Tell Me About Yourself

Twenty years ago or so, a Profile or Qualifications Summary section was somewhat unusual on a resume. Career experts trace the use of summaries and profiles, which include information about candidates’ qualities beyond their credentials, to the publication of the late Yana Parker’s The Damn Good Resume Guide in 1983. Today they are seen as an important resume element, consisting of 4-5 bullet points that encapsulate your top selling points.

So, a typical Profile or Summary section might consist of these items:

• Bullet point summarizing your professional identity in a nutshell. Tells the story of who you are.
• Bullet point addressing interpersonal communication skills and optionally including any applicable language skills. Tells the story of how well you communicate.
• One or more bullet points addressing key job-specific skills, ideally supported by stories, quotes from employers, or quantification.
• A bullet point addressing computer/technical skills.
• Optional bullet points addressing relocation, willingness to travel, work eligibility, or other contingencies, if applicable.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

• Quantify. Employers love numbers. Atlanta-based resume writer Gayle Oliver refers to these numbers as “performance metrics,” for example:
  • Increased sales by 50 percent over the previous year.
  • Produced total meal sales 20 percent higher than those of the other servers in the restaurant.
  • Supervised staff of 25.
  • Served a customer base of 150, the largest on firm’s customer-service team.

• Use superlatives. As Donald Asher notes in his excellent resume reference for college students, From College to Career, you can impress employers with words such as “first,” “only,” “best,” “most,” and “highest.”


• Think about the critical success factors for the type of position you are targeting, advises Oliver. Tell a story of what it looks like to succeed in this kind of position. Brainstorm stories of how past employers defined you as successful.

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• Humanize and personalize your resume. The trend in resumes has been to eschew personal information and interests. But this type of human-interest information can work for you as long as you relate it to professional skills. It also helps to reveal more of your story to the employer and portrays you as someone he or she would like to get to know better. For their book, Insider’s Guide to Finding a Job, Shelly Goldman and Wendy Enelow interviewed 66 top corporate human-resources executives, recruiters, hiring managers, and career experts, among them Bill Welsh of Equinox Fitness, who believes that personal information on a resume is important and that “the more he knows about someone, the more informed his hiring decision will be.” Revelation of personal interests and affiliations can indicate cultural fit with the prospective employer, create a bond with an interviewer with similar interests, and demonstrate transferable and applicable skills. For example, the following sample bullet point shows how a job-seeker might apply a slice of personal life to the corporate culture of the targeted employer.
• Avid outdoor enthusiast poised to contribute my passion for outdoor sports to your firm’s mission to promote the active lifestyle.
• It’s wise to be story-minded when composing your resume so that you know what to leave out. A resume is neither a job application nor a life history. It’s a marketing document, so it need not and should not be all-inclusive. Keeping your story - and better yet your branded story, as discussed in the upcoming Chapter 8 - in mind as you craft your resume can help you judiciously omit material that, in the words of David W. Brown, author of Organization Smarts, “doesn’t advance [your] personal narrative.” WorldWIT’s Ryan similarly notes that most resumes “tell us what we don’t need to know, for instance, the typical tasks in a Marketing Research Manager’s job.” She goes on to describe how most resumes read: “I did this job. I stopped that. I had these responsibilities.” Job-seekers need to dig deeper, Ryan exhorts. “What was your motivation?” she asks. “Surely you didn’t go through these experiences in a daze. What was going on during that time? You’ve built your career, thus far, from scratch. How and why?”
• Remember that you don’t have to tell the same stories on every resume you send out. The ideal scenario is to tailor your resume for every position you apply for so that you can change up your stories, selecting those that are most appropriate for the job at hand.

