Research shows that individuals learn better and retain more information through ‘story form’ than any other method. Your goal is to impress your interviewer and effectively communicate a clear ‘picture’ of who you are while highlighting your most positive attributes so you can get the job.

Telling an effective ‘story’ about yourself is the way to do it. Where’s the proof?

Xerox is doing it. After realizing that their employees learned faster by trading stories than by reading manuals, they routinely collect their employees’ stories and place them in a database that Fortune Magazine estimates is worth one million dollars.

NASA is doing it: their Academy of Program and Project Leadership collects stories told by managers and other project practitioners and use them as a learning tool for new team members.

3M is doing it: by giving their top executives storytelling lessons.

Psychological research shows that people draw more information from your tone of voice and even from your body language and they do from your actual words. Interviewers are no different: if you want to impress them, tell a series of compelling stories (in 60 second sound bites), project your voice well, and project an air of confidence in your job interview. You are not a set of dates and places – and you are certainly not just your resume. You are a series of stories. How to begin?

Start by structuring (writing out) your 60 Second Sell to unfold like a story. To begin, on a piece of paper, draw a line down the centre. Title one column “Skills” and the other one “Story”. Keep your content crisp and to the point. Don’t use jargon and make your sentences short: structure them simply (subject-verb-object) and speak in images that create pictures in people’s minds. Keep each story 60 seconds or less – any more and you risk rambling on and losing the interviewer’s attention.

Use ‘bridges’ to underline key aspects of your stories: phrases like “let me just add” or that’s a vital point because…’ allow you to navigate the conversation back to the points you feel are most important.

It’s a proven fact that writing exercises enhance job interview performance: scientists say that writing, ‘through its inherent reinforcing cycle involving hand, eye, and brain, makes a uniquely powerful multi-representational mode for learning’.

Read the next interview coach Interview Tip: Getting the ‘Real You’ Across

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