{"id":101391,"date":"2023-04-30T17:10:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T21:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=101391"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:36:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:36:01","slug":"career-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/career-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Crafting & Sharing Your Career Story With Others (and Yourself)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you look at your career as just a timeline with points on it? What if you saw it as a story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you realize it or not, your career has a narrative. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end (in the past or in the future). You’re the main character who has certain motivations and faces obstacles along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn how putting your career story into words can be powerful for colleagues, prospective employers, and even yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0Shortform\u2019s guide to storytelling<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Career Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you interview for a job or introduce yourself to someone<\/a> new, you should frame your career as a story<\/strong>. This makes it more memorable, reveals why you do what you do, and can even help explain an unconventional path if needed. Having a career story is also useful when you\u2019re facing a crisis or a decision and need help staying focused on your priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biesenbach cites the advice to find the \u201cimplicit narrative<\/a>\u201d of your life: Identify the values, character traits, and skills that have driven you through your most significant successes and challenges. Recall feedback that you\u2019ve received from others, and articulate what you\u2019ve enjoyed about your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The \u201cimplicit narrative\u201d is just one framework for using stories to think about the purpose you\u2019re trying to fulfill in your career. In Find Your Why<\/em><\/a>, David Mead, Peter Docker, and Simon Sinek<\/a> recommend having a \u201cpurpose discussion<\/a>\u201d to identify your core values<\/a> and purpose. They recommend gathering stories and lessons from your life that are meaningful to you, noticing the themes of those stories, and then drafting a purpose statement<\/a> to articulate the action that your purpose<\/a> compels you to take and the impact you want that action to have.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biesenbach recommends crafting your personal narrative with the same basic five-part structure he recommends for any story<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n