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Employers' use of behavioral description interviews has increased dramatically within the past decade. Yet the pedagogical literature geared toward helping appli cants respond to these unique interviewing questions has not kept pace. Evidence shows that behavioral description questions require respondents to tell stories and that storytelling is now critical to applicants' success in employment interviews. We present criteria by which to judge the effectiveness of applicants' stories and demonstrate how business communication instructors might use these criteria to help applicants tell better stories. Specifically, the criteria presented in this article are : To what degree is a story internally consistent? To what degree is a story con sistent with facts the listener holds to be true? To what degree is a story relevant to the question asked and the claim being made? To what degree is a story univocal? To what degree does a story provide details that support the claim being made? How does the way a story is told reflect the teller's beliefs and values?

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Current approaches to employment interviewing have yet to achieve their full potential in matching people with jobs and promoting positive, long-term employer/employee relations. Although untrained and trained interviewers have sought to discover the true personalities, motives, and values of applicants, some interviewing methods used in pursuit of this goal may invite applicant performances of limited relevance and uncertain meaning. Interviewers can dramatically