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The resume is the trickiest component in career-marketing communication in which to tell stories. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when creating a story-based resume:

• A commonly used section at the top of the resume, a Qualifications Summary or Professional Profile, provides an excellent vehicle for telling the story of who you are professionally. Later in this chapter we’ll see how.
• KPMG Principal Mary Anne Davidson observed on the HR.com Web site, “Candidates write about what their positions entailed and not what they actually did. So they tell us their job was to do XYZ. I know what controllers do. I know what recruiters do. I need to know what accomplishments you made in your role. This makes you different than another candidate.” Susan Britton Whitcomb, author of Resume Magic, one of the most highly recommended resume books on the market, calls accomplishments “the linchpin of a great resume.” Her chapter on accomplishments is one of the best sources to help you compose effective accomplishments stories.
• To a great extent, if a job activity cannot be portrayed as an accomplishment, it may not be worthy of mention in your resume. Thus, your resume should be primarily accomplishments-driven (rather than driven by duties and responsibilities), and accomplishments are best communicated in story form.
• Accomplishment stories should include the situation, problem, or challenge that contextualizes your achievement, the action you took, and the results you attained; however, you should tell this story in reverse order - results, action, problem/situation/challenge. Why? Because, as we noted earlier, the employer looks at your resume so quickly. Results need to be listed first for each accomplishment so these outcomes catch the reader’s eye. So, instead of SAR, PAR, or CAR stories, you’ll tell RAS, RAP, or RAC stories. We’ll see more information and examples later in this chapter.
• Some professional resume writers use the tactic of going easy on the story approach in the resume itself, but letting loose with stories of accomplishments, results, and outcomes in a resume addendum or career biography. Addendum examples will appear later in this chapter.
• Most employers prefer a resume that is formatted mostly in bullet points - which don’t exactly lend themselves to storytelling - You can tell stories in resume bullet points, but they must be concise, not wordy. Think of a story-based resume as “story lite.” You can go into more detail in a resume addendum, in your cover letter, and later in your interview. Focus-group participants emphasized the conciseness point repeatedly, strongly cautioning against wordiness, overblown adjectives, too much information, and the impact of accomplishments lost in a sea of text. One participant said, “If you could combine the brevity of [the non-storytelling resume] with the numerical details of [the story-based resume], that would be the preferred ideal.”

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“Too long and boring” comprise two of the top complaints about most resumes voiced by Liz Ryan of WorldWIT. Contributing to a blog called “Get That Job!” Ryan cites one of her favorite resumes - from a controller who includes this telling line on his resume: “Unusually wicked sense of humor for a Finance type.” Ryan notes that “the human need for stories should be a vital clue to job-hunters, whose resumes often have as much dramatic punch as the back of a cereal box. Your resume is your marketing brochure. It has to tell your story.” She suggests reading through your resume with the fresh eyes of an employer who will wonder, “Who is this person?” An unnamed blogger on the blog Fincareer similarly writes that “by highlighting and interpreting experiences in light of the job or career alternative you are contemplating, your story will get the quality and coherence needed to win a recruiter’s trust and interest.” With a storied resume, you can often explain the rationale and value of what you’ve done.

Just as valuable as the resume itself is the process of compiling it, write Herminia Ibarra and Kent Lineback in Harvard Business Review, because “it entails drafting your story.” The authors advise that “everything in the resume must point to one goal - which is, of course, the climax of the story you’re telling.” They cite a job-seeker who better defined what excited her about her chosen field every time she wrote her story in a piece of job-search communication.

Most employers also want to see substantiation of your claims about yourself, which is something you can accomplish through storytelling. Too many resumes are collections of adjectives and meaningless puffery with no stories to back up their claims. In focus-group research conducted for this book, participants found a story-based resume (the Wesley Edwards resume, coming up later in this chapter) more memorable than one that did not contain story, noting that the storytelling resume “leaves more of an impression” and that it “lists actual numbers. And it allows the reader to understand in dollars what he’s accomplished.”

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Two hilarious examples of story resumes appear on the Internet. One is a musical, animated creation that attracted a great deal of notice and was actually a fairly serious attempt to obtain a job. Another, from Allen Williams would seem to be a quite tongue-in-cheek incarnation of a resume.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The contemporary resume, with its bullet points and terse, clipped phrases, seems antithetical to any type of storytelling device. Some players in the hiring process, particularly recruiters, tend to want candidates to stick to the facts in their resumes. Others, however, especially those who make direct hiring decisions, appreciate a resume that opens a window to your personality through storytelling. In this 2002 book, Making Stories: A Practical Guide for Organizational Leaders and Human Resource Specialists, Terrence Gargiulo, for example, points out that human-resource managers prepare to interview candidates by reading resumes with their “story mind.” Putting himself into the mindset of HR people, he envisions using the information in the resume to “construct a story and image of the person.” As a job-seeker, you can help the hiring decision-maker by crafting a narrative that grabs the reader.

