Want to know what a certain job is like? Listen to the story of someone who’s in that job. Goldman Sachs makes that possible with videos of what various aspects of working for the organization are like. Text stories also are available.
Idol Stories
I admit that American Idol is a guilty pleasure of mine. The Season 7 auditions are just about over; Hollywood week is up next at this writing, and I am willing to wager that those who will do well once viewers start voting will be the ones whose stories have been told.
Contestants voted off early often complain that they didn’t get camera time during the audition period, that America didn’t get to know their stories. They are right. Mere singing talent rarely results in success on AI; it’s the story that America votes for.
How to Convey YOU in a Job Search
A blog entry that captures the need for telling your story in the job search is Chris Pearson’s The Only Thing on Your Resume that Matters to a Smart Person. Pearson writes:
Intelligent people really don’t care what’s on your resume. In fact, intelligent people don’t really give a damn about formal interviews, resumes, or anything of that sort. Sure, your portfolio matters, but even that’s secondary to the number one, be all, end all factor. It’s the one thing that matters above all else to any truly smart person with whom you’ll ever do business. What is it?
It’s you. It’s everything about your character. It’s every emotion you represent. It’s the reflection of your passions on your character. It’s how you represent yourself – verbally, physically, mentally, and socially.
It’s you.
Really good, really smart people actively seek out those with whom they share an intrinsic kinship. The capitalists among them are constantly on the lookout for those who stand head and shoulders above the crowd not only because of everything they represent now, but also because of everything that they could represent.
Just like Major League Baseball scouts judge talent on the basis of perceived potential, intelligent people rate others with the future in mind. They only basis they have for determining your future worth is your current character.
What really matters for YOU: No matter who you are or what you’re doing, people are going to try to classify you, to try and lump you into some kind of quantifiable group. While I think it sucks, the fact is, it’s human nature. We use devices like this to help us understand things; otherwise, we’d spend all our time running around, trying to catch up with all the anomalies and inconsistencies.
So, how can you get across you and your story in the job search? I am still in quest of a resume that tells the job seeker’s story. The blog as a resume, as discussed in previous entries is one way to do it. Cover letters, I feel, can tell more of a story than resumes, and of course, you have an opportunity to tell your story in interviews – but you have to make it to the interview first. I see two opposite forces pulling at the recruitment and employment scene – technology’s influence in standardization of information that employers use to select candidates, as opposed to the need for the human touch and connection that Pearson writes about. With more recruiters searching social-media sites for candidates, these venues seem well positioned as a place to convey YOU and tell your story through your profile. Tell it well and avoid digital dirt! Perhaps revealing, employer-appealing stories will be told in some as-yet-unknown form that these two forces converge.
Six-Word Stories
I want to post more soon about the amazing treasures I stumbled upon at Smith Magazine, but in the meantime, this book of 6-word memoirs. Not Quite What I Was Planning, is being released today.
From the Smith Web site:
[The book] collects almost 1,000 six-word memoirs, including additions from many celebrities including Stephen Colbert, Jane Goodall, Dave Eggers, and more.
Surprisingly addictive, Not Quite is both a moving peek at the minutia of humanity and the most literary toilet reading you’ll ever find.
Storytelling Organization Workshops 2008
STORI stands for STorytelling ORganization Institute, a provider of
workshops for consultants, their clients and researchers.
S T O R I I N S T I T U T E
TWO WORKSHOPS TO CHOOSE FROM in 2008
2008 STORY NOTICING WORKSHOP FOR RESEARCHERS – PLACE: Holiday Inn (Independence Mall) – Historic District in Philadelphia, PA. Conference cost: $110 for faculty, $75 for graduate students. Date: March 26th (Wed) Time: 9AM to 6PM (price includes breakfast and lunch). We invite scholars in the field of narrative and story to a workshop for Ph.D. students, faculty, and researchers. STORI Institute scholars, who have written books and journal articles on story noticing, living story, and differences among beginning, middle, end (BME) narratives and the more dynamic qualities of story complexity in living systems will present, provide you with qualitative research protocols, and examples. If asked, we will assist you in developing your research projects. You will develop networks with other scholars, getting input on your projects. You are encouraged to attend the Standing Conference for Management & Organization Inquiry* (sc’MOI) that runs from Thurs to Saturday (Mar 27 to 29th, 8Am to 6PM). Pricing for sc’MOI is an additional cost of $300 for faculty and $100 for Ph.D. students. Details on deadlines for registration and manuscript submission to proceedings.
