penalize you for losing eye contact to read notes, according to experts. As a result, we recommend you use speaking techniques to be more conversational.

Communications coaches suggest you start responses with an “I statement.” For example, if you want to prove your expertise in customer service, start your response with something like “I am my department’s subject matter expert on customer service for our flagship product. May I offer an example?”

Your coach may offer a list of “I Statement Starters” or you can generate your own based on knowledge of the industry, function, job description, and your own subject matter expertise.

Use “tried-and-true verbal communications techniques.

Simply making an “I statement” at your interviews is an unproven assertion. It could sound like a boast to the listener and feel unauthentic to you.

Instead, use a widely-accepted speaking technique to avoid sounding boastful or unauthentic. A manager once described this method to us as “tell them what you will say, tell them, and them tell them what you have told them.” For employment interviews this translates to “I statement, proof, recap.” The “proof” may be a problem-action-result, or PAR story based on your resume. Adjust it so you are responding to the employer’s needs you found through your research and job description analysis.

Although we suggest incorporating PAR stories into your responses, it is important to avoid reciting a script. Instead, use brief “talking point” bullets of just a few words that will remind you of experiences to discuss. You will sound more authentic.

Practice your message.

Last, but not least, the most important thing you can do is practice. An experienced coach can do mock interviews with you and then review your responses. A variety of AI-driven websites and apps can offer feedback, too. You can also practice with a friend, or even your mirror!

Concluding comments

A job interview is a high-stakes business meeting. When you land the job, you always wanted the interview will change your life. If the interview results in landing a “day job” that pays the bills, interview results will still improve your life by keeping you solvent. So go beyond your resume to express your success stories in an authentic way!