Lisa Virtue:

Welcome to Her Career Studio. I'm your host and career coach Lisa Virtue. Here we live by the mantra Thrive at work so you can thrive in life because we know you are more than your day job. Each episode includes actionable tips and often mentor stories to not only boost your professional success, but also enhance your personal well being. Join me as we explore ways to ensure your career uplifts your life as you strive to achieve work life harmony. Head to hercareerstudio.com for free resources and coaching services to help support you during career transitions and challenges such as when you are looking to find and land that next ideal job or promotion or are leading a new team. We're here to support you. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and please hit the thumbs up or leave a five star review if you are finding the content useful.

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Lisa Virtue:

Hi there and welcome back to Her Career Studio. Lisa I'm Lisa Virtue, your storytelling guide. If you've been following along, you know we've been breaking the job search into three steps in order to keep your job search efficient and effective and to stop the overwhelm and anxiety. These are step 1 clarify your goals, understanding what you want and aligning your job search with your values and strengths. Step 2 Tell your story clearly in writing, crafting a compelling narrative in your resume, cover letter and online applications and Step three Tell your story verbally with confidence in a concise and compelling way during interviews and networking conversations. In the last episode, Episode four, we started diving into Step two by discussing resume writing how to tell your story clearly in writing. Today, we're expanding on that by exploring what storytelling really means during a job search and why it's such an important and learnable skill. So far in this focused season, we covered the first step of how to find clarity.

In episodes two and three, we discussed how well worth it it is to spend time finding clarity in order to focus your search and make it more effective. I call this the slingshot effect. Sometimes you have to pull back in order to propel forward, just like a slingshot. Once you have the tension of pulling back and doing that clarity work, it can propel you forward much faster and in a straighter line towards your target. In our last episode, Episode four, we started getting into that step two of how to tell your story in writing. When it comes to your resume, we focused on keeping things simple and focused on the most important elements of a resume that can crack the recruiter code and get you a conversation. We also discussed how keeping the format simple on your resume is best practice. Stop fussing with resume writing and allowing yourself to have squirrel moments like look at this pretty resume.

Which color of font should I use? These time sucks have gotten the best of all. Trust me, I know because I absolutely love creating and fussing with formats. That's one of the skills I have as a resume writer. But because I have wasted so much time over the years, I was always looking for how can we make this more efficient, especially for my clients who after they get a resume written for them, they might struggle with the formatting or the tables things that come with a lot of these more professional level resumes that are from the past. But that's the past. So because I've wasted so much time over the years, this is now an advantage for you as I've developed a resume template that is simple, tried and true. It is a modern format that works and when you use it online in Google Docs, you don't have to worry about tables and other complicated features of what you usually pay for in a Word document that you buy from a graphic designer. Gone are the days you need a fancy resume to impress for the majority of jobs.

Keep it simple. So remember to go swipe a copy of our resume template for free at hercareerstudio.com make your life easier and stop fussing with formatting. Focus More on the Storytelling so today we're diving into the art of storytelling in your job search and this episode is going to get your juices flowing as you think about your own personal stories and work experiences and how to tell them in a compelling way so you can stop the overwhelm and anxiety, that stress of selling yourself in order to land your next ideal job, think of it instead as simply telling a story that has facts and info about you that is relevant to your audience. I have so many clients who get overwhelmed with telling their exceptional stories. I do not use the word exceptional lightly. I'm talking about professionals who have accomplished extraordinary things but struggle to tell others about it. Does this sound familiar to you? Are you one of those people who has doubt and imposter syndrome creep in where you have to talk about your work history. It is easier for you to brag on one of your friends or a family member and their accomplishments than it is to speak about yourself.

Well, you are not alone. This is why the job search can be so daunting. Not only can self doubt creep in for a number of reasons, but your brain may be putting yourself at odds with what you need to do to land the ideal job. Maybe you were let go from a previous job or were in a toxic work environment. Now your confidence is in the toilet or you come from an upbringing where it was frowned upon to speak about yourself. So instead of developing these skills, your brain innately stops you before you even begin subconsciously telling you it is bad to talk about yourself or maybe even consciously. Whatever the reason for self doubt and anxiety with this topic, I'm here to help. This episode is for you.

