What do we learn about Kellie from the story in the previous entry?

• She is compassionate.
• She is curious and eager to learn.
• She cares enough about patients to go far beyond the requirements of her job to give them comfort.

If Kellie stated on her resume or in an interview that she is curious, eager to learn, compassionate, and dedicated to patient care, none of those claims would be as believable or compelling as telling this story. She may not ever be in a situation to tell this entire story during her job search, but by developing the story as a first step, she has gotten to know herself better and identified some of the key characteristics about herself that she will want to feature in her job search.

We’ll look at more sample Quintessential You stories in upcoming entries. Like Kellie’s story, these are poignant. But notice that unlike Kellie’s story, these spell out the “moral” or lesson learned. If you compare them with Kellie’s story, you may discover that sometimes the story is actually more powerful if the audience is left to draw its own conclusions about the characteristics exemplified. The audience does not necessarily need to be hit over the head with what the story means.

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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.