Storied Networking Advice Endures

Continuing to look back four years ago to the first year of A Storied Career while I finalize my e-book, Storied Careers and prepare for hosting a teleseminar on 09-09-09. It’s interesting to look back at that first year. My entries were a lot shorter (I could learn from my more concise self) and rather self-conscious. I talked a lot about my PhD program and blogging as a subset of storytelling. I’m updating a few of my first-year entries and will resume new entries soon.

Even in this blog’s first year, 2005, an article I cited by, Penelope Trunk was two years old. But its storied advice about networking — telling your story when you meet someone new still hold up six years after Penelope wrote it. In fact, as I wrote about here, Marcos Salazar gave much the same advice just a month or so ago:

“When someone asks ‘What do you do?’ a one-word answer will put your career on ice. You need to have a story. When you want to establish a connection with someone, a story provides social glue.

“When you want to impress someone, a story is more memorable than a list of achievements.”

She goes on to tell a great story of the story she told in a successful job interview.