📣 The Superpower Worth Passing Down

Oct 20, 2026 · @Barry Kruse

WorkLifeFuture: Guidance for parents supporting emerging adults in the age of AI & automation

🎇 Happy Tuesday!

My late father was a schoolteacher, a coach, and a park ranger for decades. So in the best sense, he talked and moved people for a living. He was a master storyteller: a true raconteur. And my hero.

I especially admired him when he was delivering a campfire program at Mt. Rainier National Park to hundreds of campers rapt with attention. When they laughed or were moved,... well, there was a special kind of magic happening there.

I love hearing and telling stories, and if I had to credit one thing for whatever success I've had, it would be that: the ability to move people with a story.

My kids are making and learning to tell great stories. I know it will serve them well.

Your kid doesn't need to become a professional storyteller. But whatever work they pursue, they need to explain what they did, why it mattered, and what they learned.

I found this absolutely fascinating: Late last year, The Wall Street Journal reported LinkedIn data showing that the share of U.S. job postings mentioning "storyteller" doubled in a single year, to roughly 70,000 listings across marketing and communications. Executives are saying it more too: 469 times on earnings calls and investor days in 2025, up from 359 in 2024 and 147 in 2015.

I've got to be honest: I am sick of corporate buzzwords myself. (Decades in corporate learning will do that). And maybe this one is being overplayed.

But the shift underneath is real. Companies want people who can explain what they're doing and why it matters, and they're starting to write that into job descriptions as a core, required skill.

I've spent 35 years hiring people. In a crowded, fast-moving market, the biggest risk I see for young candidates is being competent but invisible: talented, qualified, and unable to tell the story of what they've done.

Call me crazy, but I love interviewing on either side of the table. Like most hiring managers, there are several qualitative questions I always ask:

How would you best answer these? Of course: with a story.

Some years ago, I was interviewing candidates for an enviable entry level role in New York City. One young man really stood out... on paper. He seemed like a shoe-in.

While reviewing his résumé, I picked a significant-sounding project that he'd described and asked him very simply: "How did you do that? Walk me through it from idea to execution."

He couldn't, or wouldn't. He tossed out buzzwords, talked about technology, and described how serious the problem was. But he wouldn't simply tell me his story.

I politely asked the same question again with some genuine encouragement: "Really interesting details. But how did you do it? How did you decide you could solve the problem that way? I'm asking you to brag a bit here!"

Again, more detail, but no narrative.

I grooved him a third fastball right down the middle, a perfect pitch to knock out of the park: "I'm so impressed by what you did there. But take me through it start to finish. How did you get there?"

Another swing and miss. He still couldn't do it.

Could he have done the job? Maybe. But we had no confidence that he'd communicate effectively with us about it.

We hired someone else. She may not have initially appeared as well-qualified. But she ended up having a tremendously successful career, in part because she is an excellent communicator who knows how to tell a story.

Maybe quite doers are more effective? Maybe storytelling is an over-valued trait — the ability to tell a story. But it’s valued nonetheless and data says that employers are increasingly telling us that.

📌 What this means for your family: When your kid updates a résumé or preps for an interview, "What did you do?" is only half the question. The other half is whether they can make someone care about it.

Let's talk money for a moment (because nothing clarifies value like a paycheck). OpenAI and Netflix have posted communications roles paying $400,000 to $775,000, while the average U.S. director of communications earns about $106,000, according to Indeed. Those are senior jobs, but the signal is clear: the market pays a premium for people who can tell a story well.

📌 What this means for your family: That English major who can write? That theater kid who knows how to hold a room? They may be learning exactly what the market rewards. So might the apprentice who can walk a homeowner through a bid.

In an interview, trust matters as much as qualifications. Hiring managers like to think they decide on logic alone, but in my experience, feelings play a bigger role than most will admit.

A few tips worth passing along to your kid:

As a speaker, there's almost nothing more gratifying than seeing an audience engage, and nothing better than getting a laugh. You can see a great story land in people's body language and faces. An interview is just a very small audience, and the same thing happens across the table.

You don't have to be the loudest or funniest person in the room. A thoughtful account of a problem you worked through can be compelling, too.

Employers want to meet a real person who struggles, learns, and grows. A good story is how they see what's real in a person.

Here's something your emerging adult can use for almost any interview question.

Once they're sure they understand the question, it starts with one sentence: "Let me tell you about a specific time when…"

Then they walk through four beats, known as the STAR method:

The shift is from listing duties to narrating impact.

Look back a few paragraphs. I used this exact framing.

Situation: We had a great candidate on paper.

Task: We asked him to tell us a story.

Action: He failed to do this.

Result: He was not hired.

Your kid's examples can come from school, sports, volunteering, caregiving, or paid work. They don't need a corporate internship to have something worth telling.

There's one more piece, and it's the one most people miss. A good story is designed to leave the listener with a single theme or phrase when they leave the room. Before your kid walks into an interview, help them decide what theirs should be, so the interviewer walks out thinking something like: "That young woman has amazing energy. Must hire."

My father could hold hundreds of people around a campfire. Your kid might need to connect with just one person across a table. That's a skill worth practicing.

If this made you think of another parent wondering how their kid will stand out, forward it along. They can subscribe at worklifefuture.com/subscribe. Stories spread; useful ones should too.

🎤 Here's to the stories and storytellers who make us feel something,

Barry

P.S. Credit for today's story inspiration goes to Scott Galloway, who argued in a recent deep dive that storytelling has become the most valuable skill in tech. He's also called it the superpower he'd give his own sons if he could give them anything.

P.S.S. What's the best story your kid has told about something they accomplished? I'd love to hear it: [email protected]. I read every reply, and with your permission, I may share a few in a future issue.

WorkLifeFuture is researched, style- and fact-checked using Symbolic.ai, my employer.

WorkLifeFuture: Guidance for parents supporting emerging adults in the age of AI & automation