How would you sum up your professional experience and describe your ideal next opportunity? As recruiters, we pose that question to candidates all the time and often hear how challenging it can be to answer it effectively.
Test yourself by having a trusted friend, professional acquaintance or colleague pose that question to you and listen to your response. Pause, then ask them: “Now, how would you describe me professionally to someone else? And how would you describe my ideal next job?” What do you hear?
Your narrative should present you as best suited and well qualified for your ideal next role, which, in turn, should strategically position you to grow toward your long-term career goal. This may mean that you’ve got some homework to do around mapping out your career path since that clear sense of direction will make all the difference in your storytelling.
The hallmarks of a strong career narrative include:
Substantive and specific information-- not just fluff! “I’m an experienced media sales professional with a proven ability to penetrate and grow enterprise CPG accounts” vs. “I can sell ice to Eskimos!”
A strong sense of direction: “I’m seeking an individual contributor sales role, most likely with a midsize SaaS company” vs “I’m looking for a growth opportunity.”
A clear career through-line, how your various jobs form the greater whole of who are as a professional: “Throughout my career, working in both digital media and ad tech, I’ve excelled at penetrating new accounts and building long term brand and agency relationships.” vs telling a story of a meandering path that ultimately led to where you’re currently working.
Some add’l tips:
Stories are memorable: Identify some notable stories from your experience that you can highlight as you talk through your narrative (something funny, something exciting, something motivating, a client story, an accomplishment, etc). These stories should speak to key assignments, projects, tasks, what you accomplished, and specific challenges you had to overcome.
How you tell the story matters: Interviewers are looking out both for your answer to their question and how well you communicate it. When grounding your answer in a specific example or story, the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) helps you build a cohesive story while demonstrating that you know how to organize your thoughts and can both identify and convey the most salient pieces of information concisely.
Focus on the why: When walking through your various positions, focus on why you made the moves you did. What drove you, and what drives you moving forward? Were there some missteps or chapters in your career that were less than standout? Your comfort describing those makes a big difference- concise and accurate without dwelling nor going into unnecessary detail. All the better if you can tease out one or two positive takeaways (e.g.- “while I discovered that the job didn’t play to my strengths, it helped me realize how much better suited I am to….”)
Tailor your story to the role: As you prepare, highlight items on your resume that relate to that specific role and practice telling your story with those highlights included. Practice this with different roles and different highlighted aspects--this makes your narrative flexible and relevant.
Draft it, distill it. It’s helpful to have two base versions of your career narrative, a quick snapshot and longer form (in response to that common interview question: “Tell me about yourself…”) You’ll be able to apply it to written communications (outreach, networking and job application cover notes) as well as when you’re put on the spot to sum it for the listener.
Practice, practice, practice, and make it yours! When you’ve got the content down, focus on tone: balancing warmth with professionalism. Try it out again on that friend or colleague and see what they hear this time-- putting a clear message out to the universe of job possibilities!
To learn more about the CFW Careers Coaching practice and how we can help strengthen your career narrative and address other aspects of getting from here to there in your career, contact cynnie@cfwcareers.com or rachel@cfwcareers.com.