Article 8: Crafting your three stories

We are now ready to put your brainstorming efforts into crafting three acts (beginning, middle, end) that will eventually make up your complete story – great stories that will help you stand out from the other candidates. In addition, your three stories will be the infrastructure for building out your resume, social presence and responses to future interview questions. The good news is that you have everything you need with the brainstorming you just completed.

Complete the below template for each of your three projects. For now, let’s break down the projects into the three acts found in the Basic Three-Act Structure. This will help you stay focused on each section of your story, rather than trying to create the whole story right away.

Don’t worry about making your three acts perfect at this stage. We’ll do that later.

Act 1: The Beginning (Introduce characters and situation. Share the project’s goals.)

Example: I was brought in to drive an international team of communication professionals on a large-scale project that impacted over 4,000 team members. The goal of my communications team was to make sure all team members were kept up to date on the progress with effective and creative communications.

Now it’s your turn. Using the Project Structure from your brainstorming, introduce your story’s cast of characters. Keep the number of characters to no more than three or the recruiter and interviewers won’t be able to follow your story. What was it that you were trying to accomplish?  Why is this story important to who you are? What is the value-add you bring to your dream job? You don’t need to embellish too much as a master storyteller, but do introduce interesting tidbits that will make your story more interesting.

Act 2: The Middle (Share challenges that had to be overcome. What is the most interesting aspect of this story?)

Example: One day, our very seasoned PM left the program – unexpectedly - and our replacement was a sales rep who did not understand that the changes he made on the fly had a downstream impact on my team. We couldn’t stay up with all the changes he was making on a daily basis – and for some unknown reason, he refused to document the changes. My team was threatening to leave the company due to the issues this created for them.

Now it’s your turn: Share one or two of the mini-stories you experienced. What worked, what did not? This is different from stating the challenges you experienced using the CAR methodology, although it appears similar. Rather than sharing your challenges as a step in a process, you are wrapping a story around what you experienced. You are sharing a story so that your recruiter or interviewer can step into your shoes and understand your experience.

Act 3: The End (Tie loose ends up quickly and get out!)

Example: I wish I could say that my team and I were able to resolve the issue quickly, but it took a while. 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 and the PM understood the benefit of tracking changes.

Now it’s your turn:  What wizardly thing did you do to remove the challenge? Don’t be shy. And don’t brag either. Put your great deeds into a story format, and you’ll have the right tone for sharing your brilliance. Some advice on crafting Act 3 of your story is to keep it short and sweet. It might be tempting to share every brilliant thing you did, but keep your ending to one or two of the feel-good items from your brainstorming cloud.

Now let’s see how the three acts work together to craft your story.

I was brought in to drive an international team of communication professionals on a large-scale project that impacted over 4,000 team members. The goal of my communications team was to make sure all team members were kept up to date on the progress with effective and creative communications. One day, our very seasoned PM left the program – unexpectedly - and our replacement was a sales rep who did not understand that the changes he made on the fly had a downstream impact on my team. We couldn’t stay up with all the changes he was making on a daily basis – and for some unknown reason, he refused to document the changes. My team was threatening to leave the company due to the issues this created for them. I wish I could say that my team and I were able to resolve the issue quickly, but it took a while. 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 and the PM eventually understood the benefit of tracking changes.

Do the same as I did for your three acts for each project. How do they read when you put the three acts together? Think about going in and pulling out details that don’t support your dream job. For example, to shorten the above story, I could remove the point about our very seasoned PM leaving our program. It adds color to the story, but it doesn’t necessarily make my story better in revealing my strengths on handling difficult situations.  

One thing to notice is that stories may take a little longer than answering using the CAR methodology. However, stories are remembered, where factual descriptions are not. I think it’s worth a little longer response to engage with your interviewer.

From these three stories, we know how to make you stand out in a crowd and be remembered. Now let’s fold these stories into your resume!