Because as much as we want to fight it, sometimes in order to land that ideal job, you have to tell your story. You have to make your career come alive for your audience. Now storytelling is where you also get to showcase your personality, your passions and your unique value Going to share today how to craft a compelling career story that captivates your audience and sets you apart as a candidate. Whether it's on your resume and LinkedIn profile cover letter, or in interviews and networking conversations. So you might be wondering, why is storytelling such a big deal in a job search? Well, here's the thing. Recruiters and hiring managers don't hire resumes. They hire people. And nowadays, with AI emerging for job seekers, there's a flood into the applicant tracking systems and recruiters inboxes with generic resumes that all seem qualified.

This means it is becoming even more and more important to create a personal connection in the recruitment process and convey your uniqueness. This is through sharing your story. A strong story makes your experience memorable, relatable and aligned with the role you're pursuing. When you can clearly and compellingly explain who you are, what you've done, and why you're the right fit, you build trust and connection with your audience, whether that audience is a recruiter reading your resume, a hiring manager in an interview, or a contact during a networking conversation, storytelling is how you bring your career to life. Now you might be thinking, lisa, I'm not a good storyteller. I know good storytellers and I will never match them in their skills. Or maybe you're like so many of my female clients who say they ramble on and on when they're nervous, or even freeze up during interviews and don't know how to change this about themselves. Well, here's the good news.

Storytelling is a learned skill. You don't have to be a natural born storyteller to share your experiences in a way that resonates. So stop that negative narrative going on in your head and be open to learning how to craft your skill of storytelling. You are capable and it doesn't have to be perfect. Alright, now let's talk about why storytelling is such a powerful tool in your job search and get into some tips on how you can improve these skills. Storytelling is more than just listing your skills and experience. That's boring. Please don't do that.

It's about connecting with your audience on an emotional level while you demonstrate you have the skills that they need. And let's be honest, people remember good stories. They remember how those stories made them feel and that's exactly what you want to do in your job search. For those of you listening who have participated on the other side of the table, the one doing the interviewing and hiring, thinking about those candidates who did and did not stand out, what set them apart? If you have not had the chance to be an interviewer at work yet, think about the stories that resonate most with you. Which books, movies have you connected with and seared in your memory the most? What was it about those stories that made them memorable? Think about those good storytellers you know? What was it about them that made those stories really good? Why do you think that about them? Well, let's break down best practices when it comes to storytelling. When you tell a story effectively, you first create an emotional connection with your audience, making them more likely to remember you. You showcase your personality and values, helping you attract opportunities that align with who you are. You demonstrate your communication skills while telling these stories, which are essential for any role.

Everyone's looking for a good communicator and you differentiate yourself from other candidates, making you more memorable and compelling. Your goal when storytelling on a resume and cover letter is to get the interview. Your goal when storytelling to your network is to get opportunities for conversations and to hear about opportunities first, sometimes even when they're never posted. And finally, your goal when storytelling in an interview is to get the job offer. So how do you tell your career story in a way that's both authentic and impactful? One of the best books I've ever read to help me craft my storytelling skills is called how to Tell Stories to Children and Everyone Else by Silk Rose west and Joseph Sorossi. I love this book because they keep things simple and provide a lot of examples. Their advice also has so many parallels to strong storytelling in job interviews and when networking and telling others about your career goals. The primary takeaway I want to share with you from this book is to keep your stories and experiences relevant to your audience and what they are currently experiencing.

This is how you create a connection and a bond with your audience, which is ultimately what you're trying to do, especially when you're doing storytelling verbally. For example, when engaging with a child, you want to begin a story with a challenge they recently had or something they've been learning about or have experienced. Those of you who are parents listening probably know this very intimately. For instance, an aunt who has just started school and struggled to make friends with other aunts. You can create a whole story about this. Then you expand the story to touch on more details of what the child has been going through lately. Here's a quote from this A practiced storyteller draws upon the events and objects within a child's immediate surroundings, then crafts the stories that are not only entertaining, but created precisely for those children in that place. This is exactly the same in a job interview.

