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Helping Interviewees Tell Their Stories

University of Michigan-Flint

William G. Kirkwood

East Tennessee State University, Johnson City

Patricia A. Burant

East Tennessee State University, Johnson City

Employers' use of behavioral description interviews has increased dramatically within the past decade. Yet the pedagogical literature geared toward helping appli cants respond to these unique interviewing questions has not kept pace. Evidence shows that behavioral description questions require respondents to tell stories and that storytelling is now critical to applicants' success in employment interviews. We present criteria by which to judge the effectiveness of applicants' stories and demonstrate how business communication instructors might use these criteria to help applicants tell better stories. Specifically, the criteria presented in this article are : To what degree is a story internally consistent? To what degree is a story con sistent with facts the listener holds to be true? To what degree is a story relevant to the question asked and the claim being made? To what degree is a story univocal? To what degree does a story provide details that support the claim being made? How does the way a story is told reflect the teller's beliefs and values?

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