STORY NOTICING WORKSHOP FOR CONSULTANTS AND THEIR CLIENTS – PLACE: Holiday Inn (Independence Mall) – Historic District in Philadelphia, PA.; Cost: $1,150 ($975 per person for groups of two or more from the same organization); Dates: March 30 and 31st (Sun & Mon, 9:30 AM to 6PM); In this highly interactive workshop consultants and their clients will collaborate with leading STORI scholars to take a deeper and broader look at story noticing in organizations. We will have workshop exercises and modules including:
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- Story Listening – How really listening to the stories of others reveals layers of knowledge that normally pass us by, and how to work with them using what we call storymaker methodologies
- Story Aliveness – How to notice stories that are living in human systems, yet taken-for-granted in story complexity.
- Story Action – How story action can become the engine of creative integral-strategy development and performance improvement for your organization to make it more polyphonic (many-voiced)
- Story Attunement – How the stories that matter are often spontaneous, abbreviated, be the least polished, yet can have the most transformational impact once restorying processes are attuned
- Story Ethics – How to attest to the organization’s story ethics and the story rights of its stakeholders (including the integral methods)
You will apply these story noticing ideas to your own organization and move you far beyond the customary approaches of using stories as just a stump speech or focus-group device. And you will have an opportunity to experience these story noticing concepts – drawn from research and practice, in our original workshop exercises, and work with us to apply them to your own setting.
During the consultants and their clients workshop participants will…
1. Work with consultants and their clients, in pre-workshop, in the weeks leading up to the event, to ascertain specific interests and needs in story noticing.
2. Identify current organizational challenges that will benefit from a story noticing approach during a pre-conference call with one of the STORI Institute consultants
3. Assess your story-based communication and story noticing competencies
4. Work with methods for noticing, gathering and eliciting stories in your organization
5. Practice analyzing stories noticed to better understand what people are experiencing in your organization
6. Develop a story action plan for your organization
7. Participate in a coaching session with STORI Institute consultants and their clients.
For more information on the next workshop and to reserve your place contact David Boje.
Phone: 575-532-1693 or SKYPE ‘davidboje’ – Let’s talk instead of email; storytelling is an oral way
Gargiulo Interviewed about the Art of Story Telling
JD Messinger interviewed storytelling guru Terrence Gargiulo on Global Evolution™ CNN Radio about the Art of Story Telling (links below).
Messinger’s words:
If we pause and think about it, almost everyday and in every conversation, we tell stories. Why do we do that? What is it about a story that we find engaging or memorable? My guest this week is a master in communications and applies his essence in a very unique and powerful way – teaching organizational communications through the art of story telling. Terrence Gargiulo helps us understand the essence of communicating through stories – how we subconsciously select stories, the function of stories, and the steps to become a better story teller and more effective communicator.
Here are some of the questions addressed in this show:
- How do stories affect us?
- What is the meaning and magic behind stories?
- How does it relate to a conductor in an orchestra?
- How and why do they touch us?
- Finding meaning, finding insights – power of multiplicity of experiences coexisting in a moment.
- What is the DNA of effective communications?
Smithsonian Storytelling Weekend 2008
I won’t be going to the Smithsonian storytelling weekend this year, but I’m sure it will be excellent as usual.
There will be a new Thursday evening session on May 8, “Organizational Storytelling 101.” Svend-Erik Engh and Steve Denning will cover the basics of organizational storytelling.
The theme of the sessions on Friday (and Saturday) will be storytelling and innovation. Speakers will include Dorothy Leonard, emerita professor of Harvard Business School and author of “Deep Smarts: How to Cultivate and Transfer Enduring Business Wisdom”; Linda Coffman will discuss how storytelling has been used at Procter & Gamble. Claudia L’Amoreaux, Education Community Developer for Linden Lab, will share examples of organizations innovating in the new storyspace of Second Life. What if you discovered an entirely new world where you could tell stories in ways you’ve never done before? How might it change you? What stories would you tell?