When read by human eyes, your resume will get the reader’s attention for only 2.5 to 20 seconds. In his popular book about intuition, Blink!, Malcolm Gladwell talks about “thin-slicing,” which he defines as “the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience.” Employers can be said to “thin-slice” when they glance at a resume. Rare is the employer who will read even close to the entire resume on the first pass. Yet they will usually put your resume into a “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” pile based on the tiny slice of your resume that actually catches their attention. That’s why compelling narrative can be key to intriguing your reader. The usual thin slices of your experience served up in a resume don’t enable you to weave a theme to resonate with the employer.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Bolles, Richard N. (2010). What Color is Your Parachute? Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. New editions of this classic are published annually.

Enelow, W., & Goldman, S. (2005). Insider’s Guide to Finding a Job. Indianapolis, IN: JIST.

Hansen, Katharine. (2008). A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market, Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.

Quintessential Careers: The Art of Career and Job-Search Networking

Quintessential Careers: Informational Interviewing Tutorial

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One of the most effective uses of networking is the potential to build an inner circle of close advisers who can guide and support you through your job search. They’re the ones that you can always feel comfortable calling on for advice, the ones who will conduct practice interviews with you, and the folks who can review and critique the stories you develop for all phases of the job search. They can help you develop and tell your stories. Ask for feedback from them about your strengths and weaknesses, and build stories around your strengths as perceived by those who know you best.

Test out your stories on your close inner circle. Ask them to place themselves in the employer’s mindset as they listen to or read your stories, and request that they react as an employer would react. You can then use their feedback to refine and polish your stories. Writing on Business Week Online, Liz Ryan, founder and CEO of WorldWIT (Women. Insight. Technology.) recommends trading resumes with colleagues and asking the reader to “look for the story that comes through.”

Expand your network by conducting informational interviews. Learn about industry trends through these interviews so you can tailor your stories to what’s happening in your field. Ask interviewees what the top people in your field offer that others don’t, and then incorporate your matching qualities into your stories.

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You’ll notice that one thing nearly all the experts have in common is their emphasis on the importance of stressing your benefit to the listener and touching on how you’re better than the competition. This principle encompasses many names — Unique Selling Proposition, value proposition, benefit statement, competitive advantage, deliverables, differentiation — but the bottom line is the same. What can you bring to the employer, and how can you do it better than anyone else? Telling a story is a great way to answer those questions.

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The business school at Pepperdine University suggests knowing your audience and knowing yourself, including key strengths, adjectives that describe you, a description of what you are trying to let others know about you, and a statement of your interest in the company or industry the person represents. Armed with that knowledge, the job-seeker can then outline the Elevator Story using these questions:

1. Who am I?
2. What do I offer?
3. What problems can I solve?
4. What are the main contributions I can make?
5. What should the listener do as a result of hearing this?

Example:

1. Who am I?

   I am an experienced financial operations manager with more than 15 years of managerial experience and a track record of leading teams of people who achieve benchmark results. I have an extensive background in operations analysis, training, and managing the performance metrics in an operations environment.

2. What do I offer?

   I offer excellent project-management skills, and I’m a pro at cost savings.

3. What problems can I solve?

   I can implement money-saving projects. I led a project team that came up with new payment programs for people experiencing serious long-term hardships that were impacting their ability to make regular payments on their debts. I suggested the project to the president of our company. My project team designed the requirements for the new programs and the system requirements to support the enrollments. We determined the metrics needed to measure the program’s success, helped design the required training for the program rollout, and handled the actual rollout. Within 12 months, we had saved more than $50 million in potential losses through the use of the new programs.

4. What are the main contributions I can make?

   My background demonstrates a strong record of loyalty to my employers as well as top results and consistent promotions consistently to positions of increasing responsibilities. I can contribute strong analytical, communication, and leadership skills, and can build a strong team of people focused on achieving the organization’s goals.

5. What should the listener do as a result of hearing this?

   Can you suggest any employers who could benefit from my skills and experience?

