I'm a great believer in the power of stories and metaphors as a communication medium. For marketing and job search, stories are an essential tool for illustrating your skills and your personality, as well as your experience, and effectively communicating your personal brand.
The main problem, though, is that many candidates struggle to make their stories engaging. Just how do you make the everyday minutiae of your job into a compelling tale that will keep the recruiter listening?
Over at A Storied Career, Kathy Hansen has created a great post about achieving exactly that. Job search is effectively a form of marketing, and Kathy's post takes as it's starting point an ebook on marketing. The keys to a persuasive story are to build
- urgency - give the listener a reason to keep listening; address their priorities.
- impact - how will the expertise you are discussing help th listener?
- reputation - how does the story enhance your credibility?
The aim is not just to tell people what you hav done: you have to allow your potential employer to experience what it would be like to have you working for them. This is especially the case if you are changing careers or your experienc dos not fit the 'typical' profile for the role you are applying for: you need to show the recrui5er how the experience you do have will help you in the role.
