3 Stories You Need To Share In 2024 To Impress Recruiters & Hiring Managers

If you want to get a job in 2024, you need to be ready to share three stories with every hiring manager and recruiter you meet. These three stories will help recruiters and hiring managers fall in love with you, and this is also how you make a stronger first impression.

Storytelling in general is important, but it can be particularly powerful in the hiring process. When you go into an interview, you need to be able to tell concise stories so that they can validate your knowledge and expertise.

These three stories help them learn more about the complete you...

1. Why You Want To Work For This Company

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This story needs to be based on your connection to the employer. They don't want to hear that you love their benefits package or that you heard they pay well. They want to hear why you love their product or service and why you're a huge fan of the customers they serve.

Somehow you need to tell a connection story that gets them to understand your intrinsic motivation, which is just a fancy term for what will get you out of bed every day and want to work for this company. What do you believe in? They can't teach you intrinsic motivation. There are so many candidates out there who look the same that you need to have this really great connection story because that's what gets them to choose you.

2. Why You Love To Create The Value That You Do

Man answers the interview question "describe yourself in one word"

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Now, the second story you need to have on the ready is why you nerd out on the work that you do and why you love to create the value that you do on the job. Your unique value add (UVA) is how you save a company money, make a company money, solve problems, and alleviate pain. They don't pay you just for the heck of it. You need to create value.

When you can talk about why you love doing the work that you do and how you nerd out on it, you're showing them once again what's going to get you out of bed every day. You're self-motivated to create that value, exceed expectations, be resourceful, and think outside the box. Again, they have all these candidates to choose from. They want the employee who is going to be like that. So, this second story is very powerful.

3. The Most Exciting Or Positive Thing That Happened In Your Career In The Last Year

Woman answers a question during a virtual job interview

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The third story is the one I love the most right now, which is what's the most exciting or positive thing that happened in your career in the last year? You want to share this story with recruiters and hiring managers because they need to know that you are constantly looking at your career and assessing what's happened to you so that you can learn and grow from it.

When you can recognize that the things that happened to you were very powerful and positive, they know that you're a powerful and positive person who is always striving to learn and grow. And it's also just a great feel-good story that can articulate a lot about you.

So, let's recap.

The three stories you need to share are...

Why you want to work for the company (sharing your connection to the company).
Why you nerd out on the work that you do (showing your resourcefulness).
The greatest thing that happened to you in your career in the last year (showing your positivity and power).

You could type these up right now and have them ready for an interview. Or you could even go so far as to put them in a cover letter. But the one that will go much farther is video.

There is a way for you to record these three stories and rerecord them until their perfect. Then, you can take these three stories, put them in what's called a reel, and send them off as a URL to recruiters and hiring managers. That's when they'll fall in love with you. That's when they will see that you are the kind of person that is more than just the experience. You are the full package, and it will elevate your first impression because video is the new first interview. Video is the new phone screen. So why not take full control, record these three stories, put them in a reel, and send them off?

You can do this by using a new phone app that I love called the McCoy app. This lets you do all of the above so that you can elevate first impressions, make better connections, and get those recruiters and hiring managers responding to you before everybody else.

Job search is a game. To be competitive right now, you need to do things differently. And using video to tell these three stories is a game changer. So I hope you'll check out the McCoy app. But more importantly, please get your three stories ready to go. They are what will differentiate you in this very competitive job market so that you can get the job you want and deserve.

Good luck, and go get 'em!

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Outplacement Is An Essential Service To Offer During A Recession

In this week’s edition of the Work It DAILY Weekly Update, we discuss the importance of employers offering outplacement services and briefly touch on how recent events nationally impact the workplace.

The Importance Of Offering Outplacement Services

Laid-off employee on laptop uses outplacement services in their job search

Last week, the National Bureau of Economic Research officially declared that the U.S. economy was in a recession.

For the millions of people who have lost their jobs, this doesn’t come as a surprise. Making matters worse is the fact that the newly unemployed are heading into this recession lacking the basic job search skills they need to navigate the competitive job search process that accompanies a recession.

In some ways, this would be an easy problem to address if more companies offered outplacement services to the employers they let go. Unfortunately, most don’t!

Work It DAILY founder and CEO J.T. O’Donnell touched extensively on the issue recently via her LinkedIn newsletter and podcast JT Talks Jobs.

Most companies offer job coaching/outplacement to laid-off executives, but not the rest of the workforce, according to O’Donnell.

As part of tax code changes made in 2017, people are no longer allowed to write off job search and coaching as an expense on their taxes, which puts even more burden on those impacted by layoffs, while companies are able to write it off as a business expense.

O’Donnell suggests that those who have been laid off should go back to their former employer and ask for assistance with job coaching, while challenging managers or business leaders who have laid people off to go back to their executive teams and ask them to find it in their budget to pay for outplacement for their staff.

There’s a misconception that outplacement is expensive and will break the bank for their companies. However, this is no longer the case! Services like the ones offered by Work It DAILY are both affordable and can be done virtually through a computer or phone application.

Companies need to be more open-minded about helping layoff victims secure outplacement/career coaching services. Not only is it the right thing to do in this recession, but it’s good business!

For one, the sooner your former employees get jobs, the less you pay in insurance rates. But, most importantly, employees will remember how they were treated in their time of need. Those employees will take to sites like Glassdoor and Indeed to share their experiences, and bad experiences have a way of sticking with companies and hurting their employer brand.

No one knows how long this recession will be, or the ultimate damage from it, but anything a company can do to help laid-off employees will go a long way towards putting the company on the right side of history.

Good News Of The Week

Peloton recently donated $500,000 to the NAACP

Exercise and media company Peloton was one of the first companies to make a major statement about racism in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

Peloton made the poignant statement via Twitter and the message included the announcement that they were making a $500,000 donation to the NAACP.

Peloton has been praised for the tone of the message and taking immediate action with their donation. They were also praised for the way they ended their message. “We have more work to do. Will you join us?” This serves as an acknowledgment that statements and donations won’t solve the problem alone and a call to action for other businesses to step up and help in the process.

Resource Of The Week

Coworkers discuss diversity and the company's role in improving society during a work meeting

As stated above, many U.S. companies are trying to figure out ways to show support and join the fight against racism.

For some companies, it’s putting out public statements against racism. Others are donating to African-American causes, and many more companies are holding discussions about how to meaningfully participate in making positive changes to both the workplace and society.

Out of all these steps, having ongoing discussions about race and diversity is the most important. It’s important that discussions not only happen now in these times of unrest, but they continue. The only way to make positive change is to constantly keep these issues at the forefront.

What meaningful change looks like and the timetable for it will vary by company and that company’s circumstances, but one thing is for certain moving forward: remaining silent isn’t an option.

Businesses are an essential part of society, and all of society must participate in making a difference. The Harvard Business Review recently linked some helpful articles and books to help discussions about race and there are also many great organizations that empower African Americans that are worth learning more about.

Give yourself an even greater edge by becoming a Work It DAILY member today! Get access to one-on-one career coaching, resume and cover letter reviews, online tutorials, and unlimited networking opportunitiesâall at an affordable price.

This article was originally published at an earlier date.