If you’re like most predominantly left-brained people (99% of I.T. professionals and engineers), you respond to interview questions by going through a mental lists of your activities or past actions. In terms of content, that information is vital to the success of your job interview. Presenting it in ‘list form’, however, is not the best option.

‘Logical’ or ‘left-brained thinking’ – almost always emphasized in schools and exemplified by computer programmers – is founded on processing information in a sequential, literal, functional and analytical fashion. ‘Creative’ or ‘right-brained’ individuals process information in a simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, and synthetic fashion.

Left or right-brained, the fact is that neither half can function effectively without the other: For example, your left brain understands the literal meaning of words – and the right brain organizes them into concepts so you can communicate your ideas. The tendency with left-brained individuals is to rely heavily on sequential thinking patterns. There are two very good reasons why this should be avoided in a job interview:

1. The danger of rambling on – or worse – running out of things to say and
2. It’s boring! And it’s very difficult to absorb or retain information presented that way.

Your main objective is to blow your interviewer’s socks off in the first 60 Seconds of your job interview and illicit a positive first impression. If you’re just rambling off a set of circumstances, dates and functions, well – that’s a great idea if you’re fresh out of lullabies or sleeping pills -because you’re definitely going to send your interviewer into slumber land that way.

Not to mention pitfall 1: the rambling quotient. It’s much more difficult to stick to your 60 Second Sell if your style is just firing off a bunch of dates, times and places. The likelihood of you carrying on – or running out of things to say is near the danger zone using this method of communication. What to do instead? Tell a story.

Your life is not a manual – and shouldn’t read like a walking, talking resume. You will be far more interesting and affable if you dress up your data in short story garb. To be successful, your job interview should be a series of 60 second vignettes about you: what you’ve done in the past that really worked, and how you can apply that to the job at hand. Where’s the proof?

Read the next interview coach Interview Tip: A Simple Story Leads to Glory

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