Personal narrative

The age old question of “tell me about yourself” may sound simple and straightforward but can be a critical and meaningful anchor that frames your experience and what you’re looking for next.

The key is to be genuine as robotic and over-rehearsed narratives will sound inauthentic. However, since time is so limited, you need to also be intentional with what you share, what you highlight, and what you detail.

The key, ultimately, is to frame one’s past experience and future plans to the role and company.

What makes a good narrative?

A good narrative isn’t simply autobiographical but rather frames one’s past experience and future criteria based on the company and the role they are applying to. Therefore, it should be rare to have one’s narrative be identical between interviews.

One’s narrative for their interview should highlight 3 major areas:

Relevancy

Readiness

Specialties (or spikes)

1. Relevancy

It’s no surprise that any hiring manager wants to hire someone who can execute on the work given. A great indicator of such is past work or experience that is relevant to the job at hand. Whether it be a passion of yours or hands on experience doing something, it’s imperative that you discuss your journey in the ways that are relevant for the role. You need to highlight those differences and call them out specifically.

Things to consider to ensure Relevancy in your narrative:

Did I read the job description and understand what of my past work is relatable?

What work of mine might not be exactly the same but can be compared? Ex. if you’re applying to a social networking company, highlighting the sharing or community features you worked on at your B2B SaaS company could have a lot of parallels.

What analogies can you make between your current work and where you’re applying?

2. Readiness

Candidates should explain that they’re ready to hit the ground running. Whether it be skills-wise, experience-wise, or interests-wise, the hiring manager needs to know you are ready for the role.

A common mistake here, often found with people who are pivoting industries or roles, is to over-index to passion and not ability. For new-grads and more junior roles, growth potential is critical, whereas for design leadership, although potential needs to be strong, no hiring manager will want you to learn primarily what it means to be a great leader on the job.

Another common mistake here is to yourself know what you want in a growth path or within a career. If pressed on it, the hiring manager will want to know what you want out of the role or direction in your career. Are you ready to commit to that personal strategy for yourself or are you still trying to figure it out? Hiring managers prefer candidates who know closely what they want in their next role.

Things to consider to ensure Readiness in your narrative:

What makes you ready to start Monday morning?

What things have you done in the past that makes you ready to take on this role?

Do you know what you want? Why does this role match what you want?

3. Specialties

Candidates need to highlight what their spikes are. What makes them special? Leadership is about finding the right set of people and great hiring managers will want to find people who compliment each other. So many leaders get overlooked not because they said anything wrong but rather because they didn’t stand out in their own special way.

Things to consider to ensure Specialties in your narrative:

If the hiring manager was asked after the interview to state your superpower, could they?

What’s your personal brand?

If someone made quick elevator pitch about you, ex. “Oh ___, she’s great! She’s an expert in _____”, what would it be? Is that elevator pitch incorporated in your narrative?

Tie in the company’s values or mission

Read up about the company and how they approach their product and incorporate it into your narrative. This is especially helpful for Readiness and Relevancy so the hiring manager understands that you get it.

Tie in the job description

Read the job description in detail. They’re not always great but they can be super helpful. What about this role matches with you? Which experiences do you need to highlight or frame to help the hiring manager better understand of yours that match the job description?

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