G A B R I E L L E
D O L A N
N O W T O U S E S T O R I E S . N A I L A N I N T E R V I E W
A N D L A N D Y O U R D R E A M J O B
‘ Storytelling for Job Interviews provides us with the skills and
techniques for one of our most dreaded situations - the job
interview. I wish I had this book 20 years ago!
- Paul Matthews
Communications Leader (Operations), Transport Sydney Trains
‘Within an hour of reading this book, I felt better equipped to
attend an interview, conduct an interview and coach my teenage
sons towards a Bradman interview performance. I lead a large
team and am often interviewing candidates for senior roles. I
would find it so much easier to select a candidate who follows
the simple, yet powerful, guidance in this book.'
- Natalie Nunn
Asia-Pacific Talent Development Leader, Ernst & Young
‘The process outlined in this book not only helped me
successfully get my most recent job, but I continue to share
many of the stories in a variety of ways to connect and inspire
my team. I cannot recommend it highly enough/
- Catherine MacLeod
General Manager, Channel Development, NAB
‘This is a must read for anyone who wants to succeed at their
next job interview. The ability to connect with your interviewer,
show them your personality and demonstrate your capability in
the role is the winning combo that will help you land your
dream job.'
- Anna Abazovic
Head of Operations, Seek Learning
‘ Storytelling for Job Inten>iews is an easy-to-read book for those
seeking help with interview performance. I highly recommend
it to those with experience, and also those who are starting out
on their careers. The storytelling concepts allow you to put the
approach into practice immediately. Learn to be yourself and
stand out from everyone else in the interview crowd.’
- Jennifer Goulopoulos
Senior Product Manager, Financial Services
T h e key to nailing a great interview is telling your story.
Gabrielle Dolan provides expert, practical guidance on
techniques that can be used in any interview situation.’
- Ben Taylor
General Manager Corporate Affairs, Rabobank Australia and
New Zealand
‘Stories are an ever-present part of our lives so it is easy to
forget how powerful they can be. Gabrielle Dolan empowers job
seekers to become conscious and skillful in storytelling to help
them put their best selves forward in an interview/
- Chris Green
Managing Editor, Kansas Leadership Centre
T his book has a delightfully simple but expressive narrative
that clearly explains how to best tell your story at an interview
and in the first 90 days of your new role. This is a must-read
for anyone just starting out or at the top of your game/
- James Westwood-Beere
Head of Group People Strategy7, Woolworths
ISBN 978-1-925442-61-8 (eBook)
Published by Vivid Publishing
P.O. Box 948, Fremantle Western Australia 6959
www.vivi d p u b lis h in g . com .au
eBook conversion and distribution by Fontaine Publishing
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced. or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the copyright owner.
Cover design & internal layout: Elhe Schroeder www.elli-
eschroeder.com
Editing: Kelly Ir v in g w w w .ke llvirvin g .com
w w w .g a b rie lle d o lan .com
C O N T E N T S
About the author
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter i: From boring to Bradman
Chapter 2: Four stories to nail an interview
Literal stories
Learn stories
Lateral stories
Like stories
Chapter v Five steps for story success
Step 1: Define
Step 2: Find-
Step v. Match
Step 4: Construct
Step s: Prepare
Chapter 4: What’s your greatest weakness?
Chapter The critical first go days in your new role
Chapter 6: Where to next?
Let’s connect
Other products by Gabnelle Dolan
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
Gabrielle Dolan is a global thought leader in storytelling and
business communication.
She’s worked with thousands of high-profile leaders from
across Australia and the world, helping them to become better
leaders and communicators using the art of business storytelling. Gabrielle is a highly sought-after international mentor and keynote speaker on these topics.
Gabrielle has worked as an independent business management consultant and has held various senior leadership roles in change management and learning and development for the National Australia Bank. She successfully co-founded One Thousand & One, one of Australia's leading storytelling companies, before launching her own practice in 2013.
She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Education in the Art and Practice of Leadership Development program. Her other academic qualifications include a master's degree in Management and Leadership from Swinburne University and an associate diploma in Education and Training from the University of Melbourne.