The Saturday portion of the event is put on by the Golden Fleece group, and details are forthcoming.
To find out more go here.
Recruiting Case Histories
In a convergence between storytelling and career, Filcro Media Staffing offers case histories of successful search assignments.
The Story of Stuff
The Story of Stuff tells the story of “the material economy.” The story part is a bit overshadowed by preachiness, but the originator, Annie Leonard, delivers an important environmental message.
From The Story of Stuff Web site:
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
Use Your Blog as a Resume: Part II
Editor’s note: This article is the second of two parts.
Part I discusses the pros and cons of using a blog as a resume.
If you’ve decided you’d like to experiment with using a blog as a resume, consider these tips:
Include elements you can’t include in a traditional paper resume. Linked from his blog, The Bryper Blog, social media blogger Bryan Person offers what he has coined his Social Media Resume and notes that the resume include items not found in a conventional resume, such as:
(another social bookmarking site)
A commenter to Person’s blog further suggested an audio or video interview with one of your references as a valuable Social Media Resume component. Others have suggested case studies, links to must-read blogs, and links to buzz and testimonials about the blogger.
Tell the world who you are and what you want to do. “Once you have a clear idea of who you are and what you want to do, you can start to tell the universe and attract the people who you would like to work with, talk their language and sell your future,” writes Blogging for Beginners author Margaret Stead, who has been
advising clients to blog their resumes since 2002. Consider including such elements as a bio page and/or an About Me page in your blog. Rich Page has both
(see bio), and his
About Me page particularly conveys — in a FAQ format — a sense of who he is.
“NahLiz” has also successfully blogged her “who am I” story, along with her answers to oft-asked employer questions, “What motivates you?” and “Why should we hire you?”
Establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. Be purposeful and specific in choosing what you will blog about. Projecting confident expertise and current commentary about emerging trends can get you noticed by employers in your field. “When I started my blog, I knew I loved marketing but it helped me evolve towards specific topics I closely identify with (such as customer evangelism and community marketing)…” writes Mario Sundar on his blog Marketing Nirvana. “Blogging, I realized was a great way to effectively share thoughts, energize, and converse …” Sundar assures readers that blogging with purpose will deliver your “circle of interest,” the audience for your blog to you. Interviewing leading experts in your field and blogging about them will also raise your profile, notes Lorelle VanFossen on her blog,
Lorelle on WordPress.
Tell specific employers how much you want to work for them, as Carolynn Duncan did in her blog when she had her heart set on working for Provo Labs and blogged her way into a job with Why
Provo Labs Is Hiring Carolynn Duncan. She blogged about why the company excited her so much and what kinds of problems she could solve for them. (She got the job but is now working elsewhere). Consider using your blog to express your passion for working for your dream employer.
Tell the world you’re looking for a job as Christian Crumlish did in an April 2005 blog entry. The total of his three posts became a mini-narrative of searching for the job, culminating with his blog entry on his attainment of the new job two months later.
(See my critique of his postings.) He did a great job of employing classic networking techniques — he didn’t ask for a job; he asked for help and was specifically described about how readers could assist him.
I asked him to what extent he felt posting on his blog helped him obtain his new job. His response: It helped, I think, although it did not directly lead to the job I ended up taking. That came from a craigslist ad I responded to. I do think that my blog presence and my visibility (Googlability) was a factor in getting my new job, as my firm is looking to get its name out among the web savvy audience and they feel I can help with that. I’m very happy I put my job search into the public, because I think it strengthened my network. A lot of
people gave me advice or passed along leads or sent my resume to their
recruiters/HR people.
Update your blog regularly. Frequent blogging is key to gaining attention, remaining visible, and being seen as current on your topic.
Tell interesting stories about projects you’re working on. A blog gives you far more latitude than a resume to tell a compelling and detailed story about the kinds of projects you would normally list on your resume. Writers are consistently exhorted, “Show, don’t tell.” Resumes are about telling, while blogs are about showing, and here’s an awesome (and successful) example, posted by Matt Coddington on his blog, MattCoddongton.com.
