Employers' use of behavioral description interviews has increased dramatically
within the past decade. Yet the pedagogical literature geared toward helping appli
cants respond to these unique interviewing questions has not kept pace. Evidence
shows that behavioral description questions require respondents to tell stories and
that storytelling is now critical to applicants' success in employment interviews.
We present criteria by which to judge the effectiveness of applicants' stories and
demonstrate how business communication instructors might use these criteria to
help applicants tell better stories. Specifically, the criteria presented in this article
are : To what degree is a story internally consistent? To what degree is a story con
sistent with facts the listener holds to be true? To what degree is a story relevant to
the question asked and the claim being made? To what degree is a story univocal?
To what degree does a story provide details that support the claim being made?
How does the way a story is told reflect the teller's beliefs and values?
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