This is a Playbook. Playbooks are strategic resources intended to help you take action in your Customer Success career, and they are only available for Insiders.
The recruiter was kind. He explained that they liked to do things a little differently than a typical tech interview; instead of prewritten questions, they dedicated 45 minutes to one open-ended question.
“Tell me your story.”
At first I was psyched at such a simple prompt. I hated those typical “tell me about a time” interview questions — both asking them and answering them. I always longed for interviews that let me turn it into a conversation, not an interrogation. This was exactly what I’d always wanted — my question to stumble or shine.
A few minutes in, I realized I was in trouble. It’s an easy prompt — deceptively easy.
And now I was babbling for way too long about a job I left 2 years ago.
I started to panic as my story slipped away from me, and by the last 5 minutes I still had way too much to cover. I knew I was doomed.
Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.
All the mistakes I made in that interview can be traced back to one decision: I didn’t properly prepare. It’s a question any interviewer could ask — and one that most would — yet I had never sat down to write out a coherent narrative. I had never considered how I wanted to represent myself, what I wanted to be sure to cover.
I learned from this experience to not just write out my thoughts ahead of time, but to structure them so that I am representing myself well, so that I am tying my history to the company’s needs. I learned that answering this question well set the tone for the interview and my hiring experience.
It’s been years now, and I’ve been on the other side of the interview, seeing too many candidates make my same mistake over and over, and frankly, I’m tired of seeing it. Once I figured out how to answer this question, it unlocked a lot of opportunity in my career, and I hope it can do the same for you.
Pre-Write Exercise
First, before we dive in, I recommend you do an exercise.
Open a Google Doc or take out a blank sheet of paper, take five minutes and write out your career story. Write out what you think a recruiter would expect to hear, what you think makes you look like a successful candidate.
Try to do this before going through the rest of this article for the best results; I want you to get your instincts and your voice onto paper first, without my influence.
The goal here is to give you a first draft, so that when you are ready to apply the framework, you are editing, not crafting.
Become an Insider to access this resource.
Get the Playbooks, Templates, and resources to help you land a better role, level up your skills, and earn more.
Upgrade