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Next is a formula that requires researching targeted employers and telling your Elevator Story to someone connected to the targeted employer. It’s adapted from Randy W. Dipner of Meeting the Challenge, Inc.:

1. List target employers. Group them and ultimately define the employer.
2. Define the need or opportunity. That is, what critical issue does the employer face?
3. Identify yourself in terms of a job function or contribution. What do you do?
4. Tell a story that incorporates the benefits - not the features - that you provide to the employer. Prioritize the benefits to identify the single benefit that is the most compelling reason for the employer to hire you. To the maximum extent possible, the benefit should be both quantified and expressed in story form.
5. Develop a statement of the primary differentiation of yourself, which should be the single most important thing that sets you apart from the competition.

Example:

1. Define the employer.

I’m looking to join an organization - like Tornado Marketing - that values an impact player who can help maximize brand productivity. My ideal job would allow me to interact with all areas of the company in all marketing-communications disciplines, from market research to agency management, to sales and marketing.

2. Define the need or opportunity. That is, what critical issue does the employer face?

   Based on my research, I know that Tornado has a major new client that is looking to raise its visibility and build its brand in the banking sector.

3. Identify yourself in terms of a job function or contribution. What do you do?

   I go far beyond advertising, delving into internal communications, sales discussions, and virtually any client interaction. Throughout my career, I’ve continually progressed to take on more responsibility because of my commitment to ensuring the integrity of marketing and collaborating with all areas of the organization.

4. Tell a story that incorporates the benefits - not the features - that you provide to the employer.

   One of the things I am most proud of is the awards program I created to help a former bank client become better known for catering to small businesses and recognizing small businesses for the contributions to the economy. I managed all aspects of program including communications, securing an independent judging panel, instituting an impartial judging process, and overseeing public-relations strategy and tactics. I created a media strategy around the program and winner announcement in local markets. The program generated 2 million media impressions in first year and experienced an increased response of 25 percent in second year while reducing the budget by more than 30 percent. And internally I then used the results of this program to create a brand new look and feel for the bank’s marketing communications. I was recruited for this opportunity because of my successful management of the Leadership Awards program.

5. Develop a statement of the primary differentiation of yourself, which should be the single most important thing that sets you apart from the competition.

   While my specialty is brand-building, I’m the complete package. I help clients increase awareness, favorability, and ultimately sales by employing a variety of marketing communications disciplines, including market research, program development and management, advertising and public relations. I’ve been successful in my career because I’m passionate about what I do, am extremely energetic, and have the ability to be both strategic and tactical.

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Author, speaker, and consultant Marisa D’Vari suggests starting the Elevator Story process by writing down three key points about your product (you, in this case) and telling stories about how these points will benefit an employer.

Here’s a story-based variation on a formula suggested by Certified Professional Virtual Assistant Jean Hanson:

1. Who am I? (introduce yourself)
2. What field or industry am I in?
3. What position am I in and what position do I want to be in? In what capacity do I serve or want to serve?
4. What is my USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? What makes me different from the competition?
5. A brief story that illustrates the benefits that employers can derive from my skills, based on my proven accomplishments.

Example:

1. Who am I? Hi, I’m Thad VanIderstine.
2. What field or industry am I in? I’m a strategic operations executive in the cable-TV sector.
3. What position am I in and what position do I want to be in? In what capacity do I serve or want to serve? I want to add value to an organization in a senior position by being involved in many facets of operations and how strategy translates into increasing the bottom line.
4. What is my USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? What makes me different from the competition? A successful manager must be able to provide valuable feedback in timely fashion while allowing employees to be independent and coaching them on both their strengths and opportunities for development. I’ve been a successful manager because I lead by example.
5. A brief story that illustrates the benefits that employers can derive from my skills, based on my proven accomplishments. For instance, when I was asked to manage a field project, one team was struggling to get the program off the ground. One of the issues they had was the ability to effectively manage outsourcing. So I showed them how to take charge of meetings with the outsource vendors, hold them [meetings] less frequently, and ensure that everyone was accountable. The result was the successful management of the program, and my gaining the respect of the team, rather than potential resentment for my taking over the project. Senior management recognized the entire team for launching the program.

