Interview and Networking

Resume and Storytelling

As you prepare for your interview, remember to bring a few copies of your resume. It’s a
small thing, but very important. Take a moment to review and reflect on each point you
included. Can you elaborate on what you wrote? Can you give specific examples of the
measurable impact your made at your last position? Your qualifications may be what got
you the interview, but your ability to speak to your resume is what makes the interview.

Your resume should reflect your experiences. Your interviewer will likely want to know
more about these experiences and may ask you directly or inquire using behavioral
interview techniques. Behavioral interviews are used by employers to understand how
you react under certain circumstances. For example, a question like “Tell me about a time
where your team failed to achieve its goals?“ will test how you react to adversity. You
should think proactively about these types of questions, and prepare thoughtful, succinct
responses.

One way to approach experience-oriented interview questions is to use the SOAR method
to frame your story. SOAR stands for Situation, Obstacle, Action and Results.

Situation: First set up your story and provide some basic context for your interviewer.

Obstacle: Next, explain the challenges you faced. What roadblocks did you encounter
and have to overcome?

Action: Detail the actions you took to resolve the issue. Discuss the specific steps YOU
took to address the problem.

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 Results: Be specific and showcase the measurable impact your actions had Did the
results affect your professional development and growth? Be as detail-oriented and
quantifiable as possible.

SOAR, Got all that? Let’s bring it all together, here is an example.

“I had just started my new role as a production assistant at a small media company. When
I started, I noticed that my predecessor had not been diligent about tracking and
organizing creative assets. The database was a mess and it was costing my team a lot
of time and energy. Plus, I knew we were missing some key items we could leverage to
make our design process easier. I spoke with my manager and asked if I could take a day
or two to assess the database and create a new tracking system. It was a little hard to
win her over, because it was definitely going to take significant time, but I managed to
convince her the time we would save on the backend would be worth it. So, I spent two
days combing through the database and cleaning things up. In the end, I created a new
system that saved us at least 15% of our time and I also uncovered some assets we were
able to use for future content. My team was really pleased, and they still use the new
process to this day”.

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