Aritlce 6: Identify the success stories on which you will build your resume, social presence and interview responses

The first step in landing your dream job with effective storytelling is to identify what three stories you will share. The results from this first step will lay the foundation for your resume, cover letters, LinkedIn persona, social media and later interviews. It is critical that you slow down at this step so that you can go faster later. 

When I work with clients, I begin this first step by asking them to list up to 10 projects they’ve worked on where they were extremely successful. Just a simple brain dump.  No judging or too much thinking.

Once they have their list of their successful projects, I have them explain each of the projects to me and how they feel today about each project.  Their successes are not geared toward any certain job or company. Again, nothing formal. They talk. I listen, and seek clarification.

Again and again, I am impressed by the accomplishments of my clients. Most the time, they don’t even realize how amazingly brilliant they are until after they share their projects with me.

What I have found, too, is that the majority of my clients don’t understand why we do this step.  I’ve had a few even push back and tell me it’s not necessary. They want to fill out the job experience part of the resume and be done with it!  For some people, resume creation can be comparable to doing taxes or going to a dentist – something you do as fast as you can, without too much thinking about it!

It’s also as if they are uncomfortable talking about their successes. That’s when I show them how to see their successes as a story. 

Turning successes into stories allow you to be the storyteller, not the bragger. 

See how much easier this just became? No uncomfortable bragging, just real stories about projects that make you feel successful and strong. Now we can have fun with something that was initially very uncomfortable.

I want you to find a quiet spot and jot down up to 10 projects that you worked on over the last several years where you received praise or were personally pleased with the outcome. Out of the projects you jot down, I want you to pick three that focus on the type of job you want to move into. Your dream job. You will be able to identify these three projects easily now after working through the questions located in my previous blog, Understanding what your dream job really is.

The reason I recommend only focusing on your dream job at this stage of the process is that even if you really, really need a new job, your stories won’t be believable if you have to stretch them to match a job description. And you won’t be a strong contender for the job if your background and passion don’t fit what the hiring manager is looking for.

Why spend your time on jobs like that? Try narrowing in on the jobs you know you’ll love and the companies that have a culture where you’ll be comfortable.

The biggest mistake I have made in my past job searches has been sharing stories during interviews to try to match the job description. Even if the job was not something I wanted to do.

For example, I can do analytical work, but I don’t enjoy it. I’m much more right-brained, and I like being right-brained. I love writing and being creative, along with building relationships with people. So even though I am able to do accounting (past-CPA here!) and run reports, I’d much rather work with words and people.

Where this is leading to is a personal story of mine about a very kind mentor who got me an interview for an analyst position after I had been laid off.  I updated my resume and cover letter to make it sound like I wanted to be an analyst. I got the interview. I shared success stories that were analytical in nature, but they were not authentic. 

I had no passion during the interview, and it was clear to the hiring manager that there were other candidates who loved databases and analytics who were a much better fitted for the job. I was actually relieved when I found out I was out of the running.

Imagine if I had fooled the hiring manager? I’d be doing a job I didn’t enjoy. I would have been miserable! That was not my dream job at all! 

Remember my personal story so that you stay honest to yourself when it comes to identifying those three stories that will help you move to your dream job.

My next blog will be about pulling out interesting facts about your three projects and making those facts into stories that recruiters and hiring managers will remember.

Article 7: Brainstorming Exercise: Remembering project details

Now that you’ve identified your three projects, we will move onto how you can develop these projects into interesting stories through some simple brainstorming.

When I work in person with my clients, I draw three clouds on a sheet of paper.  From there, we walk through a series of questions that help them remember what the project was about and why they still feel so positive about it.

Since I’m not there to brainstorm with you in person, I designed the simple worksheet below that will help you walk through the brainstorming process to remember the three projects and why you are proud of them.

Remember, this is a brainstorming exercise.  Do not judge or justify anything at this stage. There is no right or wrong answer.  Just a little juggling of your long-term memory to enhance your story.

Step 1: Jot down what you remember about the project. How was the team structured? What was the goal? What did you do? Who was the sponsor and what were they like to work with? Anything that can help you remember the details of the project.

Step 2: After you remember the project structure, list five things that still make you feel good about this project. Was it the friendships you developed after working through the endless long nights? Were you or your whole team recognized for your contributions?  Were you able to reduce errors or increase revenue as a result of your efforts?  This step is more about what made you feel good about the project.

Step 3: The final step in this brainstorming exercise is to identify two problems experienced with each project. It’s sometimes best if you can remember problems that were overcome or fixed during the project, but challenges that remain after the project was completed make great stories, too. 

Step 4:  Repeat for your two other projects.

PROJECT NAME

What is it about this project that makes you feel good? What were your successes?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Project Structure

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Two obstacles that you overcame

1.

2.

Your brainstorming results are already starting to set you apart from other jobseekers who are unwilling to go the extra-mile to land them their dream jobs. You’re doing great!

