Beyond telling your story, you'll be asked behavioral questions like “tell me about a time when you faced a challenge” or “describe a situation where you led a team.”
The Approach
Prepare 3-4 versatile stories that can answer multiple types of questions. You shouldn't be thinking on the spot. These stories should be flexible enough to apply to different questions - a leadership story might also work for overcoming challenges, or a project that didn't go as planned could cover both failure and problem-solving.
Was This Actually a Real Challenge?
Ask yourself - was this actually challenging, or just a small challenge that you're turning into an interview answer? “I had a group project that wasn't going great, then I stepped in and we finished it” isn't interesting unless there was genuine difficulty and learning involved.
Don't pick surface-level situations. Pick moments that actually tested you and that outside of an interview context you would still reflect on as truly challenging or impactful to your life.
Story Structure
Use Specific Imagery
Paint a picture with your words. You're fighting for the interviewer's attention - they're getting emails and DMs while you talk. Help them picture what was happening so they stay engaged with your story. Use concrete details and specific word choices that bring them right into the moment with you.
Start with the Action
Jump right into the moment of crisis, challenge, or action. Don't spend time setting up background - you need much less context than you think. Get to the compelling part first, then back up only as needed to provide necessary context.
“I can still picture 500 people in the auditorium watching me as I failed to make the cut for the club volleyball team that had been my life for the past three years….” versus “Volleyball had always been important to me growing up…”
Walk Through What You Did
After establishing the challenge, take them through your specific actions and thought process. Be concrete about what you actually did.
Share What You Learned
Close with what you learned from the experience, or what you would do differently and how you've applied that to your life since then. Every story needs a real moment of reflection or genuine learning - not surface-level takeaways that you think they want to hear, but something you genuinely gained from the experience that you can articulate authentically. Don't be afraid to share something real that you took away from the experience, provided you've been able to apply that learning to a subsequent situation which you can briefly mention.
Authenticity & Specificity
Don't Overdramatize: You don't need to make things bigger than they were. Just be really specific about how you describe the challenge and what made it meaningful for you. Authenticity and specificity is much more important than it being any particular kind of story.
Common Mistakes
- Too much background - takes too long to get to anything interesting
- Too surface-level - not a real challenge or real experience of growth
- Saying what you think they want to hear - and in doing so having the story fall flat
- Not taking ownership for your own role in the story - blaming others or sounding defensive for why things went a certain way
- Not specific enough - make sure your listener can picture your story