If you think just the most impressive resume wins the job offer, think again.

While resumes may help you to the door, it’s the purposeful story you will tell that often gets you through the door and into a new office with your name on it.

Executive search guru Bill Simon told me that lack of preparation in order to tell a purposeful and compelling story about themselves is the number one reason why candidates fail to win over prospective employers in job interviews. Simon is a senior client partner and managing director of the media, entertainment and convergence sector at Korn/Ferry International, the behemoth search firm that specializes in high-level global recruitment and talent management. I’d engaged him on several occasions to headhunt top leadership candidates for my private and public companies, so I knew he only represents individuals who are supremely qualified and experienced.

If these folks haven’t prepared to get themselves hired, how will they be prepared to effectively lead organizations, persuade customers, manage employees, and sell products?

That made his remark all the more alarming. If these folks haven’t prepared to get themselves hired, how will they be prepared to effectively lead organizations, persuade customers, manage employees, and sell products? According to Simon it’s because arrogance and self-righteousness can mislead potential candidates into thinking they don’t need to prepare. Doing the advance work helps shine the light on their attitude which every employer looks for. Aptitude is on the written word on the resume. Attitude is in the story and how they tell it to persuade others of their passion, purpose, and capability.

Failing to realize that the emotional resonance of the conversation is what HR execs, recruiters, managers, and every other decision-maker who you need to convince to hire you remembers, rather than the facts, data, and information on your resume will be the fatal flaw in your interview. It’s not that the facts, information and data aren’t important. They are critically important. But they’re already on the page and now you’re on the stage. When you tell a purposeful story demonstrating your attitude and passion, suddenly the data, facts and figures of your resume become memorable, resonant and actionable because your story has given your listeners something they can hold onto, remember, and tell forward.

Before your next interview, come armed!

Not with resume bullets, but with the belief and conviction that the story you tell will hit your listeners’ hearts and stay top of mind long after you’ve left and the plethora of other candidates attempt to sell themselves on the backs of their resumes alone.