What you need to pay attention to while learning about the role what is the primary challenge that the hiring manager would have help solve in this new role? What are the primary responsibilities of the role? What projects are they working on? What's the purpose of the position for which you are interviewing for now, before we dive into storytelling verbally, let's go over one more time. Storytelling and writing. Your resume and cover letter and application are the first chance to tell your story. They set the stage for who you are as a professional and why you're a strong candidate for the role. So in your resume, storytelling looks like this. First, clear structure. Your resume should flow logically with your most relevant experience highlighted at the beginning. Impactful bullet points.

Each bullet point should tell a mini story of what you accomplished, how you did it, and why it mattered. Tailored content. By aligning your experience with the job description, you show that your story is relevant to the role. Remember how we discussed all this in the last episode of episode four? We were talking about storytelling in writing, but in writing in a way that is very concise. So, for example, instead of saying something on your resume like manage Team of five, which doesn't tell a story you could write, instead led a team of five to execute a project that improved operational efficiency by 25%, delivering results ahead of schedule and under budget. Now, in your cover letter, storytelling takes a slightly different approach. This is where you can connect your experiences with the company's mission or values. You can also highlight a bit of your personality, share a specific example of how your work aligns with what they're looking for, and let your personality shine through.

Remember resume and cover letter templates? You can find all of those for free at hercareerstudio.com, and I go into more detail about those. So go snag those copies. Now let's shift and talk about telling your story verbally. This comes into play during interviews, networking conversations, and even casual chats about your career. When you tell your story verbally, it's all about clarity, confidence and connection. So let's talk about behavioral interviews for a minute. These are the most common type of interview questions that you will get asked, and they're designed to learn about your past behavior in the workplace. The idea is that your past behavior is an indicator of your future behavior, so by asking you about specific experiences, the interviewer can get a good sense of how you would handle similar situations in the new role.

These questions typically start with phrases like Tell me about a time you or Give me an example of when you Tailoring your stories during behavioral interviews to create a direct correlation between your past experiences and what they are currently going through and need help with will help them visualize you in the role. They will feel seen as if you really get it so you can hit the ground running and jump into helping them. This is the most compelling type of candidate here's five examples of tailoring your storytelling in a job interview based on inferences about the company's challenges from the job posting. Let's start with software engineers. The job posting may mention scaling our platform to handle rapid user growth. So as a candidate, you can infer that the company is struggling with performance issues due to increased traffic. Here's a storytelling example for the interview. In my previous role, we faced a similar challenge with scalability.

I led a team to optimize our database queries and implementing caching strategies, resulting in a 30% improvement in response times and a 99.9% uptime during peak usage. Notice how this example can easily be put into your resume as an achievement in a bullet point. Again, go back to episode four to learn more about crafting your bullet points in episode four's Show Notes. You can also get the link to our ChatGPT brainstorming partner to help you write these bullet points in a standard format. Okay, let's go to Our next example. Example 2 for a marketing manager so the job posting mentions expanding our brand presence in new markets. As a candidate, you can infer the company is looking to increase market share and reach new customers. This feels obvious, doesn't it? Well, my friend, that is the art of keeping your job search simple.

State the obvious and now you know what to focus on in your resume and in interviews for this role. So a storytelling example for this marketing manager position is I spearheaded a market entry campaign for a previous employer, conducting extensive market research, developing localized messaging and building partnerships with key influencers in the industry. This resulted in a 20% increase in brand awareness and a 15% lift in sales within the first six months. Now, example three is for a financial analyst. The job posting mentions streamlining financial reporting processes. As a candidate, you can infer that the company is seeking efficiency and accuracy in their financial operations. So a storytelling example here. At my last company, I automated several manual financial reporting tasks, reducing errors by 50% and saving the finance team 20 hours per week.

This allowed us to focus on higher value analysis and strategic decision making. Example 4 Human resources manager. The job posting mentions improving employee engagement and retention. As a candidate, you can infer that the company may be experiencing higher turnover or low morale. So let's do an example here where you don't have metrics. Maybe you weren't tracking them or the company didn't track the success of what you do and what you did in past roles. So here's an example of how you can tell your story without using numbers and metrics. Again, this is for human resources manager.

