Most job seekers prepare backwards. They start asking themselves, "What questions am I going to get asked?" and then they try to match stories to those questions in a vacuum. That's inefficient, and worse, it usually means you pick the wrong story.
Here's the real approach. Start with the employer. What are their goals? What problems do they need to solve? What does success look like in that role? Once you know that, you look at your background and you find the story that best demonstrates how you've solved a similar problem or achieved a similar goal.
That's your power story. It's the one story that addresses what they need, and it's the one you're telling no matter what question they ask you. If they ask about your strengths, you tell it. If they ask about a challenge you overcame, you tell it. If they ask about your leadership style, you tell it.
Now, sometimes they'll dig deeper. They'll ask a follow-up question about something within that story. That's what I call a branch. You stay connected to the main story but you peel off and go deeper into one aspect of it.
The prep itself shouldn't take forever. You review the company, you review the job description, you refresh your memory on this power story, and you make sure the structure is solid in your head. But you're not rehearsing it over and over. You already know what you did. You just need to make sure you can walk them through it.
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