Communicating in the Same Language
Help people understand you by telling a good (tailored) story
Connecting with people through storytelling can happen in any area of your life. In relation to your career story, there are many audiences and contexts, particularly future employers, whom you’re telling your story to. Whether you’re looking for your first job, pivoting fields or going for a promotion, you’ll need to share your story with those looking to hire you. Tailoring your story to the right audience is crucial.
Weaving The Threads
There are different mediums to put your story out in the world. If you use LinkedIn, think about your Summary/About section. This is often what people read when they’re trying to get a sense of you online, and it’s a perfect place to practice your story. If you attend conferences or events, have an elevator pitch at the ready. Everyone asks “tell me about yourself” and it’s beneficial if you have a smooth, engaging answer. Similarly, in an interview this question is asked regularly.
Don’t center your story around the company you work for or your job title or the degree you’re obtaining, instead bring together your experiences, abilities and challenges to capture all the good work that you are doing as a person. Your degree or job title has shaped your career, but you are more than both.
“I’m a sales rep at X company and have been in sales for 10 years, ever since I graduated with a marketing degree”“I’m a PhD candidate in the Y lab and in my 3rd year and working on Z project”Reframe to capture where you’ve been, what you’ve done, and where you’re headed.
“Ever since my first marketing class I’ve been intrigued about the psychology of influence. Over the past 10 years I’ve been learning how to listen to customers and really problem solve their needs. I’ve hopped around to a few different fields, gaining experience in different markets and building diverse relationships. I’m currently at X company but ready to move into a leadership position where I can start teaching new sales reps the ropes.”“I’m interested in the intersection of technical scientific knowledge and patient impact. I’ve been tackling patient decision making around new medications for the past 3 years during my PhD by analyzing data sets and talking with doctors. I’m excited to put my findings into practice once I graduate in the fall and am looking to enter the healthcare sector.”Storytelling extends past your ‘elevator pitch’. Every experience is its own story that can reveal your values, interests and motivations. Stating that you value something is not as powerful as sharing a story where that value is evident. If crafting a whole career story sounds like a lot, try sharing a specific story about an experience.
A story should be concise, memorable and inviting. All of us want to connect, and sharing narratives is a way to draw people in and offer value.
Show You Have What They Want
Generally, employers want to know they can trust you to do the job they need and that you’ll offer value. The specifics of different employers' needs depends on the field, company and role. Once you understand what employers want, you now have to communicate that you have what they want.
Reflect back on the career construction phases as you hone your story. You were exposed to the career paths of professionals and heard how they communicated their journey. Immersing yourself in activities provided you opportunities to translate your past skills to new contexts. As you connected with professionals, especially during informational interviews, you started consolidating your career story. Integrating those experiences was great practice for telling your journey.
Translating Experience
If you’re coming from an academic background, or have been working in one specific field for years, it can be hard to communicate all the work you’ve done to audiences who are not familiar with your area. If you’re pivoting fields, saying “I led a project” or “I wrote a paper” seems generally impressive, but a new employer won’t know the full extent of what those activities entail nor how they directly relate to what they need.
Knowing your audience can help tailor your communication. The more you understand the language this field uses the more you can tap into those reference points when sharing your experiences (yet another reason why talking to people in the field is so important!). Talking with friends and family about your work is another way to practice communicating in a style that is understandable.
To practice, breakdown tasks on your resume in easily understandable language:
On one side of a page list all the steps of a work project or experience
These can be in technical, field specific language, but get granular
On the corresponding side, explain what each activity means in plain language
Reference the job ad analysis exercise (in last month’s post) to better understand how your industry of interest speaks and what it values, and utilize this when describing your experiences
Weaving a story is about connecting the dots for the audience. This involves reflecting on what you’ve done, what’s important to you and your own journey. It also involves knowing what’s of value to the audience. Storytelling does take practice, the more you share the easier it is to connect the dots for yourself and adapt to different listeners. Your story is worth sharing so don’t be afraid to share it.