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 to identify themes that may guide them in choosing a career, or choosing their next career move. I’d like to devote this and several upcoming blog posts to these narrative interventions.
The first comes from my recent project to identify the 15 most indispensable career books for A Storied Career’s parent site, Quintessential Careers. I found two books that include large chapters on life-story creation.
One is Work with Passion by Nancy Anderson. Her chapter, “Write Your Life Story,” asks readers to write their autobiographies, preceded by some warm-up exercises.
Anderson emphasizes writing the autobiography over, say, speaking it into a tape recorder, because writing uses all the senses and, she contends, makes “thoughts, feelings, and experiences more real.”
The pre-autobiography warm-up exercises include:
- How I See Myself
- How Others See Me
- My Balanced Self
In each of these exercises in turn, users answer a series of questions, some of which are listed here:
How I See Myself
- Do I see myself as unique or special?
- How do I feel about my personality?
- Do I like what I see in the mirror?
- Do I like my hopes, thoughts, goals, aspirations?
- Do I appreciate all the good things I do and say each day?
- Do I do my work well?
- What makes me angry?
- What makes me happy?
- What makes me sad?
- What makes me feel powerless?
- If I were character in a novel, who would I be, and what would the story’s theme be?
How Others See Me
- What picture do others have of me?
- Is that picture based on what they’ve told me or what I think they think of me?
- Who likes to be around me?
- Who avoids me?
- Do people see me as optimistic, depressed, cautious, adventurous, funny, competent?
- Do people trust me?
- Do they think I’m sincere?
- Do they tell me how they think and feel about me?
My Balanced Self (when all parts of one’s personality form a unified whole)
- Is my balanced self different from how I see myself and other people see me?
- What would I change so I am consistent in words deeds and actions?
- What similarities are there between the balanced me and person I am now?
- What action do I need to take to bring balance to my life?
The autobiography begins, not surprisingly, with earliest memories and follows this outline:
-
- Parents and grandparents
- Birth through junior high school
- Preschool years
- Early socialization
- Junior high school
-
- Senior high school, college, life in my 20s
- The time of choice
- Young adulthood
-
- Life as an adult
- My life today
Anderson provides questions as prompts for each of these topics. She also offers several sample stories. She does not provide much analysis or tools for the user to analyze his or her own autobiography, but she asserts that the autobiography-writing process provides clarity. Presumably, it also serves as the foundation for much of the rest of the book.