I’m often asked to explain what I mean by storytelling. Earlier this year, I presented a storytelling workshop to some of the top international career professionals in Portugal, highlighting how the use of storytelling can set them and their clients apart from the competition.
When it comes to career tools like CVs, Cover Letters and LinkedIn profiles, storytelling isn’t just about recounting events. It’s not about adding superfluous detail, and it’s certainly not a work of fiction.
It’s about crafting meaningful narratives that highlight your skills, achievements, and value proposition in an engaging and relevant way.
The Essence of Storytelling:
Storytelling in a professional context involves weaving a coherent narrative that connects your experiences, skills, and aspirations. It showcases your achievements with impactful anecdotes that highlight not just the “what” but also the “how” and “why”.
Here’s how I define what storytelling Is:
- Weaving a Narrative Thread: Connecting your experiences and skills into a cohesive story.
- Showcasing Achievements with Impact: Using context and “before” and “after” anecdotes to illustrate your contributions and results.
- Demonstrating Executive Presence: Sharing stories that reveal your gravitas, communication and adaptability.
- Injecting personality and emotions: Making your profile relatable and memorable by highlighting your purpose, values, and unique characteristics.
- Building Trust and Credibility: Sharing authentic stories that foster a sense of connection.
What Storytelling Is Not:
- Chronological Listing of Duties: Just listing job responsibilities without context or impact.
- Exaggeration or Fabrication: Embellishing stories or claiming experiences you didn’t have.
- Generic Buzzwords and Clichés: Relying on overused phrases and generic descriptions such as “significant”, “many” and “better” without backing them up with specific details.
- A Self-Serving Monologue: Only focusing on your achievements without demonstrating an understanding of the company’s needs.
- Unrelated Anecdotes: Sharing stories irrelevant to the job or company you’re applying to. The last thing we want is the reader thinking to themselves, “So what?”.
As a certified CV writer and career coach specialising in storytelling, I have seen firsthand how powerful a well-crafted narrative can be in transforming your career tools and interview preparation.
Through my experience, I’ve developed exercises that help you turn your CV, LinkedIn profile, and cover letter into engaging narratives. These strategies highlight your unique skills, achievements, and value proposition, allowing you to showcase more of your authentic self during the recruitment process and beyond.
Here’s are a few of my favourite storytelling strategies:
CV:
- Create a Narrative Arc: Crafting your experience sections to tell a story of progression and growth. Highlighting key turning points and showing how you’ve built your expertise.
- Use Sensory Details: Making your achievements vivid by describing the context, emotions involved, and impact.
- Highlight Strengths & Accomplishments: Using a personal brand statement to summarise your value proposition and weave achievements throughout your experience sections.
- Showcase Transferable Skills: Demonstrating skills through relevant experiences, using metrics and appropriate action verbs to quantify your impact.
LinkedIn Profile:
- Highlight Endorsements and Recommendations: Leveraging social proof to bolster your story.
- Showcase Soft Skills: Highlighting your top soft skills in your headline and summary, then sharing stories that demonstrate them in action in the About and Experience sections.
- Visual Storytelling: Using images and videos to make your profile more visually appealing.
Cover Letter:
- Start with a Strong Hook: Grabbing the reader’s attention with a captivating anecdote, statistic, or question.
- Use Dialogue and Quotes: Incorporating snippets of dialogue or quotes from colleagues, clients, or supervisors to add depth and authenticity.
- Company Insights: Researching the company and tailoring your story to address its specific needs and challenges or its values and work environment.
By adopting these storytelling strategies, I can transform your career tools from bland to bold, grabbing attention and highlighting your value.
Working with a specialised career coach and CV writer like me can help uncover your narrative, reveal your forgotten strengths, and highlight your transferable skills more deeply. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to get in touch today.