Article 8: Crafting your three stories

We are now ready to put your brainstorming efforts into crafting three acts (beginning, middle, end) that will eventually make up your complete story – great stories that will help you stand out from the other candidates. In addition, your three stories will be the infrastructure for building out your resume, social presence and responses to future interview questions. The good news is that you have everything you need with the brainstorming you just completed.

Complete the below template for each of your three projects. For now, let’s break down the projects into the three acts found in the Basic Three-Act Structure. This will help you stay focused on each section of your story, rather than trying to create the whole story right away.

Don’t worry about making your three acts perfect at this stage. We’ll do that later.

Act 1: The Beginning (Introduce characters and situation. Share the project’s goals.)

Example: I was brought in to drive an international team of communication professionals on a large-scale project that impacted over 4,000 team members. The goal of my communications team was to make sure all team members were kept up to date on the progress with effective and creative communications.

Now it’s your turn. Using the Project Structure from your brainstorming, introduce your story’s cast of characters. Keep the number of characters to no more than three or the recruiter and interviewers won’t be able to follow your story. What was it that you were trying to accomplish?  Why is this story important to who you are? What is the value-add you bring to your dream job? You don’t need to embellish too much as a master storyteller, but do introduce interesting tidbits that will make your story more interesting.

Act 2: The Middle (Share challenges that had to be overcome. What is the most interesting aspect of this story?)

Example: One day, our very seasoned PM left the program – unexpectedly - and our replacement was a sales rep who did not understand that the changes he made on the fly had a downstream impact on my team. We couldn’t stay up with all the changes he was making on a daily basis – and for some unknown reason, he refused to document the changes. My team was threatening to leave the company due to the issues this created for them.

Now it’s your turn: Share one or two of the mini-stories you experienced. What worked, what did not? This is different from stating the challenges you experienced using the CAR methodology, although it appears similar. Rather than sharing your challenges as a step in a process, you are wrapping a story around what you experienced. You are sharing a story so that your recruiter or interviewer can step into your shoes and understand your experience.

Act 3: The End (Tie loose ends up quickly and get out!)

Example: I wish I could say that my team and I were able to resolve the issue quickly, but it took a while. Eventually, I was able to introduce an overly simple change management process that helped him track the changes, allowing my team to know exactly what they needed to communicate. Happily, no one left my team and the PM understood the benefit of tracking changes.

Now it’s your turn:  What wizardly thing did you do to remove the challenge? Don’t be shy. And don’t brag either. Put your great deeds into a story format, and you’ll have the right tone for sharing your brilliance. Some advice on crafting Act 3 of your story is to keep it short and sweet. It might be tempting to share every brilliant thing you did, but keep your ending to one or two of the feel-good items from your brainstorming cloud.

Now let’s see how the three acts work together to craft your story.

I was brought in to drive an international team of communication professionals on a large-scale project that impacted over 4,000 team members. The goal of my communications team was to make sure all team members were kept up to date on the progress with effective and creative communications. One day, our very seasoned PM left the program – unexpectedly - and our replacement was a sales rep who did not understand that the changes he made on the fly had a downstream impact on my team. We couldn’t stay up with all the changes he was making on a daily basis – and for some unknown reason, he refused to document the changes. My team was threatening to leave the company due to the issues this created for them. I wish I could say that my team and I were able to resolve the issue quickly, but it took a while. Eventually, I was able to introduce an overly simple change management process that helped him track the changes, allowing my team to know exactly what they needed to communicate. Happily, no one left my team and the PM eventually understood the benefit of tracking changes.

Do the same as I did for your three acts for each project. How do they read when you put the three acts together? Think about going in and pulling out details that don’t support your dream job. For example, to shorten the above story, I could remove the point about our very seasoned PM leaving our program. It adds color to the story, but it doesn’t necessarily make my story better in revealing my strengths on handling difficult situations.  

One thing to notice is that stories may take a little longer than answering using the CAR methodology. However, stories are remembered, where factual descriptions are not. I think it’s worth a little longer response to engage with your interviewer.

From these three stories, we know how to make you stand out in a crowd and be remembered. Now let’s fold these stories into your resume! 

Article 9: The best resume layout in the world

As you can tell by this title, I believe in this resume layout. Not only does the layout allow the recruiter to find information quickly, the content is solidly based on your stories. Blending this resume layout with your stories creates a resume that will put you far ahead of your competition. Just ask my clients who have used it with their stories. It works!

Notice the larger fonts and italics scattered throughout the resume.  These nuances help the recruiter when they spend their six seconds reviewing your resume. Also, if you need to change the borders/indents for certain sections to make them more attractive, definitely do that. But always allow white space on your resume so it’s easy to read.

Name

Email Address

Phone Number

Profile

Ø  15+ years demonstrated ability in achieving sustainable and effective global internal and external executive and employee communications in global, complex, dynamic and results-oriented organizations.

Ø  Senior Executive Communications Leader, supporting executives with speaker opportunities, media and investor briefings, presentations, town halls, social media, employee communications and organizational changes.