In my previous role, I noticed that employee morale was low and turnover was a growing concern. By leadership, it was costing us a lot of money and productivity. To address this, I took the initiative to develop and implement a comprehensive employee recognition program. I started by conducting surveys and focus groups to gather employee feedback on what types of recognition would be most meaningful to them. Based on their input, I designed a program that included both formal and informal recognition opportunities ranging from company wide awards to peer to peer shoutouts. I also worked closely with managers to ensure that recognition was integrated into their day to day interactions with the teams. Through this program, we were able to create a more positive and supportive work environment where employees felt valued and appreciated for their contributions. It also sparked other teams to implement their own personal programs as well.

Now example 5. This is an example for a sales representative. The job posting mentions shortening the sales cycle and increasing conversion rates. As a candidate, you can infer that the company wants to generate revenue more quickly and efficiently. So a storytelling example for this role is I implemented a new lead qualification process that helped me identify high potential prospects and focus my efforts on closing deals faster. This resulted in a 20% reduction in the average sales cycle and a 15% increase in conversion rates. Ultimately, sales grew that year by 18% in a stagnant industry. Alright, to summarize all these examples illustrated that by aligning your stories with leadership's challenges and the role's responsibilities, you demonstrate as a candidate that you understand their needs and can provide immediate value.

Targeted storytelling approach makes you a more compelling candidate and increases your chances of landing the job. This is because you are appealing to their emotions by hitting their challenges head on. They will feel seen and heard and will be hopeful that they found someone who gets it and has been there before, solving the problems they now have. So often I hear candidates say oh yeah, I have all the experience that they're illustrating in this job posting and then I'll look at their resume or I'll ask them more specifics and they're not able to tell me in a detailed way how they have that experience because they're not thinking of it that way. So make sure when you're looking at a job posting and you're seeing roles and responsibilities and qualifications and you're checking boxes saying oh yeah, yeah, I've got that. Check, check, check that you're also jotting down examples and experiences. This will get you to hit the ground running quicker when it comes to an efficient way to edit your resume, your cover letter for that position, and then also your interview prep. You'll already be ready to go.

All right, now when you connect with your audience, you also want to keep in mind the context of where the organization is currently at with its journey. For example, interviewing to work for a startup can be very different than interviewing with an established government agency. The startup most likely wants to see that you can keep up with the pace of their organization and growth, seeing how you can help them scale their product or service, while the government agency will probably be concerned about compliance and reliability in your daily habits and will want to see how directly aligned your skills are to the job posting as they have strict policies about this. So remember to make sure that you're illustrating a little bit of your personality and your stories around how you are aligned to the type of organization that they have. As well, remember to tailor your story to each situation. What do I mean by this? I also mean each place that you're telling your story. For example, your LinkedIn summary should be more focused on your overall career goals and a glimpse into your personality, while your cover letter should be tailored to the specific job and organization you're applying for. Let me give you a few more examples of how to incorporate storytelling into your job search Resume Summary passionate educator with 10 years of experience inspiring students and fostering a love of learning.

Proven ability to develop engaging curriculum and create a supportive class environment. Notice the difference of that summary versus just saying teacher with 10 plus years of experience. Here's an example in a cover letter. My passion for education began at a young age when I volunteered as a tutor in my community. This experience sparked a lifelong commitment of helping others reach their full potential. In my previous role at XYZ School, I I developed and implemented a new curriculum that increased student test scores by 15%. Now, here's the interview example. One of my greatest strengths is my ability to build relationships with students.

For example, there was a student who was struggling in my class. I took the time to get to know him and understand his learning style, and I created a personalized plan to help him succeed. By the end of the year, he was one of the top performers in the class. This may feel like you are boasting, but what you're doing is you're giving the audience what they need. Think of it as a gift to your audience. These are facts. This candidate is telling the audience here, the interview panel, what they need to know so that they can extend a job offer. And when you hold back and you don't share your accomplishments in a way that is just straightforward and confident and clear, they will never extend that offer to you because they won't get it.