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The following roundup of formulas suggested by experts should provide food for thought for the method that works best for you in planning and outlining your Elevator Story. Remember that in a job-hunting situation, the listener’s tacit question may be “Why should I (or any employer) hire you?”

This framework for planning your Elevator Story is adapted from Tony Jeary, author of Life Is a Series of Presentations:

1. Define your audience universe.
2. Define the content or subject matter of your story.
3. Define your objective.
4. Define your desired image or style.
5. Define your key message and build your story around it.

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My determination and ability to connect people with resources that produce results is my greatest attribute. For example, my first retail management position involved an independently owned start-up pet store in Sausalito. My goal was to establish a profitable business within a two-year timeframe. I hired and developed a knowledgeable and trained team of employees, researched the market to properly merchandise the store, connected with the community to make it an enjoyable shopping experience and develop loyal customers, and initiated procedures to manage expenses, shrink, and inventory. The result was a well-established community pet store that grew into a $1.25 million a year business. I also have a strong sense of equality and thrive on the experience of learning from and leading a team. I enjoy setting goals and empowering others to achieve their goals. I am fearless and persistent when it comes to connecting with the people who can make a difference and asking them for what we need to complete a task. I have excellent communication skills and a keen eye when it comes to grasping the big picture and finding those who will contribute their talents to creating success.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

I started playing fastpitch softball when I was 10 years old. I have missed a ball in the field, struck out at the plate, and even been injured during a game. However, I love softball unconditionally because I have discovered elements of my life that I truly treasure from simply playing the game. I have learned the importance of being a team player as well as communicating effectively to execute the game plan. I have established leadership qualities by leading by example and motivating others to be the best that they can be. Most importantly, softball has taught me that only dedication and devotion toward your goals brings success; therefore, hard work and patience is the key to being successful.

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Because the preceding stories have their roots in childhood, they are especially heartwarming and emotional. But of course, most Elevator Stories will come from professional experience, as in the following examples:

I have worked with my father in our family business since well before I turned 18. My father and I own a company that specializes in diverse business fields, primarily property development and hydro-engineering. We branched into hydro-engineering mainly because I had such a fascination with renewable energy. I expressed this interest to my father and our team of engineers, and I was given the “greenlight” to set up a company and do some research. After two years, our company obtained all necessary approvals from the government, and our first mini-hydro project was on the way. Sri Lanka has two monsoon seasons and a central region of mountains, which is the perfect recipe for generating hydro-electricity. The project began operation in September 2004, and by now it has become one of the most profitable subsidiaries in our establishment. The confidence and the experience that I’ve gained provide me with strength and guidance for my future endeavors.

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You can expand on your Elevator Story in networking situations in which you have more time to talk about yourself such as when you are visiting the office of a prospective member of your network or having lunch with a contact. It is also an effective response when you’re conducting an informational interview, and the interviewee turns the tables and starts asking questions about you. This longer version is typically one to three minutes long and contains more about your background, qualifications, and skills.

Obviously, you don’t want your expanded Elevator Story to sound memorized. But you are, after all, talking about yourself, so the material is not hard to remember. It helps to write it out first - outline form is fine; then read it over a few times, and practice saying it without reading or memorizing it. Practice it in front of friends and members of your network, too. It’s not a big deal if you forget a detail as long as you remember the main points you want to get across. Here are some samples, which range from about 300-400 words. Remember that the point of composing such stories is not for them to sound exactly the way they are written. But writing them will help imprint them on your brain so you can tell them with the natural ease of a storyteller:

