Prompts for Writing Your Career Birth Story
One day I was at a playground with a group of new moms. One of the moms said, “If I asked you to tell me your birth story in two minutes, what would you say?” To a person, we all answered with some variation on this theme:
“You want me to reduce 24 hours of labor into two minutes? Bwahaha.”
Nevertheless, she persisted. She was a filmmaker and wanted to record our stories for a documentary she was producing. So she gave us a few directions and writing prompts, and we each went off agreeing to whittle our stories down.
It was a life changing exercise in what it takes to find the feel, meaning, and message of any experience. We had to over-write, edit, and then deliver for the camera several times before we nailed it.
Fast forward a gazillion years. I was workshopping with five women leaders recently on developing several kinds of leadership stories. They had been masterminding together for several years and they knew each other intimately. They shared meals and went on outings with their partners and children.
Stealing from the filmmaker’s prompts I asked each woman in the group if they could tell their birth stories. They nodded and said, “Of course, like it was yesterday.” And then I asked them if they could tell the birth story of their careers in two minutes or less.
They muddled around a bit, but all agreed it would be a good story to develop since they’d been asked that question in interviews and in networking conversations, and by colleagues and mentees repeatedly, but they weren’t sure their stories were landing.
I gave them a few prompts to help them bullet point their stories in their notebooks:
I remember exactly what inspired me to study [fill in with your degree] in college…
The one event that most informed my decision to pursue a career in [fill in with your field/role]...
The colleague/boss who had the most influence on my career…
All their stories were inspiring, instructive, and most importantly, messy. They didn’t have straight lines or perfect little bows. They showed a progression from inspiration, the messy middle, to lessons learned.
Here’s my career birth story to give you a sense of the messy middle, lessons learned, and why I focus on storytelling.
Years ago I was interviewing for a new business coordinator position at a well-known PR firm—before Google and smartphones and all the ready access to information that might help me interview better. My future boss asked me, “Do you have a story from your work or life and you think really conveys who you really are as a person?”
I was completely unprepared for that question. I paused. Fumbled around. And then I told him a story about how I convinced my high school board to allow girls to wear pants (yes, we’re talking old days). I thought I gave a riveting performance, but my boss said, “Now, tell me that story one more time and invest it with the characters and conflict.” And so I did, even sneaking in an imitation of the principal’s nasal twang.
At that point I was thinking, I’m an actor, I know I nailed it. But he asked me to tell the story yet again, and “this time, don’t make yourself the hero of the story." Tell me about your missteps on the way to success.” And so I made a bit of a mess, but eventually I put a period on the last sentence and to my surprise, he hired me.
Weeks later I was sitting down with my boss and I asked him why he made me jump through all those story hoops. He said, “Well, first of all, I wanted to see if you could think on your feet. And second, what we do here when you really get down to it is tell stories--brand stories, customer stories, human stories. I wanted to see if you had the makings of a good storyteller because that’s what will make you valuable and promotable.”
Boom. Lesson definitely learned.