As part of research for this article, I reached out to many of the faculty members who are the judging panel for b-school admission interviews and one theme which uniquely stood out was that each of them was looking for an interesting person who could create 15-20 minutes of interesting conversation with them and as per them, it is very difficult to come across such candidate. On probing further, it was clear that all that they were looking for was a compelling story. While candidates were similar in terms of their communication skills, knowledge and conduct, each of them had a unique life, a unique story which became the essential point of difference and it is this story that they were more interested and basic knowledge and communication skills as hygiene check. They also lamented the fact that it was not that people lacked a compelling story in their lives but they just didn’t put that in the right fashion so as to create the necessary connect with the interviewers.
Given below are some of the points that you may practice to improve your storytelling during interviews:
1. Decide what to share: While you may be having a very compelling story from your private life, it would not be relevant to share during a b-school admissions interview simply because the faculty member taking your interview wouldn’t be interested in it. You should share something which is personal but not private. This step is perhaps the most important step in your preparation for the interview and it calls for a lot of introspection on your part to look for the one thing that makes your story different from others and a compelling one to hear. Once this step is carefully completed, half of the battle is won. For example, most people share a story from their failure in the past and how they overcame that. Now when an aspirant shares a story about his/her failure, it is like Damocles’ sword and it may go against you in the interview if you’re not well prepared with it so what you need to be prepared with is the fact that your story should suggest that the failure was the result of lack of experience or lack of relevant skills or knowledge but the story should not question your strength of character or that it should not in any way point to the fact that it is lacking intent. Once you keep this small check, your story will work wonders in the interview.
2. Decide how much you want to share: As the story is something which is personal, many people have a tendency to go on rambling for too long and overloading the panel with a lot of unnecessary details which are not much relevant to the story. Be very careful of that. In the digital era, people have very short attention span and if your story doesn’t catch their attention in the first minute, it might never be able to bring about the desired result and they might just not connect with the story. You should prepare a version which is ideally three to five minutes long which should include a little context, why this story is special for you and relevant for the interview and your major learning from the entire incident or sequence of incidents. Once these elements are taken care of, it will surely generate a lot of curiosity among the interview panelists and they will probe more into your story and you will slowly drive the interview towards your turf, your comfort area.
3. You need not be the hero: Many a times when people are told to share stories they look back at their lives and look for stories in which they are the protagonist but some people might not be as much experienced and they have a difficult time thinking of such stories, some even go to the extent of making up stories. I would like to advise here that you shouldn’t make up stories, the interview panelists are very experienced people and they will catch you if you fake during the interview so you may choose a story in which you were a mere observer but it had a great impact on you and changed the way you think about life or success or anything which is important to you. Even such incidents make very interesting stories.
4. Focus on the ending: How you end your story is perhaps the most important thing while telling a story. Once you have completed your well-practiced narrative, make sure you drive home the points that you intended to. Before the interview, try telling your story to other people and check with them how they felt about your story, did they get the points that you wanted to highlight? If not, you need to change your narrative and try again until you get this right. The biggest reason why I am emphasizing on the end so much is because how you end your story will trigger the next set of questions in the interview and that will then determine the course of the remaining interview so make sure you end on a positive note and highlight the most important things in your story.
5. Refrain from the vicious story-telling loop: This point is more relevant for the question and answers that would follow your story. While responding to the questions, make sure you do not reiterate the narrative of your story but reveal new facts which were not a part of your narrative. Repeating the same things over and over again gives the impression that you’re either not well prepared or your story is not a genuine one. You may bring in pointers from your narrative as a starting point but never reiterate the narrative over again.
Ultimately, remember that after all, an interview is nothing but a conversation between two people and the whole idea of cracking an interview is to have an engaging conversation and what better way can you think of than telling a compelling story and having a discussion around it.
Hope you enjoyed reading. All the best for your interview.
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