Prompt: Tell a story!
Story-telling is a skill. It is a skill that everyone should work to develop. For today’s prompt we want you to tell a story “about a time when…”. A story about your career that you can use at some point for an interview in the future if you get faced with a behavioural interview question.
Examples might include:
- Tell me about a time when you learned from a mistake.
- Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult person.
- Tell me about a time when you worked on a team.
- Tell me about a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone.
- Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond.
- Tell me about a time you succeeded
- Tell me about a time you suffered a setback. How did you recover?
Pick a story. Write it down (either in full or in bullet points) and then tell it. Say it out loud. Practice saying it out loud.
Your story should be broken down into three elements:
- What was going wrong (and therefore you needed to take action)
- What you did.
- Why whatever you did worked (or didn’t work as the case might be).
Finish off your story with a recap of the key points, highlighting the message that you are trying to get across.
A career journal is a great place (and safe place) to develop your story ideas and interesting narratives if they don’t come to you naturally. If you do try it out dedicate another journal entry to its critical review and feedback.