In 2015 Gabrielle became an Australian and New Zealand
Partner of Thought Leaders Global, where she works with organisations to help them gain a competitive edge through thought leadership. In the same year, she was also nominated
for Telstra’s Business Woman of the Year award.
Gabrielle is a best-selling author of Ignite: Real Leadership,
Real Talk, Real Results and Hooked: How Leaders Connect, Engage
and Inspire with Storytelling. This is her third book.
When she is not writing or working, she can be found
wandering in her vegetable garden at her 2 5-acre rural property
on the southern coast of New South Wales. She believes the
world would be a better place if there was less manure in business and more manure in gardens.
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
I would like to thank the many people who have sought my
counsel on using storytelling in job interviews. It’s those conversations that gave me the confidence to write this book.
A big thanks goes to my editor and project manager Kelly
Irving for helping me shape my thoughts. As usual this book
would not be anywhere near as good without her passion and
professionalism.
To the tribe at Thought Leaders Global - thank you for the
ongoing support and encouragement to keep playing the game.
Thanks always to Peter Cook for enhancing my models with
direction, palette and accuracy.
A special thank you to Elise Turner, my friend and executive
manager, who designed all the models i
n this book, undertook
the initial edits and generally just makes my life easier.
Massive thanks to my family - Steve, Alex and Jess - for
allowing me the space to write and, as usual, letting me share
their stories.
Finally to Mum and Dad. who always encouraged me to be
the best I could.
I N T R O D U C T I O N
When I left school, I applied for a job as a computer operator
and was pretty rapt to get an interview in which I thought I performed well. The following weekend, I saw the job advertised again and can recall saying to my mum, ‘Obviously I did not get
the job’. She suggested I apply again. So after thinking, ‘Yeah,
right. How lame would that be?’, I did. I was asked in for a second interview. The manager said to me, ‘Your second letter was a lot stronger. Why did you apply for the job again?’ I told him
it was because I really wanted the job and I knew I could do it
and do it well. I was offered the job on the spot.
Fast forward several years later. It was the middle of the
As my husband. Steve, was heating up her bottle he said to her,
‘Hang on. the bottle’s coming soon. Good things come to those
who wait’. I remember snapping at him with, ‘Don’t you ever
say that to our daughter again. It’s a stupid saying. Good things
don’t come to those who wait; good things come to those that
get out there and do something about it and when they fail they
don’t give up. they try something different’.
Though I was a first-time mother in a sleep-deprived state,
clearly overreacting, the sentiment is still something I truly believe. If you try something and it doesn’t work, don’t give up -
but also don’t keep doing the same thing.
I’ve been putting this philosophy into practice since 2005,
working with business leaders and professionals to help them
overcome obstacles at work, communicate in a more engaging
and inspiring way and empower their team through the use of
business storytelling. Over the last few years, more and more
people have asked me to mentor them and help them use these
personal and professional stories as a way of communicating
their capabilities in upcoming job interviews.
This book is an accumulation of that knowledge and experience. It will equip you with the tools and techniques you need to stand out against the many other job applicants who are
similarly qualified to you. You’ll learn to try something different, to tell stories about your personal and professional life that demonstrate your values and how valuable an asset you will
be to a team, organisation and your future employer. Ultimately, this book will help you nail that job interview and land your dream job.
For many years, the preferred method of conducting interviews has been the Behavioural Event Interview (BEI) technique. It involves the interviewer asking questions about specific situations, such as: ‘Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an angry customer. How did you handle the situation?’ You could answer the question with something broad and theoretical like: ‘I showed empathy by understanding the
customer’s complaints and then explained the process and why
this occurred’.
If you’re interview savvy, you’ve probably prepared for the
types of questions you’re going to be asked (a quick Google will
result in thousands of these). But how many other people going
for that same job will have Googled and prepared for the same
questions, and will answer them in exactly the same way?
What would differentiate you from all the other applicants is
a story about a specific situation and how you solved it practically. For example, There was this one time when a customer ...
