As you build your career, you might feel like each new job or endeavor is an isolated event, especially if you are like more than 60 percent of women who have embarked on nonlinear career paths. Yet, your career experiences may be more interconnected than you think, and communicating that clearly in job interviews and networking events can help you market your skills more effectively. The key to tying these experiences together cohesively is to develop a career narrative.
A career narrative is a clear account of how your work experiences, skills, and attributes have collectively brought you to where you are today. “I view a career narrative as the story of your professional life. It's a timeline you create to show where you've been, what you've done, and how you've grown throughout your career,” says Shanon Thweatt, a learning development manager at Blue Ocean Brain, a professional development training firm.
“Imagine telling a friend about your journey in the working world; you'd share the jobs you've had, what skills you've learned, the challenges you've overcome, and the successes you've achieved. A career narrative does the same thing, but in a structured way that helps others understand your path and what makes you unique in your field.”
A strong career narrative is useful at any stage of your career but you may find it especially helpful when you are making a change, such as:
-
Switching industries
-
Re-entering the workforce
-
Rebranding yourself for a new job search
-
Preparing to network or interview
As the U.S. job market becomes increasingly competitive—with LinkedIn estimating that there is one job opening available for every two applicants—you need a strong career narrative. According to Alex Bryant, career coach and founder of Omega Forty Seven Career Coaching, a well-crafted career narrative is what helps you stand out from the competition. “It’s your chance to showcase your unique value proposition; how your distinctive skills and experiences make you an ideal candidate over other applicants.”
Thweatt agrees: A career narrative “boosts your confidence by emphasizing your strengths, creates consistency in your brand, and encourages continuous self-improvement and growth.”
Here’s how you create a career narrative that is true to who you are and what you can offer in the workplace.
5 steps to help you shape your career narrative
Developing your career narrative doesn’t have to be a complicated process. “The goal of a career narrative is to create a logical and memorable description that gives your audience a clear sense of your career path and aspirations,” Thweatt says.
Use each of these five steps to create and shape a narrative that can elevate your professional brand, take your networking to the next level, and help you feel more confident in speaking fluidly about your career progression.
1. Highlight your accomplishments (unapologetically)
Career accomplishments can range from saving your company a substantial amount of money to resolving a complex customer issue. Identify at least two accomplishments you can share with prospective employers, even if you’re not used to focusing on your achievements. “I was taught that sharing my accomplishments would be arrogant, and as a woman of color, I needed to be humble and not rock the boat,” says Thweatt.
As outdated as this expectation is, it’s one that many women have a tough time relinquishing. In their eye-opening study, professors Christine Exley and Judd B. Kessler determined that women were less likely to call attention to their accomplishments, even when applying for and interviewing for jobs—both situations in which self-promotion is necessary to show that you are the best candidate for the position.
Thweatt reiterates that you should speak up about your career wins, especially when shaping your narrative. “Choosing significant moments, challenges, or turning points showcases your growth and expertise.” Adding your successes to your career narrative can help position you as a valuable addition to the team who can make a lasting impact on the company’s future.
Read more: How to Make the Business Case for the Work You Do
2. Identify key themes
Regardless of how diverse your career experiences have been, you may find that each one required a high level of customer service, depended on your ability to form relationships, or called for you to quickly adapt to ongoing changes. As you reflect on your career, pay attention to common themes and patterns.
According to Thweatt, who is certified in talent development, key themes point to your “strengths, expertise, and areas of specialization.” Thweatt even says that identifying key themes was an important step in building her own career narrative. “It allows you to stand out as a candidate who brings unique value and a depth of experience to the table.”
Highlight your own unique value by picking at least two to three key themes in your career. Prepare one strong example to illustrate each theme. Here’s an example of how that might sound in a job interview:
“A common theme in my career has been customer advocacy. In each of my roles, I have taken on projects and tasks that require me to anticipate customer challenges and provide solutions using our products. For example, as a customer success manager with The Customer Company, I improved customer retention by 10 percent in one year by delivering personalized solutions. That is what motivated me to apply for this position at the Excel Agency—the opportunity to champion customers and their unique needs.”