Here's my last example. Networking Conversation Same type of candidate. This is a teacher. I'm passionate about education and I'm currently exploring new opportunities in curriculum development. I have a proven track record of creating engaging and effective learning experiences, and I'm excited to see what I can accomplish in my next role. An alternative to this if you have a hard time with phrases like I have a proven track record, your brain just won't let you say it. What you can state instead is my experience includes creating engaging and effective learning experiences, and I'm excited to see what I can accomplish in my next role. Now in your network, they know that you're looking for curriculum development and that you have experience in this space.

Not only just creating it, but creating engaging and effective learning experiences. Because, as we know, not everyone that does curriculum development creates engaging content. So notice how all of these examples in these different avenues Resume, cover letter, Interview, Networking, conversation. They all tell a story and they all highlight key themes and messages while demonstrating skills and experiences. All right, now how can you hone in this storytelling skill and get better at it? Please eliminate that overwhelm. It might feel daunting. We just went over a lot of examples, ways that storytelling can get you a job. So what should you do Next, here's a few tips.

Number one Know your audience. You probably do more of this than you realize, but spend the time to look up the organization's values and challenges as you craft your resume and cover letter. When landing an interview, Google the interviewers and check them out on LinkedIn. Try to get to know them a little prior to the interview, but most important is to listen closely during the interviews and take notes to help keep your brain on track during the conversation. Tailor your stories to the role, company or person you're speaking with and the challenges that they're going through. Number two is to practice. The more you practice telling your story, the more natural and confident you'll sound and the more your amygdala in your brain is going to calm down and reset because you're giving it new narratives and you're making it something that doesn't feel so overwhelming, anxiety inducing, blocking you freezing up. Your amygdala does all those things when it's stressed and it's worried.

So the more you practice, the more you tell it that it's a normal behavior that you're going to do. I recommend writing stories down of your past experiences for common interview questions and then saying them out loud to yourself, your dog or cat, or to a recording before you say them to a person. When you're ready, practice with other people. You can ask a partner, friend or colleague, or you can find a peer mentor to do a mock interview with. There are services online and coaches like me that offer this service. So when you have one of those really impactful interviews coming up at your ideal organization for the ideal role, it is truly worth the spend if you can afford it to do mock interviews with professionals. There are services online and coaches like me that offer this service, so check out hercareestudio.com for more information on this and then use AI tools if you're struggling to articulate your accomplishments or you're sitting there going blah. How do I get started with answering this interview question? Tools like our ChatGPT resume brainstorming partner at hercareerstudio.com can help you craft clear and impactful bullet points to tell your story.

Sometimes it can simply unblock you so you can just get started. Remember, storytelling does not have to be perfect, it just has to be authentic and focused. The goal is to connect your experiences to the needs of your audience in a way that feels natural and compelling. That's it for episode five of Her Career Studio. I hope today's episode gave you a deeper understanding of how storytelling plays a critical role in your job search and how you can use it to stand out both in writing and in conversations. I also hope it boosted your confidence that you can craft these skills and it's just practice and making sure you implement tips we talked about that will get you into a stronger storytelling space. Remember, like always to visit hercarestudio.com for tools like our free resume template, the ChatGPT resume brainstorming partner Cover Letter template, et cetera, to help you refine your story and make it even more impactful. These are all free tools for you because I believe in you.

In next episodes, we'll continue to discuss tips for your job search to keep it focused and relevant to your goals. I can't wait to share these insights with you. Thank you so much for tuning in today. And as always, remember you've got this. I'll see you in the next episode of Her Career Studio.

Lisa Virtue:

Are you currently in the job search or looking to make a career transition? Her Career Studio has you covered. Hi, this is Lisa Virtue, the career coach and the founder of Her Career Studio that is dedicated to bringing you free resources. So head to hercareerstudio.com and get your free cover letter template, the guide to how to write it, and your free resume template. Keep it simple and use these tried and true resume templates that are also ATS friendly and in Google Docs so they're easy to edit and keep track of. This will build out your career story in writing so that you can get those interviews and ultimately land that ideal job. You got this. Good luck and best wishes.