In this instructional video, Natalie Fisher answers a viewer’s question about how to craft effective career stories for interviews. She introduces the SARI framework (Situation/Task, Action, Results, Interesting features) as a simple structure to remember and tell concise, engaging stories. Natalie explains why storytelling matters—hiring managers want to connect with the human behind the résumé—and emphasizes the need to be specific, show personality, and include interesting details. She provides a concrete example of a creative presentation, illustrating each SARI element and highlighting how to make the story vivid. Additional advice covers being specific in language, using vulnerability to discuss mistakes or disagreements, and avoiding vague descriptions. Natalie also promotes a downloadable “Ultimate Guide to Situational Interviewing” that contains 10 example stories, fill‑in‑the‑blank templates, and 25 reflective questions to help viewers generate their own narratives. The video ends with a light‑hearted sign‑off.
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Hi there, I'm Natalie Fisher, and this is the place to be if you want to be excited for work every morning. This question comes from Mandy, and Mandy writes, I feel nervous about my career stories, and the fact that I should tell stories in interviews drives me bananas. I'm not sure if my stories are even any good. For example, what's your greatest career accomplishment? That's a big question. How am I supposed to answer that? How do I know for sure what my greatest career accomplishment is? Can you help? Well, Mandy, I absolutely can help, and you're definitely not alone on this. In this video, I'll break down a simple framework by which you can remember your stories along with a quick example to give you some inspiration to find your own stories. So let's get started. Stay tuned. So first, we're going to use the formula. So to tell a good story, you want to keep it short and sweet but interesting and include the necessary details for the story to make sense. Stories are the best way to connect with an interviewer. So step Stats show that hiring managers are hesitant to bring someone on board who is so polished and so professional that it's difficult to connect with them on a human level. So you want to be able to loosen up a bit in your stories, let some of your personality shine through, and let them see who you truly are. Being professional is great, but hiring managers want to hire humans, not robots or drones. So let them see what's different about you with each story that you tell. So you can use the SARI formula to develop your storytelling strategy. SARI stands for situation or task, action, results, and interesting features, which are a bonus. Here's an example. So tell me about a time you showed creativity at work. Situation: I was asked to do a presentation on behalf of the marketing department. Action: I saw this opportunity to think outside the box with the presentation, so I used different tools to keep the audience engaged: audience participation, funny video clips and photos, and of course hard data to make my points. While the rest of the departments were doing death by PowerPoint presentations, I chose to get super creative and actively engage my audience. What was the result? The result was we received the highest score amongst all other departments, and we were asked to do the same presentation with some tweaks for some of our customers at the next user conference. Interesting features, things you learned, or fun highlights you can share quickly. Engagement is something you can actively work into a presentation. Too often I see the audience zoning out on their phones, and that's something that I successfully changed with this creative endeavor. So number 2, be specific. Being specific is so much more effective than being vague and When you're getting to know somebody, so this includes your interviewer. So the goal is to get to know your interviewer and have them get to know you, and so you don't want to waste it by telling vague stories. So take this example for example. So better. We discussed it over lunch. We discussed it over sandwiches, or we discussed it over soggy tuna sandwiches. So the first thing paints a very different picture than the last thing. What a difference, right? The first one is vague, the middle one is a little bit more descriptive, and the last one paints a totally different picture. You want to tell a story about something that you care about. You want it to be something that was successful, and you don't just want to recount the events, but you want to paint a unique narrative about how you Number 3, take full advantage of this opportunity to connect. So to take advantage of this fully, you need to be a little bit vulnerable in some of your stories. If they ask you to tell them about a time you made a mistake at work or a time you disagreed with a coworker or a boss, you want to tell a story that shows you're human and you can own up to lessons learned. We all don't know what we don't know. So it's common to make mistakes regularly, and it's what we learn from those mistakes that's more important than the mistakes themselves. For example, say you forgot something. Say it was something important. You can say how you felt, you can share your plan as to how you'll never let this happen again, and now you set multiple reminders or you ask others to help hold you accountable. A sign of a A sign of a strong candidate is one that can admit their mistakes and share what they learned freely. A sign of a weak candidate is one that will blame other people, avoid their mistakes, and keep making the same ones. So unless the mistake is that you killed somebody or you did something illegal, then share your mistakes and lessons freely. You may think it makes you look bad, but in fact, most people aren't willing to be that vulnerable And anyone human makes mistakes, so anyone can relate. And there we have it. I hope this helps. I want you to know that a story about a presentation is enough. That can be a very big career moment for you. It can be anything that you feel proud of. It doesn't have to be a huge thing. So you don't have to be like climbing Mount Everest to have a worthy story. They just have to be engaging and interesting and fun. So I've put together some example stories in a resource for you called The Ultimate Guide to Situational Interviewing, and you can grab that guide if you just click the link below. In the guide, I include 10 compelling example stories just like in this video, but 10 more The guide includes fill-in-the-blank templates for you to fill in your own stories, as well as, if you're still getting stuck, 25 questions you can ask yourself to help you find the stories for your next interview. You can get a copy of all that right now. All you have to do is click the link below. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Natalie, and I will see you in the next video. Or you're up better, or down. What do you guys think? Up or down? I got it cut, so I can't really put it up. No, definitely down. Definitely down. Let me know. Okay, bye!
