Job Search Step 3: Story Audit
I have been sharing this spreadsheet on my website for years as a free tool (link will prompt you to create a copy you can use). It is called the Story Audit. When preparing for behavioral interviews, we all need to think about all our work experiences and decide how we are going to talk about them.
Using The Spreadsheet
The primary goal of this spreadsheet is to help you list all your stories. Ideally, you want 30+ stories so that you can avoid repeating stories. (See the default tab). For Amazon, you can’t repeat stories. For most other companies, it is best not to repeat but they will not fail you outright if you do repeat stories.
The second tab is called “story breakdown.” This helps you think through how to tell each story. You can create a new tab for every story you want to flesh out in more detail. Most people just need to write out 5 to 10 stories and then future stories are easy to tell.
Beyond the Spreadsheet
Most importantly, we need to get past negative stories that are NSFI (not safe for interviews) or to see stories we always think of as negative in a more positive light so that we can better tell our stories during our interviews.
Once you start this audit, you will find stories or think of new ways to reframe old stories. In fact, just this week, I was coaching a group session, and we started discussing a tense situation. As I helped a client reframe their own story, I saw a disagreement with an engineering partner story I had been telling for years in a better light.
Old Method: I am going to tell you the time I failed to communicate with my engineering manager about why I had deprioritized a project he was passionate about. To turn things around, I found people he trusted to discuss the issues in a non-threatening group session. My lesson was a reminder of how important it is to communicate your why, even if you are in full firefighting mode. Note: When I told the story from this point of view, I often sounded like I failed to communicate effectively. It was risky, but I showed a willingness to admit my faults.
New Method: I am going to tell you about a time when my engineering partner and I were using different data points to prioritize an effort, and so we were at odds. As the product manager, it was my job to realize there was a disconnect and find a way to get us on the same page. I am going to walk you through how I collected data that addressed my partner’s competing point of view and brought additional stakeholders into the discussion to allow for a healthy “disagree and commit” discussion. Note: This new method shows what I did when I realized we weren’t on the same page in a much more positive light.
