Here are some recent dispatches from the world of story in job search and career.
I have to appreciate the language at Intern Sushi, a new site that “gives 
interns and companies a multimedia platform to tell their stories.” That platform consists of “one-minute videos and digital profiles, interns and employers alike are put into the spotlight.” The site goes on:
After all, human history is a series of stories well told and the key to unlocking one’s career potential is the ability to create, shape and communicate his or her story.
Here’s a case, though, like so many others, in which “tell their stories” really just means “provide a glimpse of their personalities.” I watched several of the videos, and, as engaging as they might be, they mostly don’t tell stories. A few have story elements. This one was probably the most storied example I saw.
I’ve written many times in this space about storied resumes and resume-substitutes (Intern Sushi says, “Many have attempted to spice [the resume] up but no one has been bold enough to throw it out,” which is, of course, untrue, as many organizations have attempted to throw out the resume.) I’ve also written about video resumes — storied or not — and the problems inherent in them — time-consuming to watch, hard for employers to store, can’t be entered into employers’ ubiquitous Applicant Tracking Systems.
Still, I admire the story intentions of Intern Sushi. Its approach may also be more successful than some others I’ve seen because the site is skewed toward creative/glamorous fields like film, television, sports, music, fashion, advertising/pr, web tech, publishing, theatre, and art.
A post on Notes From the Job Search by blogger “Steve” focuses in part on a variation on two familiar story formulas useful in job interviews and elsewhere in the job search — Situation –> Action –> Result (SAR) and Problem –> Action –> Result (PAR); in fact, Steve combines the two for Situation –> Problem –> Action –> Result (SPAR).
But then, Steve introduces the acronym LOTS, which he picked up from this recent Fast Company article. LOTS stands for Language of the Senses. “When telling a story, share with us what you see, smell, feel, taste, and hear,” the Fast Company article advises. “When you trigger a sense in someone, you bring them into the story with you.” (Story luminary Annette Simmons is also big on sensory detail, as she describes in this short post.)
Steve then goes on to give before-and-after examples of a SPAR story that could be used as an interview response. Now, I would argue that his “after” example is more about senses than it is rich in sensory detail. But the point — to enrich stories with sensory detail — is still a good one.
Colleague Willie Franzen believes one of the biggest mistakes job-seekers make is to “lead with the job.” Says Franzen:
You go to the job board and you find a job. It’s medieval. If you don’t understand what the company is and what they do, the job doesn’t have meaning. It’s just a piece of a puzzle. You have this little piece but you don’t understand the context on how it fits in.
In other words, learn a company’s story as you’re considering whether to work there.
Oscar Del Santo’s Storytelling and Your Personal Brand suffers from a problem endemic to this type of article. It tells us what a great idea it is to integrate storytelling into personal branding — “There are … great benefits to be derived by incorporating storytelling into personal branding strategies for individuals of all walks of life” — but never shows us how to do so or gives any examples. Del Santo offers:
In a remarkably clever and practical way, storytelling is a wonderful addition to any deserving CV or résumé. Indeed, lack of storytelling is one of the hurdles to establish a credible personal brand on that ever-important document. When we merely list a number of functions, skills or achievements without weaving and integrating all those multifarious elements into a coherent narrative, headhunters and employers are left with the task of making sense of what at first glance is just another disjointed collection of skills and fragments of personal history amongst many; and that can heavily impinge on our chances of making an impact. The clever use of storytelling presents both our talents and our legitimate aspirations on a silver platter to potential employers: without doubt this is of great help to simplify the recruiting process and increase our chances of getting hired.
Wonderful. But how do you do that? What does it look like? Show us an example of how to make storytelling a “wonderful addition to any deserving CV or résumé.”
Luke Roney’s 5 Reasons You Should Keep a Job Journal skips a several 
reasons I think are important. While Roney notes that journaling your job is helpful to prepare for performance evaluations, he doesn’t mention the value of journaling for making a case to the boss for a raise or promotion. Perhaps the most important reason to keep this kind of record is so you have great items for your resume and interviews when you go after your next job.
Naturally, journaling in story form is an excellent idea!
Finally, for those who follow career and job-search applications of story, Laura Raines’s article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution offers not much that’s new. Spinning off Mark Satterfield’s book Unique Sales Stories: How to Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From the Competition and Close More Sales Through the Power of Story, Raines does provide a few tips for story technique.