In my last
blog, I introduced using the Basic Three-Act Structure in crafting our stories
to land our dream job, using the beginning, the middle and the end as a way to
share our career successes.
What makes
this simple structure work well for our job search? What’s the secret to its magic? And why would
we want to move off the safe, albeit boring, CAR methodology (i.e., Challenge,
Action, Results)?
First, who
doesn’t love a good story? Steve Jobs always comes to mind when I think of
great storytellers. He often started conversations off with “Well, I’ll tell
you a story.” He, too, believed in a beginning, middle and end.
Second, if
we only do what’s “safe,” and never put ourselves out there, we’ll remain
exactly where we are. I’m assuming, since you are reading my blog that you want
to be somewhere different with your career. Somewhere brilliant. Playing it
safe is never brilliant.
I’d like to
drill down into what the Basic Three-Act Structure is so that you can begin to
think about how you will structure your own stories that will be used during
your job search.
The Beginning Act:
One of the
most challenging parts of telling a story is knowing where to begin. If you
start too early, you will bore the recruiter with too many details. If you
start too late, your recruiter won’t be able to follow you and will turn-off
mentally without you even knowing it.
The
Beginning Act introduces your audience to the setting, the characters and the
situation. The Beginning Act can also
have the goals the main character (you!) wished to achieve at the beginning of
the success you are about to share. There must have been something that caused
you to apply your skills and expertise to achieve the change. This is where
your story begins.
The Middle Act:
The Middle
Act takes your beginning and develops it through more mini-stories about what
went wrong. In storytelling, this is the ultimate crisis or the climax. The
middle is the heart of your story, and the most interesting for recruiters.
The End Act:
Quickly
pivoting from the Middle Act, the End Act ties up loose ends of the story and
all tension goes away. One piece of good advice about the End Act is to finish
your story and get out. No one likes a drawn out ending, especially recruiters
and hiring managers.
Example of Basic Three-Act Structure:
Here’s an
example of using the Basic Three-Act Structure to answer the commonly asked interview
question: Share a challenging experience
you had with a colleague and what the outcome was from the conflict.
(The
Beginning Act) I was brought in to drive an international team of communication
professionals on a large-scale project that impacted over 4,000 employees. The
goal of my communications team was to make sure the employees were kept up to
date on the progress with effective and engaging communications.
(The Middle
Act) One day, our very seasoned PM left the program – unexpectedly - and our
replacement was a sales rep, who had no experience managing such a large
initiative. He did not understand that
the changes he made on the fly had a downstream and significant impact on my
team. We couldn’t stay up with all the changes he was making on a daily basis –
and he refused to document the changes. My team was threatening to leave the
company due to the issues this created. (The Climax)
(The End
Act) I wish I could say that we were able to resolve the issue quickly, but the
new PM did not like to be held accountable for documenting the daily changes. Eventually,
I was able to introduce an overly simple change management process that helped
him track the changes, allowing my team to know exactly what they needed to
communicate. Happily, no one left my team.
If I were
to use the same example using the CAR methodology, it would be something like
this:
(Challenge)
During a very large-scale initiative, we lost a seasoned PM, who was replaced
with a sales rep who had no experience driving a large team. He would change the scope of the project on a
daily basis, without documenting the changes for his larger team. This caused challenges for my team of
seasoned communication professionals because they did not know what they were
supposed to be communicating. Some threatened to leave the company due to the
situation.
(Action) As
a result of this situation, I created a simple change management process for
the PM.
(Result)
Over time, the PM began using the change management process. My team knew what
to do once they understood the daily changes. And no one left the team.
While the
same information is being shared with both methodologies, the end result feels differently. The Basic Three-Act
Structure methodology allowed the interviewer the opportunity to visualize and
feel how difficult the situation was for my team, while the CAR methodology
merely stated the facts. In other words, there was no heart to the CAR presentation. It’s been studied and proven that
people only remember a few facts from a presentation, however, they remember
the essence of a story that is being told.
This is what you want – to be remembered for the essence of who you are,
which will come out through your stories.
Now that
you have the gist of structuring a great story, one that will be remembered by recruiters
and hiring managers, let’s move onto gaining a better understanding on what
your dream job really is. This will help you in ultimately knowing what stories
to share to get the recruiter’s attention.
