This month’s O Magazine offers a 4-Step Guide to Discovering Who You’re Meant to Be in which Step 2 comes from well-known lifestyle/career coach and author Barbara Sher [UPDATE: Sher passed away in 2020]. She calls this exercise “a new twist on something [she] call[s] the Self-Correcting Life Scenario.” In … Continue reading
Category Archives: Storytelling and Career
Narratives During Career Change Help Us Try Out Possible Selves
If you’re interested in the connection between story and career, Herminia Ibarra is a name you need to know. I first encountered her well-known Harvard Business Review article (Ibarra, H. & Lineback, L.K. [2005] “What’s Your Story?” Harvard Business Review, January, 83 [1]: 64-71) during my dissertation research and referred … Continue reading
Unearthing Your Career Story
I am often beyond surprised by which of my blog posts gets attention and resonates with readers. My Saturday post about the Earth’s stories got some mini-buzz. But who would ever think of connecting geology with one’s career story? Apparently my colleague Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter. She has written a brilliant post … Continue reading
Stories Show Job-Seekers Care about their Job History
Gerrit Hall’s article, The Relevance of Storytelling in Your Job Search, was not exactly epiphanic for someone like me who has been immersed in job-search storytelling for several years now. But Hall did mention a rationale for job-interview storytelling that was new to me. Job-seekers who respond in story form … Continue reading
Job-Search Storytelling Workbook Is Here!
I have met my self-imposed deadline to complete Tell Me MORE About Yourself: A Workbook to Develop Better Job-Search Communication through Storytelling by today. (The plan was to offer it by the end of summer; I settled for the first day of fall.) You can check out the table of … Continue reading
Q&A with a Story Guru: Jane Freese: Storytelling Helps Job-Seekers Create a Full Picture of Who They Are to Employers
See a photo of Jane, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3. Q&A with Jane Freese, Question 4: Q: You recently held your first Telling About Yourself workshop. How did it go, and to what extent will you tweak it for the next time? A: … Continue reading
Q&A with a Story Guru: Jane Freese: Storytelling is a Wonderful Tool for Making Job Applicants Memorable
See a photo of Jane, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2. Q&A with Jane Freese, Question 3: Q: Your discovery of applied storytelling for business and job search sounds a lot like mine in that it came about during an academic program. Can you tell that … Continue reading
Q&A with a Story Guru: Jane Freese: The Stories We Tell about Ourselves Guide Our Course through Life
See a photo of Jane, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A. Q&A with Jane Freese, Question 2: Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it? A: I became involved in story through a storytelling course … Continue reading
Q&A with a Story Guru: Jane Freese: Emblematic Moments Lend Themselves to Personal Storytelling in Job Interviews
I’m so happy to have a new Q&A to run this week. I believe I encountered Jane Freese during my usual wanderings and research for blog content and was thrilled to find yet another kindred spirit working with storytelling and career/job search. I am most excited to have her join … Continue reading
New Job Interviewing Book Features Chapter on Telling Stories
Eric Kramer, whose specialty is presentation interviews, has just published a huge, comprehensive interviewing book, Active Interviewing. The book offers a full chapter, “Tell Stories That Engage and Persuade.” He notes that stories in interviews should have a plot, theme, and dramatic tension. The listener of a story in a … Continue reading