My fellow potential museum guides missed the point of the exercise. In the same way, many interviewees miss the point of an interview.

And the point is that it is not what you want to tell but what the other person needs to hear.

The Assignment

I was sitting in a room of volunteers who wanted to be museum guides for a historic home in my city. The evaluation committee wanted an informal interview to get to know us and learn about our interests and strengths. To help with this assessment, we were asked to do the following:

Please bring one object that has personal significance to you and tell us, in 2 minutes, what that object means to you…Feel free to think creatively. We will be asking you to monitor your own time during the presentation, so we recommend practicing your story so that you have a sense of when 2 minutes are up.

Why This Assignment?

When I do interview preparation with my clients, we always discuss the types of questions to expect and why they would ask them. Once you understand the “why,” you will better understand the problem you need to solve and, thus, how to best answer the question.

Again, it is not about what you want to say but what the person needs to hear.

So based on the assignment, and knowing a bit about what a museum guide does, here is their “why.”

1. Museum guides can’t be boring. They should be good storytellers. They must engage visitors, or they will zone out and feel the tour was a waste of time.

2. Museum guides must be knowledgeable. They should be able to rattle off details with ease.

3. Museum guides need to know how to tell a story succinctly. Museum guides only have so much time with the visitors. If their explanations or stories go too long, the museum will have the tours running behind, which is a problem for the operations and profitability of the venture.

The assignment was given to assess whether the volunteers could accomplish all three of these requirements.

How I Prepared

This assignment's hardest part was coming up with the object to bring. We were not allowed to bring photographs or paintings. So I chose a small patch I have in my office. It is the patch I bought for completing the Appalachian Trail's Maryland section. So what would be a compelling story I could tell about it?

I talked about how the patch changed how I perceived myself, from not being athletic to being an athlete. Changing your mindset about yourself is a relatable story for most people, so I thought it should engage the audience.

I constructed my story by discussing why I did not believe I was an athlete to provide context (my high school athletic career). I then talked about the Appalachian Trail and provided some facts about it (where it is and how long it is). I talked about my process for walking it and the last section I walked, which brought me to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Visitor's Center, where I purchased the patch. I then ended by talking about my mindset change through having a goal and putting in the effort. I would hold the patch and say, “I am an athlete.”

I practiced this several times to make sure I was in the allotted two minutes. At first, my presentation was over two minutes, but I took out some unnecessary detail, and I found my story came in at 1 minute and 50 seconds.

I was ready.

My Fellow Volunteer’s Stories

The first person stood up and told the story of a group of friends that met up for New Year's Eve. She then talked about what they served and how she and her friends were missing a serving bowl, so they went to a second-hand store, and she bought a serving piece very inexpensively. She passed it around.

The theme of her story, friendship, was very nice, but there were a few problems with her presentation. Remembering what the interviewers needed to find out about the volunteers, here is what she missed.

• The presentation took about five minutes. It was too long.

• She talked equally about the New Year’s Eve celebrations and what was involved and finding this serving dish. What was the most important part of the story? Probably about friendship. So she could have spoken less about what was involved with finding the serving dish and more about what it symbolizes to her. The audience cared most about that. 

The second volunteer had a story about her husband proposing to her at the Vatican, where they had gone to have their vows renewed. Her point was that her husband was not a planner but had gone out of his way to get her to the top of the dome to propose to her.

The subject was lovely, but her execution could have been better. Here is what I saw as issues with it.

• Her story ran probably 6-8 minutes. It was way too long.

• She put a lot of detail into how they ended up in Rome and her husband’s difficulty walking up the steps. With two minutes for a story, she could have addressed her husband’s physical issues with the steps without going into lengthy detail about his exertion. 

• When she showed the rose he gave her that day, it was almost anti-climatic after all the detail she provided of his proposal. 

Another volunteer had a story about a ring she purchased in Florence. The ring symbolizes her courage to go to Italy as a solo traveler and how that trip changed her life. This was undoubtedly an interesting topic and an aspirational one for many people. But she lost me with her story. Here is why.

• The story went on for 10 minutes. There were too many details about not speaking English, getting past the museum guards, being stopped by the cops, etc. 

• She ended up telling two stories. One was her experience getting the ring. She then told a separate account of going back to Italy, trying to find the jeweler, having her daughter with her, and connecting with the jeweler’s daughter through tattoos.

Several other volunteers had stories that also exhibited many of these errors.

One volunteer got her story almost right. She showed a necklace and explained that it was not expensive, but it was dear to her because her grandmother gave it to her to wear at her wedding. When her mother died, it was the only piece of jewelry she wanted from her mother’s collection. Except for going slightly over the two-minute mark, she did the following well:

She had a story that people could relate to about family and sentimental objects.

• She added a bit of humor that she did not come from a family of wealth, so the object was not expensive but still meant the world to her.

• She spoke about her wedding and how she hoped it would be an omen for a long marriage, but that was not the case. She still treasured it.

Well, Shelley, What About Your Presentation?

I presented my story as I practiced it. I know it came in around two minutes, and I seemed to have the attention of everyone in the room, including the evaluators. After I finished, I saw smiles and positive affirmations, so I believe I did well. And for the next exercise, my small group wanted me to be the presenter, so I assessed that as a sign that the group thought I did well.

What Can You Learn From This?

I relate what happened in that room, not to knock these very lovely ladies (and one gentleman).  Their stories were important to them, and it was an honor to hear them. The only problem was they didn’t understand the assignment. As they told them, their stories would have been great to tell at a social gathering. The stories needed to be condensed and more focused on what the evaluators needed to hear.

Interviewees often run into the same problem. They want to tell a story that is meaningful to them, but they forget what the assignment is. You have to understand what is important to the listener and tell your story in a way that they get all the information needed to understand and remove extraneous detail, so it does not run on too long.

And as for me, I will see if I will be selected to be one of these museum guides. Stay tuned.

 

Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.