Last week I was part of a panel to help prepare a candidate for a nationally competitive fellowship. The applicant was terrific, of course, or they never would have made it to the final round, but the three of us interviewers worked hard to sharpen them even more. We were purposefully intimidating; we interrupted and threw in curve balls and pushed back on the applicant’s proposal. And the way the candidate could have improved best, we agreed, was to include “Let me give you an example” into more of the answers.
Using those words turns abstraction into a story, and that makes people more interested. Like a story, a good example has a beginning, middle, and end, and contributes to supporting a larger point. It also helps you sound specific, concrete, and experienced in whatever you’re talking about. And you can even use it to pivot slightly out of a danger zone and into something you’re prepared to talk about.
Before an interview, you’ll of course have thought through some stories from your background that you’d like to have the chance to tell, and some varying lessons or points you can illustrate with those stories, so you don’t find yourself with your mind blank trying to think of examples.