My desire to become a businesswoman began at a young age. I can clearly remember many summers of my childhood, the kind of summers that couldn’t come quickly enough and that seemed to last an eternity. I would set up shop in front of my house, ready to sell lemonade to the neighbors or the occasional UPS man. A colorful sign and decorated table would adorn my roadside booth to entice customers. After a while, I became bored with just the lemonade shop. I wanted to draw in my peers, so I began to collect Happy Meal toys during the year. When summer came, I would fill up my red wagon and tug it along to the shop to sell nifty gadgets and toys in addition to the lemonade. Eager for a change and the excitement of something new, I passed along the lemonade shop to my younger sisters and decided to move onto other avenues. My best friend Ashley and I opened up “Maggie and Ashley’s Place” - another business endeavor, this one providing jewelry services. We bought bead boxes and filled them to the brim with multi-colored thread and an assortment of beads. On the inside cover of our boxes, we had a log to record orders, determine the price based on the thread and number of beads used, and provide an estimate as to when the orders would be completed. We also started to use the computer technology that we learned about in school to design and print out our own business cards. Looking back, I’m amazed at the precision, quality, and detail I gave to these businesses, attributes I continue to strive for to this day. From brainstorming ideas and seeing them through to fruition, I found excitement and vigor in pursuing my dreams. Over the years I’ve learned to never give up and if something isn’t working out, to forge a new path to make it my own. I truly admire Eleanor Roosevelt for saying that “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” and I plan to see to it that I never stop dreaming of bigger and better aspirations.

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Even the most intriguing Elevator Stories often lack an important element — a request for action. Here are some action items that can be appended in various situations:

At a career fair: “I’d like to take your business card, as well as leave my networking card and resume. Would it be possible for me to get a spot on your company’s interview schedule?”

In a networking situation: “What advice do you have for me? Can you suggest any employers I should be contacting?”

Cold-calling an employer: “When can we set up a meeting to discuss how I can help your company?”

Telephone or e-mail situations: “May I send you my resume?” (For in-person situations, you should always have resumes handy.) If your resume exists in electronic form on the Internet, you can say: “May I refer you to my resume on the Web at [insert Web address here]?”

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You could stick with a fairly basic structure and a simple Elevator Story and see where it takes you. Or you can begin your story with a conversational teaser or “hook.” If you add this element of intrigue — a story — the ensuing conversation has even more potential. Let’s look, for example, at how a conversation might go that starts with an intriguing story:

Networker #1: Hi, my name is Tom Jacobsen. I was born a lucky Arkansan. Networker #2: How so? Networker #1: Because I was born on July eleventh, 7-11. I have been fortunate enough to meet two presidents, Reagan and Clinton, and the richest man in the world, the late Sam Walton. I am also blessed to be part of a good family with one brother and three sisters. This family has instilled in me strong values, which were reinforced by volunteer work in my church and community. Trustworthiness and honesty are my defining characteristics. Quiet by nature, I am the “strong silent type.” Far from boring, I have a great sense of humor, and even own a goose. I intend to achieve my goals through hard work.

Let’s look at another example:

Networker #1: Hi, my name is Aleksandra Auersperg. I propagate teamwork and believe that brain share is key to success. Networker #2: What does that mean? Networker #1: I thrive on the synergy created by a team working well together, sharing, encouraging, and supporting each other. For example, back home in Slovenia, teamwork was everything - a value that basic to life. All my previous work has been in a team-driven work environment. I very much believe that two ideas are better then one, and two people will attain much more then one individual person.

And one more:

Networker #1: Hi, my name is Barney Joiner. You might think I’m a pimp, but I’m not. Networker #2: That’s good to know. Networker #1: I have the PMP credential - which can be pronounced “pimp” - but it’s actually Project Management Professional. I’m results-driven, and offer a master’s-level education and a proven track record in project leadership, product development, project initiation and execution, and exceptional client management.

The concern, of course, with an intriguing story is that you’ll sound corny or hokey. And, in fact, chances are you will. I’ll admit that when I first researched these Elevator Stories, I found them very corny. But they work - by hooking your conversation partner into learning more about you.

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Hello, my name in Andy Fellows. I’m an entrepreneurial marketing professional with more than 15 years of uncompromising accomplishments in multiple facets of building, marketing, and operating highly successful academic product sales businesses. I attained a 170 percent increase in 12 months by expanding the academic market for software through direct sales to universities worldwide, channel partners, and publishers, as well as by implementing solid prospecting strategies to cultivate new business opportunities and broaden the customer base.

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Hi, I’m Kimberly Jackson. I’m a customer-service professional with a solid background in administrative management and technology support as well as experience in public relations for internal and external clients, team-building, technology training, quality assurance, contract negotiation, and event planning.

