Gorick Ng was fourteen when his single mother was laid off from her job at a sewing machine factory. His mom didn’t know how to write a resume, and neither did he. But he learned what he could to help his mom apply for jobs. On weekends, he helped his mother scrub stranger’s toilets to make ends meet.
Ng’s compelling life story helped him earn admission to Harvard University. Today Ng works as an undergraduate career advisor at Harvard, specializing in coaching first-generation, low-income students.
I recently caught up with Ng to talk about his book, The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right. “Unspoken rules” are ways of doing things that recruiters, managers, and admissions officers expect but don’t explain.
This question is not an invitation to recite your resume, accolades, or accomplishments. Instead, recruiters and HR managers expect a story that translates how your past experiences will benefit the company.
What’s the difference between a story and a resume? Well, notice how I started this article. It didn’t begin with a list of Gorick Ng’s accomplishments. Although his resume includes investment banking positions and a graduate degree from the Harvard Business School, the article starts with a story that sparked his interest in career advising. It’s the most relevant story to what he does today.
“The better you get at telling your story, the more competent, committed, and compatible you will come across,” Ng says.
Tell Your Hero’s Journey
The hero’s journey is a storytelling framework inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell. Ng suggests that the same framework used in artistic forms of storytelling like movies and novels can be adapted to make a strong impression at a job interview.
In its simplest form, Campbell’s template follows a hero through various stages of their journey—from getting called to an adventure to overcoming obstacles and, finally, returning home as a changed person.
Ng says job candidates can prepare their own hero’s journey by thinking about the spark that ignited their interest in the field. Then, consider relevant experiences that make you uniquely qualified for the position. For example,
The company’s work in Alzheimer’s disease is especially interesting to me because neuroscience was one of my favorite classes in college (spark). I also volunteered at an eldercare facility (experience) and saw the effects of Alzheimer’s on my grandfather (experience), so I have a personal connection with it.
According to Ng, “The key is to emphasize transferable skills. Been a tutor? Talk about the art of putting complicated concepts in simple terms. Been a cashier, retail sales associate, barista, or server? Talk about what it takes to work with people and multitask under pressure.”
Ng reminds job candidates to follow the hero’s journey template to prepare for interviews, but make sure the story wraps up quickly. “Maybe your interest in startups began with the dog-walking business you had as a kid,” Ng says. “Start there—but skip forward quickly so your story takes two minutes to tell—not twenty.”