In this example, you identify customer advocacy as a common theme, provide a strong, measurable example of how that theme has shown up in your career, and tie it all back to the position you are interviewing for. You can tweak this example for a networking meetup or workshop by making it shorter, removing the specific job title, and discussing the type of role you’re seeking next:
“A common theme in my career has been customer advocacy. As a customer success manager with The Customer Company, I improved customer retention by 10 percent in one year by delivering personalized solutions. For my next role, I’m excited about overseeing customer success for a global brand with a diverse customer base.”
3. Include verbs and metrics.
Openly talking about your accomplishments and identifying key themes are winning strategies for building an effective career narrative, but it doesn't stop there. Bryant—who has spent more than 10 years coaching job seekers on building their professional brands—says that verbs and metrics are central to solidifying your career narrative. “It's essential to strategically incorporate powerful, impactful verbs and metrics to make your story dynamic. For instance, swap out, ‘My first job out of college was at a small firm where I honed my payroll processing skills as an HR Coordinator’ for, “My career journey began at [Employer Name], where I pioneered new payroll procedures that slashed administrative processing time by 20 percent.”
Incorporating metrics is a simple, yet compelling, way to convey your impact in a job interview or networking event. Consider additional examples of metrics you can include in your career narrative, such as:
-
The number of team members you supervised
-
The amount of money you saved the company
-
Your turnaround time on a project
-
The profit you helped to achieve
-
Your customer satisfaction scores
4. Tailor your message
The structure of your career narrative will remain the same in a job interview or networking event, but the way you deliver your message will change—make it flexible enough to be tailored to the setting you will be in. “In a job interview, your story will need to be targeted to the specific role you’re applying for and include only the most relevant skills and experience for that position,” says Bryant. “If you’re chatting with someone new at a conference, you can keep things a bit broader in scope.”
Further, some job interviews and networking events are formal while others are more casual and easygoing. Keep this in mind as you develop your narrative so that you are prepared to deliver your message using the most appropriate tone.
Read more: 7 Ways to Schmooze Your Network (the Right Way)
5. Get to the point
The term “narrative” might make you think you should be creating a long detailed story of your career. On the contrary, Bryant suggests you aim for brevity. “A common misconception is that a career narrative is simply walking through every job you ever had. While you certainly do want to weave in your career progression within your storyline, it’s most important to include your most relevant expertise and accomplishments rather than what you did on a day-to-day basis.”
Try to capture your career narrative in about one minute—enough time to chat up a new acquaintance at a networking function or sufficiently answer a question like “tell me about yourself” in an interview.
Read more: 8 Effective & Memorable Ways to Introduce Yourself Professionally (with Examples)
Want to create your own career narrative? Read this example
Before you shape your own career narrative, review this example of a strong career narrative that was designed with the five key steps in mind:
“As a service-minded career coach, I consistently develop strategies that help my clients realize their full potential. In fact, service and advocacy are recurring themes in my work, just like when I helped a job seeker get 10 more job leads each week by guiding her in updating her resume and LinkedIn profile. In less than three months, those leads turned into multiple full-time job offers. Ultimately, we worked together to transform her job search and I’m excited about getting a role where I can do that for all of my clients.”
After you’ve created your career narrative: how to use it to achieve your goals
Your career narrative isn’t just another tool to add to your professional toolkit—it’s also vital to effective goal-setting. “When you can see where you've come from and where you want to go, it's easier to set clear goals,” Thweatt says. “Your narrative reminds you of the skills you've developed, the challenges you've conquered, and the progress you've made.”
Your career narrative can also motivate you to pursue new opportunities by revealing any gaps you need to fill in your career. If you find that your career narrative is missing a key skill or certification, for instance, set a goal for acquiring that skill or pursuing that certification. Achieving that goal means that you will be able to add meaningful expertise to your career narrative, positioning you as a stronger candidate for jobs. Stay motivated by remembering that the career narrative you want to share in job interviews and networking events is just on the other side of the goal that you’ve set.
