​Ali Abdaal is a well-known YouTuber with more than 3M subscribers, who creates videos about ideas and tools to improve your productivity, health and happiness (ambitious goal!).

He also runs highly successful online cohort based courses including 'Part Time YouTuber Academy'. Check if out if you want to up your YouTube game!

Apart from being an accomplished creator and thinker, Ali is also writes with clarity and heart. Check out his weekly newsletter 'Sunday Snippets'. I've come across some great book recommendations there.

Today however, I want to focus on something very different that Ali put out. Not a video, not a post and not a newsletter.

But a job opening.

It's for his Full-time assistant role.

How can a job application use storytelling techniques, you may wonder?

Here are four that I found (#4 is my favourite).

1. Clear 1-line BLUF (Bottom-line Upfront) at the beginning

Ali starts with a clear summary of the role:

Check out how the description is focused on the benefits for Ali and his end customers.

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2. Tell the applicant What's in it for them

After mentioning the role's objective, Ali moves on to why the applicant should strongly consider the role:

In this section, Ali is answering the 'so-what' (is in it for me) question and using social proof (examples of successful previous assistants).

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3. Be honest about who this is not for

If there are non-glamorous parts to the job, be upfront about acknowledging them... In fact look for people who revel in that kind of work!

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4. Make the abstract concrete - use specific examples

Here's one of the requirements under the Admin section:

Most job descriptions would just have that and nothing else. But Ali brings this point alive with concrete examples:

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I just LOVED this section. Note the concreteness of each example. The conversational tone. The 'show-dont-just-tell' approach.

It is a masterclass.

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Most importantly, given the criticality of the role, it looks like Ali has written this entirely himself and not outsourced it to HR or an intern. His unique voice shines through every sentence.

Hiring is perhaps one of the most important roles of a leader - they should ideally put down the thoughts for the role requirement in their own words. Even better, make it a story.

#SOTD 90

Ravi

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PS: Here is the context for #SOTD and the 'Ultimate Guide to Storytelling Techniques' framework I use - in case you joined this series late! Here is the archive of previous posts. Click here to subscribe.

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