Repeats!
Don't be Mike, from Canmore.
“Thanks so much Mike, but frankly, that was the same answer you gave for the ‘demonstrated teamwork’ scenario - just, reworded and repackaged into a customer service example”.
“Uh…. I’m Mike, from Canmore”.
“Yes, yes Mike you’ve said that. Multiple times. Do you…. do you know where you are right now?”
“…. I’m Mike. From Canmore”.
“Thanks so much for coming in today”.
Not too, too far off from the real thing right? Sometimes the interview table feels a bit like a CBC comedy, circa 1996.
Uh’s and um’s and duh-doh’s (and the rest) are pretty common in interviews. Repetition can be a sign of nerves, but all too often it’s not just the nerves - it’s unpreparedness incarnate. It’s lack of prep, on full display. It’s accounted for ‘A’, but are now being asked ‘B’, and giving the same answer you’d given for ‘A’….
Interview storytelling is about building a repertoire. A repertoire of ‘examples of times when….’ An arsenal of situations and actions taken, inclusive of their sequels (and/or trilogies even) to pull from at a beckon call.
It’s not enough to have one example cued up for each thing. You need multiple.
What if, your ‘that time a coworker did me wrong’ example bleeds into your ‘that time I crushed a deliverable’ example? Well now you’re just “Mike, from Canmore”-ing it. Hiring Managers will disengage so fast mentally if they’re not taking in new information from you.
“Remember that time I told you about, where we blew up the Death Star? Well this was like that time but, a different Death Star. We called it ‘Starkiller Base’!”
“Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.”
-Matt