                                                      <add additional bullets, using stories to guide relevant content for your dream job>

Education (Do not add year attended or graduated)

                                       School                                                                     Degree                                                                

                         School                                                                    Degree

                                                                                                           <page break>

Relevant Experience

Company X                                                                                                       September 2013 – Present

Senior Executive Communications Manager

Engage and execute strategic communications for Chief Executive Officer and her staff, supporting ten global, integrated, cross-functional organizations.

• Identify and coordinate critical communications and change campaigns, along with documenting integrated communication plans.
• Responsible for internal and external executive communications, employee engagement, informational videos, all-hands presentations, intranets, posters, scripts, decks and various social media platforms. 
• Coordinate corporate events, celebrations and town halls, including recent global celebration for retirement of senior executive.
• Quickly engaged and ramped communications program in telecommunications environment.  

                                       <add additional related experience, using stories to guide relevant content for your dream job>

                                                                                                           <page break>

   Related Training & Certificates

Course Name                                                       Sponsoring Organization

Certificate Name                                                  Sponsoring Organization

Recognitions

Title of Recognition                                              Company

Title of Recognition                                              Company

                                                                                                         <page break>

Related Published Works

Ø                   Name of publication, Name of publisher

        Brief description of publication (url)

Ø                  Name of publication, Name of publisher

        Brief description of publication (url)

Ø                  Name of publication, Name of publisher

        Brief description of publication (url)

Article 10: Crafting your resume profile so that your brilliance pops off the page!

I’ve been told time and again that my resume allows recruiters to immediately see my value-add when it comes to my communications experience. I do this with my front page of my resume where I share my “profile” through short bullets of who I am. 

What this front-page section does is allow the recruiter to immediately know if I have the experience and skills they need for the particular job they are trying to fill. You won’t be surprised to learn that I crafted this first section of my resume with my three stories, all which fully support my dream job.

For example, using the example story from before, I can identify four items that are perfect for my profile.

I was brought in to drive an international team of communication professionals on a large-scale project that impacted over 4,000 team members. The goal of my communications team was to make sure all team members were kept up to date on the progress with effective and creative communications. One day, our very seasoned PM left the program – unexpectedly - and our replacement was a sales rep who did not understand that the changes he made on the fly had a downstream impact on my team. We couldn’t stay up with all the changes he was making on a daily basis – and for some unknown reason, he refused to document the changes. My team was threatening to leave the company due to the issues this created for them. I wish I could say that my team and I were able to resolve the issue quickly, but it took a while. Eventually, I was able to introduce an overly simple change management process that helped him track the changes, allowing my team to know exactly what they needed to communicate. Happily, no one left my team and the PM eventually understood the benefit of tracking changes.

•         Drive large-scale projects that impact thousands of employees.

•         Manage global communication teams on large-scale initiatives.

•         Collaborate and work as part of a team, while also leading.

•         Resolve conflicts, never giving up even when there are roadblocks and setbacks.

Now I want you to go back to your stories, and pull your “personality” from your stories, showing your qualities and skills you have that make you a great candidate for your dream job. List out as many as you can find to begin with. Don’t judge anything at this stage, just collect bullets that might be used in your profile.

You can see now why we built these stories around your dream job and not just what you have done in the past, as the CAR methodology has a tendency to do. 

Another great trick to building a strong profile is to do a search on your dream job title. From those job descriptions, you can see what traits and experiences are important to the hiring team. Go ahead and grab a few of these items that may be missing from your profile.

The final step in crafting the profile section of your resume is to see what bullets can be combined or perhaps deleted. I’m going to share a few of my profile bullets to give you an idea of how this can look:

ü  15+ years demonstrated ability in achieving sustainable and effective global internal and external executive and employee communications in global, complex, dynamic and results-oriented organizations.

ü  Senior Executive Communications Leader, supporting executives with speaker opportunities, media and investor briefings, presentations, town halls, social media, employee communications and organizational changes.

ü  Drive comprehensive internal communications strategy and provide day-to-day support for key employee communications initiatives across multi-functional organizations.

ü  Outstanding analytical, interpersonal, and written and oral communication skills, producing clear and influential communications for broad and diverse audiences.

These four bullets tell a recruiter a lot about me, very quickly. You’ll notice, they are not about the projects I worked on, but what I am capable of doing.  They answer the question for the recruiter: Can she do the job? 

In addition, in order to assist the recruiter in understanding that I can do the job (i.e., my dream job!), I will pick up key words from the job posting and add them to my profile. This solidifies my qualifications, which is always a good thing.

How many bullets you have under your profile will depend on the job you are applying for.  Too many, and the recruiter will get lost in the black ink on the page. Too little, and the recruiter won’t see your value-add. I would suggest at least six, but no more than ten. You can combine the shorter bullets into other bullets to get your number under control.

In my next article, we will be discussing ways to use your stories to craft your Job Experience section of your resume.