Job Search Step 10: Map Out Stories
My coffee table is littered with paper adorned with my absolutely horrible handwritting.
This week, I focused on mapping out my stories for an Amazon onsite as well as mid-tier company.
This means taking all the Amazon Leadership principles and figuring out which stories I want to use for which principles. I need to make a final cut on which stories are used for which leadership principles.
This is NOT easy because:
I don’t know which order the questions will come at me.
I can NOT repeat any stories
I only have about 3 solid stories I love
I have another 5 I like
But I will need to tell between 20 and 30 stories.
How To Map Out
Tackle Each Leadership Principle one at a time
Use the prompts to jog memory
Try to come up with 3-5 stories
Then put in a spreadsheet (where you can see things more clearly)
Then cut stories where they repeat, leaving them only listed under 1 leadership principle.
Make a final list with target stories listed by leadership principle
Goal: Have paper with list in front of me on interview days to mark off my stories as I use them and keep track of my options.
How to Draw the Line
The biggest problem you will have is when to tell your most important stories. For me that is my work at Yelp developing the North Star Metric. This experience was perhaps the most transformational of my career because:
Executive (C-Suite) Level Attention
Learned how to communicate with executives
Lost the narrative at times
Had to tell people no, and it pissed them off
Took a long time
Had to push data science to go outside their comfort zone
Picking which leadership principle(s) win and how I am going to carefully spread this story over several answers without repeating myself is soo damn tough.
I am still working on the final list. I will share it here when it seems presentable.
If you are following along with this series, just follow the 7 steps above.
