These are the four most-watched interviews in modern history. Even if you weren’t one of the millions of people who watched them live, you saw the most famous parts in the news.
For me, the most captivating interview I witnessed live was Oprah’s 2013 interview with Lance Armstrong.
He was there—a cancer survivor and athletic superstar whose amazing comeback inspired a generation. He was also the first person to admit that he had used illegal drugs to help him win seven Tour de France titles.
As someone who had read all of his books and wouldn’t leave the house without wearing my Livestrong bracelet, I was heartbroken.
Storytelling is becoming an increasingly sought-after skill in the workplace. More and more companies are recognizing the power of narrative in marketing sales leadership, and beyond. As a result, interviewers are now posing storytelling questions to assess candidates’ ability to craft and convey compelling stories.
Whether you’re pursuing a communications role or a job in an unrelated field, you need to be prepared for storytelling interview questions. Consider this your guide to understand what employers want to hear and how to give winning responses
Why Do Interviewers Ask About Storytelling?
Storytelling questions allow interviewers to
- Evaluate communication and messaging skills
- Assess creativity and imagination
- Understand how you engage an audience
- Gauge your EQ or emotional intelligence
- Identify your instincts for creating connection and impact
They want to know if you can develop stories that will interest, inspire, educate, or excite others. While this ability is especially key for marketing and PR pros, it’s valuable across fields.
Key Types of Storytelling Interview Questions
Some examples of common storytelling questions include:
What is storytelling and why is it powerful?
This allows you to explain your understanding of storytelling and its value. Share how impactful stories inform, influence, motivate, and more.
How have you used stories effectively in past roles?
Your chance to provide examples of developing and conveying compelling stories professionally. Pick examples tailored to the role you’re interviewing for.
Tell us about a time you had to explain a complex topic to others. How did you make your message engaging?
Share how you’ve distilled complex concepts through clear, compelling narrative before. Use a real example that highlights your communication abilities.
Imagine you had to give a TED Talk on any topic. What would your talk be about and how would you make it memorable?
Gets at your imagination and ability to create an impactful storyline around a hypothetical theme. Share the topic, key messages, and creative elements you’d incorporate.
What makes a good story?
Lets you share your insights on storytelling fundamentals like relatable characters, structure, descriptive details, emotion, and more.
5 Tips for Answering Storytelling Interview Questions
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Keep your stories concise. Respect the interviewer’s time by making your stories as compressed as possible while still including key details.
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Focus on relevance. Choose stories that highlight abilities applicable to the target role. Don’t ramble about irrelevant narratives.
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Get creative. Incorporate unique analogies, vivid imagery, rhetorical questions, and interesting hypotheticals into your responses when possible.
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Use a story structure. Even in a quick interview response, follow general storytelling convention: setup, conflict, resolution.
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Convey emotion. Express how your characters feel and tap into your own emotions as you tell the story. Emotion brings narratives to life.
Crafting Your Responses
Let’s walk through how you might answer some common storytelling interview questions using the tips above:
Q: Tell me about a time you used storytelling effectively in a work situation. What was the situation and how did your narrative approach make an impact?
A: When I was working in marketing at ACME Company, we were promoting a new software product to local small businesses. Rather than just listing the product benefits, I created a narrative campaign focused around a fictional local bakery. The story followed the challenges the bakery faced keeping track of finances and inventory until they adopted our software, which helped their bakery thrive. This small business storyline really resonated with our target audience and in the first month we doubled our expected sales.
Q: Imagine you’ve been asked to give a TED Talk. What would be your topic and how would you make it memorable?
A: I would give a talk on the importance of sustainable practices in agriculture. To make it impactful, I would open with a vivid description of walking through a community garden, using all five senses to create a mental image for the audience. Then I would personify a tomato plant named Tom growing in that garden and tell an engaging story from Tom’s perspective about the dangers of pesticides. I would incorporate striking statistics on chemical use but balance that with an uplifting vision of a sustainable future. This creative personification and combination of data with emotion would hopefully make my talk memorable.
Q: What are the most important elements that make up a compelling story?
A: Several key elements create a compelling story. First, relatable characters that audiences can connect with emotionally. Second, a clear narrative structure including an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. Third, vivid, descriptive details that immerse the audience in the story. Fourth, real struggle, conflict or challenge for the characters to overcome. Fifth, authentic, memorable dialogue when appropriate. Finally, some level of transformation, change or growth that leaves the audience feeling inspired. Combining these elements artfully can craft a truly engaging story.
The next time you have a storytelling interview, keep these sample responses in mind. With practice framing your narrative experience and abilities, you’ll highlight your skills with impactful stories while also demonstrating that you’re a master storyteller. That’s sure to impress interviewers and lead to more storytelling opportunities down the road.
20 Nonprofit Storytelling Interview Questions:
- Which members of your organization have helped you the most? How has your organization changed the lives of others? How did your organization help you get through tough times? How does volunteering with your organization make you feel? Where would you be today without your organization? Who at your organization has helped you the most? What effect has your organization had on our community? Tell us about the first time you volunteered with your organization. What is the best thing about working for or with (your organization)? What would you tell someone who is thinking about donating to (your organization)? What was it about (your organization) that made you want to volunteer or donate? What is your favorite thing about working for or with (your organization)? Of all the nonprofits out there, what makes yours stand out? How does (your organization) help people in our community? Tell us about the people your organization serves and why it’s important. That which you have built through (your organization)? What need does (your organization) fill in our community? Why is volunteering with (your organization) worthwhile? What tips do you have for people who want to learn more about (your organization)? How does (your organization) make our community a better place?
Some of these interview questions about storytelling might not work for every campaign, but they should help you think of ideas for your next campaign.
I think MemoryFox would make the process even easier. If you take the time to come up with great questions at the start of your campaign, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble later on.
Here’s what I learned:
- Sometimes, your idols are NOT as awesome as they seem. A great interview can change the world. (Did I already mention that?) .
Let’s put my devastation aside, and consider how this amount of emotion was evoked. The answer is through compelling questions posed by the interviewer.
In a lot of ways, nonprofits that want to tell great stories also need to be good interviewers and ask the right questions to get the best stories and, ultimately, the best content.
Community-generated content (CGC) is a way to share the story of your organization and show off the important, mission-driven work you do. But not every volunteer, employee, beneficiary, grant recipient, program participant and donor is a natural-born storyteller. This means that asking the right questions can really help you get the kind of memorable, interesting, and shareable content that works so well on social media, in news stories, and with the people who matter most to your organization.
Think about the process like this: Great questions → Great stories → Great content
Because of this, we’ve put together a list of 20 interview-style questions that will help even the most inexperienced storytellers use great CGC.
Answering Behavioral Based Interview Questions with the Story Toolbox
FAQ
How do you interview for storytelling?
What are the discussion questions for storytelling?
