Tony continues discussing the use of stories in the job search interview.
The Job Search Solution
Using Stories in the Job Interview Part II
Welcome. This podcast is sponsored by the jobsearchsolution.com. America is only 60 hour program of everything you could possibly imagine about how to find a job. The jobsearchsolution.com has successfully helped more than 100,000 people find a job as fast as possible. The jobsearchsolution.com. Welcome back. This is Tony Beshare with the jobsearchsolution. The reason why we're discussing stories is that the whole reason behind what happens to stories is the reason why Stoics loved reading fiction. They loved the theater. They loved quoting plays and referencing successful and tragic heroes, real and fantastical. Because stories teach stories inspire. Stories as well as Marcus Sirelius wrote remind us what can happen and that it can happen inevitably. And if something gives you pleasure on that stage, it shouldn't cause you anger on this one. They remind us that a life without tests and challenges is a life without growth and improvement. They remind us that the obstacle is the way. That adversity is an opportunity, that it is that if you respond well, not getting what you want can end up getting you something even more beautiful than you wanted. Despite the story of Epictetus, as we often talk about in Epictetus was born into circumstances filled with forces working against the only thing Epictetus wanted, freedom. Epictetus was a child of a slave woman, then the purchased property of a violent master. When the subject of a brutal law, that made it impossible for slaves to be freed before their thirteenth birthday. Faith tested Epictetus with one blockade after another. But in having to struggle with this, Epictetus managed to discover a new, deeper, and more profound kind of freedom, the empire that rested between our ears, inside our souls within our bodies. And it has been this example that has inspired millions, including Marcus Aurelius, in the same years since. And from the King and Alice in Wonderland, we learned how to tell a story when he instructed the white rabbit to begin at the beginning and go all the way to the end. Jonah Berger, in his book Magic Words, writes that the more interesting, engaging, and captivating stories are ones that have lots of rises and falls. They have shapes. The hero or heroine goes through a number of ups and downs, and then ups and downs again, to become triumphant. More artful and steep the ups and downs are the more engaging the story. Metaphorically and figuratively, the main character goes from zero to hero, and then maybe, to zero again, only to triumph as a hero, in the end. The more difficult the ups and downs are, the more the story has an emotional trajectory. So, if the hero or heroine can overcome negative, hateful, and fearful experiences to triumph, the story is not only more emotional, but more memorable. This kind of storytelling in the job search and interviewing process can be phenomenal. This is an extreme, but I had a candidate not too long ago, a number of years ago that immigrated to the United States until the story of how he slept on a park bench for a few months when he first got here. Had absolutely no money when he arrived in the United States, took a number of menial jobs, literally begged a university to give him a chance to eventually, and eventually gave him a scholarship only for tuition. His room and board was the result of a meager job, many times sleeping on the streets. He could barely speak English at the time and couldn't find much other than that. Earned his way through college, graduated cum laude, got a scholarship to graduate school, got an MBA, graduated at the top of his class, and got recruited by one of the top financial companies in America. The way he told the story was amazing. The ups and downs, the setbacks, the advances, especially the way he told the story was absolutely magical. His heroic story was absolutely a masterpiece. The story shaped the way information is shared and cognitively digested. The human brain has evolved to seek out evidence of casual relationships that happened because that way. But because we have the way to think about stories and know how to understand them, we have to maintain a metal chain of events that link beginning, middle, and end. We are more likely to remember the stories and to remember information that doesn't require much cognitive processing. That's why telling stories is so important in the process of interviewing. You've got to tell stories about yourself, his stories about your career, of how you made it, and how you grew, and how you became better. Stories sell. Thank you all for listening, Christiane, I love you. Let's all pray for world peace, pray for the unborn. Forgiveness, forgiveness, stay humble. Take a moment today to be grateful. Pray for those who need work, pray for our society. Join us again for the job search solution.