The Story Bank
Your story, owned. Your claims, proven.
Every interview runs on two narratives: the human one — who you are and why you’re here — and the evidence one — proof you can do what you claim. Build both here, once. One rule governs this whole page: stories, not scripts. You are not writing answers to memorize. You are building narratives you own — retrieved by title, told live, different words every time.
The questions that open almost every interview aren’t asking for evidence. They’re asking for you.
Block A — “Tell me about yourself.”
Two to three minutes. Past → Present → Future. Not your resume read aloud — your arc, told like a person.
Block B — “Why do you want to work here?”
This is your core answer — why this work, this field, this direction. You’ll sharpen it for each specific employer on your Interview Gameplan Card.
Block C — “What do you bring?”
This is your Value Proposition, spoken like a person — not recited like a slogan. Say it warm. Say it plain. It’s yours.
A claim is noise. A story is proof. Six to eight stories, titled and tagged — at least two for each C.
○ none yet · ◐ one story · ● covered (two or more)
CONFIDENCE — Can you do this job? · CARE — Do you actually want it? · COMPATIBLE — Will you fit here?
solved a problem no one else was solving · built or created something · made or saved money · influenced a team’s morale or results · overcame a real obstacle · owned a mistake and fixed it · learned something fast under pressure · made something measurably better
S — Situation: Our team handed work to another department every week, and every week something got lost — missed items, duplicate effort, finger-pointing on both sides.
T — Task: Nobody owned the problem. I decided to — my part of the work was late every week because of it, and the friction was burning both teams.
A — Action: I sat with the other team for one afternoon and mapped their actual process next to ours. Found the gap: two different checklists that didn’t match. I drafted one shared handoff sheet, got one person from each side to pressure-test it, and proposed it at the joint meeting.
R — Result: The shared sheet became the standard. Lost items went to nearly zero within a month, and the weekly friction meeting got cancelled because there was nothing left to fight about.
S — Situation: I joined a project mid-stream, replacing someone the team had liked. One senior teammate made it politely clear she didn’t think I was needed.
T — Task: I needed her cooperation to do the job at all — and I’d get nowhere by arguing for my own value.
A — Action: I asked her to walk me through how she’d been handling things and what she didn’t want to see change. Then I took the tedious piece of the work she’d been carrying alone and quietly made it my first deliverable.
R — Result: Within a few weeks she was routing questions to me. When the project wrapped, she was the one who recommended me for the next one.
Your story doesn’t need their yes to be true. Build it once — it’s yours for every conversation after this one.
Draft your narrative and at least five story cards this week — mine your Career Capital Audit, don’t start from blank. Say the bio out loud once. Aim for two stories per C. When your bank is drafted and titled, you are done — polish is not a requirement, coverage is. Print the index page before any interview: titles come with you, scripts stay home.
THE CLOSING KIT — Close Map · Story Bank (you are here) · Interview Gameplan Card · Game Day Kit · Offer Scorecard · Deal Sheet
Job Search Accelerator · LifeSketch Coaching · lifesketch.co