A few months ago, graduate student Joseph Palmisano asked me to be a subject-matter expert for his master’s-degree project, an online, narrative-based career tool. In fact, it has been my involvement with Joseph’s project that has inspired this current series. He turned me on to Lisa Severy, whose similar project … Continue reading
Category Archives: Storytelling and Career
Narrative Career Intervention Results in Less Career Indecision: Life-Story Interventions that Guide Career Choice, Part 3
As part of my exploration of life-story-based career interventions, I came across an academic paper, “Analysis of an Online Career Narrative Intervention: ‘What’s My Story?’” by Lisa Severy, director of career services at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who created a narrative online intervention as part of her dissertation project. … Continue reading
“Présumé™” Offers Story Elements and Gets Employer’s Attention
The first time I came across Hanna Phan’s presentation resume, or Présumé™, I admired it as terribly clever and creative but decided against writing about it because it doesn’t truly tell a story. But the next time the Présumé™ came over my virtual transom (at right is a slide from … Continue reading
Storytelling Cited as Essential Job-Seeker Skill
Career columnist Liz Ryan, long a supporter of storytelling in the job search, has included storytelling on a list of five new skills job-seekers need: “I have a strong work ethic and get along with all kinds of people” is about as compelling as “I had cereal for breakfast” — … Continue reading
Life Story, Archetypes, and Symbols: Life-Story Interventions that Guide Career Choice, Part 2
Continuing to explore some recent encounters with ways of using life story to make career choices … “… [T]o view your life as ‘nothing but the facts” is to miss an opportunity to for a marvelous adventure,” writes Laurence G. Boldt in Zen and The Art of Making A Living, … Continue reading
Life-Story Interventions that Guide Career Choice, Part 1
I write a lot about using story in the job search, but narrative is also useful in figuring out what career to pursue. I’ve experienced a recent convergence of exposure to several interventions — both online and offline — that ask users to create their life stories as a way … Continue reading
Job-Search Storytelling: Brand Story and Interview-Story Formula
A couple of recent articles by career practitioners have focused on storytelling. My colleague Sharon Graham continues her excellent series on career storytelling with Advancing your career through effective storytelling (see others in the series here). Sharon focuses on developing your personal career branding story, a “central story [that is] … Continue reading
#JobActionDay11: A Start-Up Story of Triumphing Over Job Loss
Today (11-07-11) is Job Action Day 2011, the fourth annual such event. This year’s theme is: “Skill Up, Start Up, Speak Up.” The “Start Up” aspect of the theme refers not only to tackling unemployment during the recession by starting a small business, but also developing a whole new mindset … Continue reading
Celebrating a New Kind of Storied Career
When I first read this article about funeral celebrants, I didn’t get what the big deal was. It talked about “a growing trend at funerals: celebrants, whose aim is to make funerals more personal and meaningful while officiating the services.” It seemed to me that part of funeral officiants’ role … Continue reading
Appreciative Inquiry for Job Search
Last week, I attended a workshop on Appreciative Inquiry, which I thought would be a little more focused than it was on using AI in the job search. Appreciative Inquiry is not specifically a storytelling tool (and actually not a tool at all, but “a way of being and seeing,” … Continue reading