I solved the problem by ...’ This facilitates a process of two-way
communication, and your interviewer will then ask follow-up
questions like, ‘Why did you do that?’ Think of it like a maths
test - getting the correct answer is only one part of it; you need
to show how you worked it out and got the final result.
So, as you work through this book, you’ll look at examples of
the four types of stones you need to nail an interview. You’ll
then identify your own stories to show how you have practically
dealt with certain situations and problems from your personal
and professional life. You’ll then put this knowledge into practice, following five steps to construct your own stories. During this process, you will define what the job position entails, how
your capabilities and values match what the employer is looking
for and how to select the right story to effectively demonstrate
this.
In this book, you’ll learn:
• why stories are so powerful in business today
• how stories distinguish you from the rest of the interview
pack
• how to land a job in less than three interviews (instead of
over 50)
• what four story types you need to nail a job interview
• how to put storytelling techniques and skills into practice
• how to define, find, match, construct and prepare stories
• how to prepare for tricky questions like; ‘What’s your biggest weakness?’
• how to use your stories in the first 90 days of your new
role and beyond.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s get to storytelling work.
C H A P T E R I!
F R O M B O R I N G T O B R A D M A N
Sir Donald Bradman was an Australian cricketer in the 1940s
and is widely acknowledged as the greatest cricketer in history.
He had an unprecedented and extraordinary batting average of
99.94 - to put that into perspective, the closest anyone else got
at the end of their career was 60.97.
When I was young, I played cricket endlessly in the backyard with my brothers and in the street with my cousins and friends. Every game would start the same way. Two kids would
be chosen as the captains and they would then take it in turns
to pick their teams. Normally the captains would choose the
If Don Bradman, the greatest cricketer of all time, was in
that line-up he would undoubtedly have been picked first every
single time - unless the captain had a very strong allegiance to
his best friend, but it would have to be very strong to risk losing
Bradman to the other team, which you would if you didn’t pick
him first.
So let’s imagine you’re being interviewed for a job, lining
up alongside all the other contenders. What Bradmanesque
qualities do you have that would ensure you get picked first
every time?
You don’t have to know who Don Bradman is to play out
this scenario. The analog)7 works for any other person or athlete
that you consider a leader in their field - Serena Williams, Pele.
Nadia Comaneci or Babe Ruth, for example.
Figure 1 is a model that shows the number of interviews you
probably go for before you are successful at getting a job. The
closer to being a Bradman you become, the more you’re using
stories in your interviews and the fewer interviews you have to
go to before you’re successful.
Figure i: The Bradman interv
iew success model
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W H E R E A R E Y O U N O W ?
Do you feel like you go for hundreds of interviews and never
seem to get anywhere? Have you ever considered that you may
be presenting yourself in a boring or bland way? That’s not to
say you are a boring or bland person; it’s just likely that you
don’t use any stories at all in job interviews, or you use them
incorrectly, in a way that gives away nothing about your personality to the person interviewing you. In other words, you’re playing it safe.
What about if you’re backable? You probably share relevant
work-related stories that demonstrate your skills, capabilities
and experience, but are left wondering why you’re not getting
picked. You tick all the boxes; you can do the job. But there’s
something missing that would make you stand out as brilliant
compared to the other candidates.
If you’re prepared to share a combination of personal and
professional or work-related stories you’ll be seen as a brilliant
candidate. You’ve probably been very successful in the past getting jobs and have not had to go to many interviews because of that high success rate. But what if you’re up against a Bradman.
Serena Williams, Pele, Nadia Comaneci or Babe Ruth? (Which
you will encounter at some stage of your career.)
To be a Bradman, and continue to be a Bradman, you’ve got
to put in some hard work. You must dedicate time and energy7
to prep for any interview. As a young child, Don Bradman
would hone his cricketing skills over and over: not only hitting a
cricket ball with a cricket bat, but also hitting a golf ball with a
cricket stump against corrugated iron to make the ball rebound
in unpredictable directions. Wherever you sit on this model
right now, there is always room for improvement. That’s where
learning to tell stories will help.
W H A T I S S T O R Y T E L L I N G ?
Storytelling is not a new concept. Ever since humans have been