Education & Career

Continuing to look back at the early years of A Storied Career while I finalize my e-book, Storied Careers and prepare for hosting a teleseminar on 09-09-09. New entries will resume soon.

Career coach Wendy J. Terwelp touts the value of story, or case studies, in the job search, noting that job-seekers can the same strategy that marketers use in promoting products “to promote what you can do for a company — without sounding like an infomercial.” It really works, Terwelp proclaims, continuing:

This strategy helps demonstrate your expertise during — and after — an interview. Develop at least three case studies that demonstrate your expertise. Keep each study to one page per study, if possible. Name it something exciting, such as: “New Web Strategy Tripled Sales for X Marks the Spot Marketing.” Avoid too much jargon to make it an easy read.

For example, if you are a web designer, provide the Challenge encountered when developing a particular website. Perhaps it was capturing the company’s personality in an exciting way or creating an exciting e-commerce solution that would triple online business in the first six months. Provide the Action steps you took to achieve the Results. This can include the way you developed the web concept and marketing plan, structured the site, researched effective keywords, partnered with outside resources, etc. Then describe the Results. What happened with the project? If you have stats that demonstrate the amount of hits increased combined with a sales increase, these are hard facts that prove you can do the job.

Continuing to update some entries from the early years of A Storied Career while I finalize my e-book, Storied Careers and prepare for hosting a teleseminar on 09-09-09. New entries will resume Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Over the years of this blog, and in my book Tell Me About Yourself:, I’ve talked extensively about story formulas that can be used in job-seach communication.

Typical formulas (represented by acronyms) include PAR, SAR, and CAR: Problem • Action • Result; Situation • Action • Result; and Challenge • Action • Result.

Steve Denning suggests a different formula: “I noted that persuading people to change required a shift from the conventional approach to communications of problem • analysis • solution, must be set aside in favor of a very different triad: get attention • stimulate desire • reinforce with reasons.

Denning touches on this concept and gives storied examples in the first chapter of chapter of his , The Secret Language of Leadership (starting on page 27).

Looking back three years I first wrote about Denning’s formula, I can clear see how well it works for cover letters.

Job-seekers can use the formula like this in a cover letter:

Get attention by describing a problem the prospective employer has or a need to organization needs to fill. It must be a problem or need the employer has acknowledged — say, in a job posting or in a networking conversation.

Stimulate desire by telling how you can solve the problem or meet the need for the employer.

Reinforce with reasons by telling a story about how you solved a similar problem or met a similar need for a past employer. This technique works because employers know that past behavior is the best predictor of future performance.

Cathie Dodd’s Storytelling Twitterthon begins at 6 am PST Labor Fay, Sept. 7.

Says Cathie:

Start sharing sharing your personal stories. It will be going all day,so whenever you have a moment stop by and be apart of it. Some have already started sharing their stories. Just go to Twitter and when you update your status you write your story and put this in the as the hash tag to type #TOJStory. If you want to see what everyone is writing , search the hash tag.

Big doings this week:

I will host a Worldwide Story Work Teleseminar tomorrow, Wed., Sept. 9, 4 pm EDST, entitled: The Golden Age of Storytelling: Why Is Story Exploding? What Does It Means for Practitioners?

If you’re thinking of attending, please access the handout I prepared for the teleseminar — to grease the wheels, get the thoughts flowing. You can download and read this PDF handout: Sept9TelesemWWSWGoldenAgeHansen.pdf.

Another option is to read this page (same content as handout) before the teleseminar or have it in front of you during the event.

You can register for the teleseminar here (you may need to become a member of Worldwide Story Work to register); however, I don’t believe registration is required, and you can simply call this number on Sept. 9, 4 pm EDST: 1-218-936-4700 — Access Code 710691

My free e-book, Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk about Applied Storytelling, will be released Thursday, Sept. 10 (barring unforeseen circumstances).

Thanks for your patience.

href="mailto:kathy@astoriedcareer.com?Subject=Notify_Me_When_EBook_Is_Ready">Click here to e-mail me style="color: rgb(0, 102, 102);"> to be notified when the book is
ready for free download.

My free 88-page, illustrated e-book, Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk about Applied Storytelling, is now available.

I’ve been gratified by many positive comments from the 43 contributors who reviewed a beta release of the book over the past week.

Please go to this page from which you can directly download your free copy of the book..

To learn more about the book and and also download a free copy, go here. Please feel free to tweet and spread the word.

Here’s the table of contents:

• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1: Defining Story
• CHAPTER 2: Origins of Storytelling Passions
• CHAPTER 3: Storytelling Influences
• CHAPTER 4: An Explosion of Storytelling?
• CHAPTER 5: Social-media Storytelling
• CHAPTER 6: Troubling Uses of Storytelling
• CHAPTER 7: Transformational Storytelling
• CHAPTER 8: Storytelling Advice
• CHAPTER 9: Change Your Story, Change Your Life
• CHAPTER 10: Storytelling in Relationships, Teams, and Community
• CHAPTER 11: Story Techniques and Tools
• CHAPTER 12: Unexpected Applications of Storytelling
• CHAPTER 13: Storytelling in Organizations
• CHAPTER 14: Getting Buy-In for Storytelling
• CHAPTER 15: Personal Storytelling, Lifewriting, and Memoir
• CHAPTER 16: The Practice of Storytelling
• CHAPTER 17: Storytelling in Marketing, Sales, and Branding
• CHAPTER 18: Storytelling and Career
• CHAPTER 19: Storytelling in Writing and Communication
• CHAPTER 20: The Future of Storytelling
• Directory of Practitioners: Photos and Contact Info