Because of my age and lack of formal experience in the industry, I would like to present you with a case study of my work rather than a conventional resume. This case study will be of my most recent website. It is a blog in the online business niche that is only 4 months old yet has already become an authority in the field and gained widespread recognition: Net Business Blog.
Bob Sutton, a commenter on one of the blogs discussed in Part I of this article suggests the kinds of questions a reader have in mind and to which a blogger can provide answers by detailing professional accomplishments: “What can I conclude about the writer’s critical faculties? Are his judgment or perspective distinctive or valuable to me? Does he wield influence? What does his use of language or other cultural tools say about him? How does he handle spontaneity?” Adds Henry Copeland on BlogAds: “Other important factors get recorded: do we play well with the other children in our class? do we share credit? do we collaborate? listen? articulate? admit mistakes? grow?”
Be careful about blogging while employed. While your blog is a great medium to describe your work and accomplishments, some employers have policies that prohibit employees from revealing anything that goes on in the organization. Be sure you know your employer’s rules before blogging about inner workings of the firm.
Be professional. Yes, you can have more freedom of expression in a blog and write more conversationally than in a resume, but be sure to represent yourself in your blog the way you would truly like to be seen by employers. As Joshua Porter writes in his
blog, Bokardo referenced in
Part I of this article), “Your blog is serious business. It has the power to completely sway someone’s opinion about you.” Echoes VanFossen, “Your blog shows the world what kind of employee or consultant you are.”
Write well! If your writing is not engaging or if faulty grammar, spelling, and punctuation make your blog entries hard to read, your blog may do more harm than good in your effort to get yourself employed. Porter notes that blog readers care more about ideas than perfect writing. I see many flaws in the writing of those who’ve succeeded in getting jobs through their blogs, so I suspect Porter is correct. But it’s also quite possible to cross a line into writing that is simply unreadable.
Make your blog archive a living archive. Past entries in your blog don’t have to remain static. You can go back and make revisions, as well as update previous material to keep it fresh. Just as it’s advisable to keep your resume updated, keeping your blog current propels you to the cutting edge.
Syndicate your blog. Syndicating your blog is only indirectly a way to use it as a resume and relates more to distribution than content. (See an explanation of RSS, a software commonly used to syndicate blog content.) Syndication ensures that more people have access to your blog than if you didn’t syndicate. The better known you and your blog become, the more likely you might be sought out for a job opportunity. Syndicating your blog is a bit analogous to using a resume-blasting service to disseminate your resume, except that syndicating is much less annoying to recipients, who can choose whether to subscribe to your content. A variation on syndicating is providing a feature on your blog in which readers can receive an e-mail notification of a
new posting. Also include the Web address of your blog on your business cards and e-mails and spread the word about it in networking situations.
Take advantage of the networking benefits of blogging. Popular blogs attract many comments, and your blog can become a community, a continuing conversation. Visitors to your blog can become valuable members of your network and can very quickly discover more about you than the average in-person network contact, as Jason Kottke notes on BlogAds: “Anyone
who meets me online — including possible friends, fellow Web design enthusiasts, or potential employers — has access to 4+ years of my thoughts before they even have to strike up a conversation. That’s damn powerful stuff.”
Continuing to engage your fans with content and converse with them through comments is a bit like handing out your resume in a social situation. While not every commenter will agree with you, many comments to your blog serve as endorsements and testimonials. Employers will notice that you are talked about. (Be sure to comment on the blogs of others to enhance this effect.)
Final Thoughts
It’s likely that job-seekers are just beginning to scratch the surface of the resumes-as-blogs concept. With some blogger care and creativity, this emerging form of job-search communication will continue to evolve.
Examples of blogs-as-resumes and resumes-as-blogs
Resources
Blog Article: 5 steps to let your dream job find you
Blog article: Leveraging Your Site to Land That Dream Job
Blog article: Blogging Yourself Into a Job: Is Your Blog Your Resume?
Blog article: Blogging to a Job
Blog article: 5 Steps to Making Your Blog Your Resume
Blog for Jobs: A showcase for those who blog for jobs.
ResumeBlog™: A service for members of SPM Jobs, a list of experienced software and Internet product managers and marketing and business professionals
Read Part I of this article for pros and cons of using a blog as a resume.