I’ve been doing career storytelling 1:1 coaching sessions for a client team over the past few weeks and I’ve come across a the same mistakes over and over folks make when telling their career story. These are the ones I’ve seen with this team but also with people I’ve interviewed and others I’ve coached. Take note because on the flip side these are tips on how to more effectively tell your own career story (see what I did there?)
1. Not Having A Purpose
No, not that kind of purpose. Not the big all encompassing meaning for your life. While that can be valuable, when it comes to sharing your career story, you need to be clear on what you’re trying to get across. What about yourself you want your story to bring to light. And then adjust and adapt what you highlight based on that. Applying for a job at the Quick E Mart? You want to show how your client service experience at an accounting firm prepared you to help customers who come into the store all day. And highlight your problem solving skills and adaptability—not your expertise in making a pivot table (I don’t exactly know what a pivot table is, but I know smart people make them in excel all the time). You’re positioning yourself with your audience, so be sure you know how exactly you want to be positioned.
2. Being “Professional” (aka lacking personality)
Trying to sound like everyone else and how you think you “should” sound is doomed to failure. It’s an approach that doesn’t allow you to stand out and makes you just another boring resume or interviewee. The things that make you stand out are your unique experiences and perspective and voice. Use them especially when telling your career story. That’s how you connect with audiences.
3. Not Tailoring it To Your Audience
If you share the same resume and story for your HR job at a cool new tech startup that you do for the role at the traditional stuffy bank, one or both of those are going to be unsuccessful. You have to tailor your resume to every job you apply to, but you also have to tailor the story you tell around your career as well. What resonates with the genz startup prodigy likely won’t be what resonates with the genx bank VP.
4. Only Sharing the Good Stuff
I know you’re great, you know you’re great, and if you’re in an interview the person interviewing you probably suspect you’re great. The most inauthentic thing you can do in that case is tell them about how great you are. There’s no tension in that, which means your story is probably boring and a lot like everyone else’s (because most people make this mistake). Sharing when you’ve messed up and learned from it, is far more powerful, human, vulnerable, and memorable than sharing that time you saved the whole team from certain doom by catching a typo in a deck. Our character shine through in the tough moments far more than in the easy ones. Find ways to share the mistake and what you learned.
5. Just Sharing a List (of the Good Stuff)
This is the most common mistake I see people make when it comes to sharing their career story. And maybe the worst because it’s boring. “I did this, then I did this, then I got this, then this happened.” A list of achievements and accomplishments with little about how and why and why it mattered. Texture and tension come out of explaining not just what you did but the reasons you did it and what came of it. That is actually how you do the work of positioning yourself and sharing more than the good stuff, and tailoring it to your audience. Tell us why. And get specific, dive into the details please. That’s where the best story of your career lives.
What about you? Have you seen others or even caught yourself making other mistakes when it comes to sharing a career story in an interview, on LinkedIn, or anywhere else? Share your (good and bad) experiences in the comments.
A Story Well Told
I’ve been sharing this podcast/youtube episode with everyone. It’s a fantastic wide ranging conversation and the stuff of great storytelling. Yes they focus on health and healing, but it also patterns that so many creators and high achievers have when it comes to their approach to life. I found it enlightening and wanted to share. Marie is also one of my favourite teachers and coaches (I mentor in both her programs and get to share my experience with her audience).
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Some useful ideas