On the Job: Skillful storytelling can help you land a job

— -- For centuries, cultures have survived because of storytelling. Now, storytelling can help another important aspect of our lives: our careers.

More and more career experts have been urging job seekers to learn how to tell a story when citing their accomplishments. Reason: The brain is geared to remember and enjoy stories. If a hiring manager enjoys listening to you, if a boss remembers your accomplishments because they were told in story form, that's a big plus in today's tough job market.

"Storytelling makes you more memorable. It makes you stand out," says Katharine Hansen, a college professor, and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers. "There's an emotional connection when a story is told; the brain locks onto it."

This has been something marketers have understood for a long time. They know that telling a story is much more likely to engage customers than just presenting a laundry list of their product's attributes. They know that bringing an emotional edge to a story — anger, happiness, sadness, anxiety — can help the product remain with the viewer longer.

It's that powerful connection that employees — and job seekers — are being urged to harness.

Telling a story doesn't mean telling a fable. Relating an incident to an interviewer or a boss that is fictional will backfire not only because lying about your capabilities can be career suicide, but also because anything that rings false may not even stick with them.

Specifically, in a Psychology Today story, Ian McGregor and John Holmes note that if a story is easy to re-tell and sounds true to us, we are much more likely to remember the essence of it.

In her book, "Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career" (Jist, $14.95), Hansen says stories "satisfy the basic human need to be known" and to help the employee and job candidate gain confidence.

"Not only can telling stories enable others to know you better; they can also help you get to know yourself better," she says. "As you see common threads and patterns emerging in your stories, you'll understand more about yourself, your goals, your best career path and your ideal job."