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Hello, I am Ed Kendall. As an international marketing consultant, I realized more than a 50 percent increase in overall profitability and $500,000 in new revenue through directing Euro conversion in four countries while simultaneously improving client relationships and controlling project costs.

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Hi, I’m Sandra Dinkleman. You might be interested in knowing that I recently stabilized a highly chaotic operational and customer-service situation by taking control and implementing new heightened customer-service standards and collaborating with staff members to improve the company image and boost the morale of my employer’s staff.

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I’m Janet Singleton. I like to think of myself as an accomplished organizational-development professional with more than a decade of experience in project leadership, needs assessment/definition, resource identification, and process/change facilitation. I took the initiative to improve medical benefits and develop systems for handling benefits-enrollment data after being recruited initially to set up an HR department for a company that has grown from eight to 25 employees.

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Hello, I’m Cynthia Bee. I’m a licensed industrial engineering professional with eight years of experience in medical diagnostic manufacturing and personal products manufacturing and additional five years of experience in logistics.

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Hi, Jack Burnham here. As a diligent, quantitatively skilled achiever, I’m equipped, through my master’s-level training in taxation, to play a key role in your organization’s tax research, analysis, and planning. I also have expertise in interpreting tax code, regulations, revenue rulings, and case law, as well as preparing tax returns for corporations, partnerships, individuals, estates and trusts.

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Hi, I’m Jenny Swade. I’d like to use my newly minted MBA-education to apply organizational-development theory and practice at a growing firm. I can particularly contribute strong analytical, quantitative, research, and planning skills, along with solid leadership, interpersonal, and people-management capabilities. I enhanced my company’s pricing competitiveness by assessing and selecting vendors for new systems.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Hello, I’m Jim Swing, a brand-new MBA and an accounting professional with three years of hands-on experience in multiple aspects of accounting operations.

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Hi there, I’m Tim Tejera, but you can call me a technically proficient, enthusiastic new computer-science graduate who possesses comprehensive, practical knowledge of the latest hardware and programming technologies along with expertise in multiple software applications. I might look like a college kid, but I accelerated time-to-market for embedded software by 25 percent by using appropriate software quality tools, improved debugging methods, and timely personnel training.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

I’m Valerie Obermarle, a creative outside-the-box thinker who approaches strategic development with innovative vision, high ethical standards, unsurpassed work ethic, and ability to communicate effectively across management levels and disciplines to build highly effective cross-functional teams.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

A college student or new graduate might add the following to the basic structure.

Hi, my name is ___________. I will be graduating/I just graduated from ____________________with a degree in _____________________. I’m looking to_____________________.

These bare-bones structures don’t tell much of a story, though, and are not terribly memorable, so consider adding meat to the bones of your Elevator Story with additional details about your background and what you can offer, as in the examples that start below and continue with upcoming entries:

Hi, I’m Joe Fredericks. I’m a versatile project/program management executive with 15-plus years of leadership and business management expertise gained from positions of increasing responsibility in both the U.S. Navy and the private sector. I recently reduced my employer’s costs by 35 percent through leading a hardware and software redesign of the access control system, which also resulted in improved performance, increased reliability, and additional features.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

At its most basic level, the Elevator Story’s structure is:

Hi, my name is ___________. I’m in the _______________ field, and I’m looking to_____________________.

The last blank would be filled in with your current career aspiration, whether it is to stay within your field and move up or move into a different career. Here’s a slightly more embellished example: Greetings.

My name is Indra Ghee. I’m an accomplished, published, senior-level scientist with 12 years of experience in molecular biology.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Wide variation exists among experts as to the ideal length of an Elevator Story. Some experts say as few as 15 seconds; others say up to three minutes. There’s no reason, however, that you can’t employ both short and long versions. Different situations, after all, may well call for diverse approaches.

An Elevator Story is a story-based introduction of yourself used in situations where you are meeting a lot of people and probably not spending a great deal of time with any one of them. The trick is to make your introduction so intriguing — by using story — that people will want to spend more time talking with you. The speech also might be incorporated into an initial phone conversation with a prospective new member of your network.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

By now the Elevator Speech is a fairly well-known tool not only for job-seekers but also for organizations and individuals with products and services to sell. Authors of numerous Internet articles on the Elevator Speech offer speculations on the origin of the term - ranging from the notion that we often run into important people in elevators to the more common explanation that the Elevator Speech is a clear, concise bit of storytelling that can be delivered in the time it takes folks to ride from a building’s top to the bottom in an elevator.

Whatever its exact origin, the Elevator Story is an exceptionally useful and versatile tool in numerous situations:

• Events designed specifically for networking.
• The casual networking opportunities we encounter nearly every day - the kids’ soccer games, plane flights, waiting in line to buy tickets, and on and on.
• Career or job fairs.
• Cold calls to employers.
• Cold calls to absent employers: Rita Fisher of Career Change Resumes suggests that leaving your Elevator Story in the form of a voicemail message virtually guarantees that the employer will call back. Hint: Assuming your story is sufficiently compelling, call after hours when you know for sure you will get the employer’s voicemail.
• Opportunities within your own company to talk with higher-up honchos, let them know you’re doing a great job, and position you for promotion.
• Job interviews where the Elevator Story can provide the answer to at least two common interview queries: “Tell me about yourself” and “Why should I hire you?” (Upcoming in Chapter 7: Storytelling in the Interview).

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

The often misunderstood art of networking is all about establishing relationships so that you can enlist support and comfortably ask for ideas, advice, and referrals to those with the power to hire you or advance your career. Storytelling provides a wonderful way to build these relationships because of story’s ability to instill emotional investment. Tell a good story to new network contacts you meet, and they will care much more about your success than if you had simply listed facts about yourself.

The new chapter that starts with this entry introduces two primary ways to integrate storytelling into your networking activities:

• Developing a brief introductory speech to succinctly tell network contacts who you are and what kind of work you seek. This speech is usually referred to as an “Elevator Speech,” but for our purposes in this chapter, let’s call it the Elevator Story. You may want to develop multiple versions of this story to have ready for various situations.
• Enlisting an “advisory board” of network contacts to review and critique the stories you use at all points in the job search.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Atkinson, Cliff: Free story-building templates and resources, as described in the book, Beyond Bullet Points (Although the book is about PowerPoint presentations, the templates and resources can be useful for any kind of story-building).

Bronson, P. (2002). What Should I Do with My Life? New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Christensen, G. J. (2004, December). KSAs: It’s More than Just the Resume. HireViews.

Denning, S. (2001). The Springboard. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Denning, S. (2004). Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership through Storytelling. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Denning, S. (2005). The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Gargiulo, T. L. (2006). Stories at Work. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Han, P. (2005). Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Careers Got Their Start. New York: Portfolio.

Maguire, J. (1998). The Power of Personal Storytelling. New York: Tarcher/Putnam.

Neuhauser, P. C. (1993). Corporate Legends & Lore: The Power of Storytelling as a Management Tool. Austin, TX: PCN Associates.

Simmons, A. (2006). The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through Storytelling. Cambridge. MA: Basic Books.

Whitcomb, Susan Britton, (2003). Resume Magic. Indianapolis, ID: JIST.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Ability

Ability to be organized and perform efficiently and proficiently in a fast-moving production environment under short deadlines: As an in-house attorney at SouthComm Communications, I excelled for more than three years in fast-paced environment in which production against tight deadlines was critical and directly impacted the company’s bottom-line sales and revenues. My job was to execute as many leases and other real-estate agreements as possible while limiting the company’s exposure to risk. Cell sites could not be constructed to offload heavy-traffic areas without an executed lease, so the company depended on my organizational skills, proficiency, and rapid turnaround during contract negotiations. While speed was essential, I also succeeded in striking a balance between achieving business objectives and minimizing the company’s liability.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.

Skill

Skill in working independently on a wide variety of complex issues and make quick decisions with a high degree of accuracy at various stages of review simultaneously: I have great respect for the value of working independently without supervision to increase the productivity of the entire department and company. As a contract attorney, for example, I perform all work independently during each stage of document review. Law firms hire me with the understanding that they will not have to oversee my work because I produce quality output. They also depend on me to proficiently perform all assigned functions of my job with minimal supervision of staff attorneys and partners.

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Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.