Threshold Consulting: It's Your Life, Own It!

Mid-Year Check Up: The Full 360

This month’s Career Collective topic is Mid-Year Job-Search Checkup. 

Okay, I can almost hear what you’re thinking: “Washington is making massive job-killing mistakes, employers are either getting by with less or unwilling to expand, and besides it’s summer. So, what can I possibly do to move my job search forward?”  Frankly, if you’ve honestly been taking reasonable steps in conducting your job search, and assuming you’re using every opportunity to show your value and build relationships, there probably isn’t much more you can do.

An honest assessment at your efforts in managing a job search is important. Yet, in my experience, too many people in job search become so focused on landing that new position that they lose sight of the bigger picture: their lives.  So, maybe your mid-year check up ought not to focus on how you’re doing in your job search, but on how you want your life to be.

Consider the parable of the MBA and the Mexican fisherman.

If you haven’t heard it, the gist is this: A tourist with a Harvard MBA meets a fisherman who is content to sleep late, fish a little as a livelihood, play with his children, take siesta with his wife, and stroll into the village each evening to sip wine and play guitar with his amigos.

The tourist takes it upon himself to describe how the fisherman can grow his business, issue an IPO, and make millions. On the question of “what then,” the tourist tells the fisherman: “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Okay, you may wonder how this applies to you.

If you’re like a lot of other career-oriented people, you may think that the real rewards in life will come at the end of your career. So, you keep focused on finding that job…or perhaps on the frustration of not finding one. But you may not have thought about how you truly want your life to be. So, whether you are currently working or not, take some time to do a life check up and consider how you may want to rebalance. Look at the full 360! In other words, think of how you invest your energy in the various parts your life portfolio, and figure out the return in satisfaction. And while you’re at it, determine to lift your level of happiness. To help you, a good summer read would be Get A Life: You Don’t Need A Million to Retire Well, Ralph Warner.

Sure, I know that considering your retirement is counterintuitive. Yet, by shifting your focus, you may discover that in creating a satisfying life, you may find you can reinvent your career in ways you may not have considered during your relentless pursuit of a new position.  Who knows, maybe you’ll find a way to sell a few fish so you can enjoy your more time with your family and amigos.

Make Your Career More Social: Show Up and Engage

This month’s Career Collective topic is “social media - how to use it in a job search, how to get started, do's and don'ts”. This post, however, provides perspective on using social media for long-term career management.  For specific job search applications, you’ll want to check out posts by Career Collective colleagues. As well, use Google to find great content; for example here, here, and here. You can also join LinkedIn and choose relevant discussion groups, or use Facebook and it’s tools, including BranchOut. Finally, there are several great books such as this, this, and this.  So, now, let’s get on with the rest of your career.  

It often seems to me that many people in the career transition space continue to party like it’s 1999. That was the year when we were all concerned about defending life-as-we-knew-it from the looming Y2K Bug. Had disaster struck, it would have included a setback for job seekers who were just discovering the newly minted monster.com that promised to ease the process of applying for jobs. Fortunately, catastrophe was averted, and many people breathed a sigh of relief knowing that life could be the same as it ever was. Well, at least until 2003, when LinkedIn was launched, … and in its wake, the social media revolution that would change things forever.

By now, everyone realizes that social media has emerged as a force in career management! Yet, many tend to use it according to the old job search rules; that is, as a means to an end – like a resume, cover letters, career fairs, and networking events. One danger of this approach is that social media use can be put on the shelf with job search tools as soon as one lands what seems like a secure new position.

Yet, the new career management reality increasingly requires always-on engagement with trusted networks that form out of your broader brand community. We have entered a world where social media is fast becoming the ticket to opportunities that emerge in a relationship economy, or as Gary Vaynerchuck has recently dubbed it, The Thank You Economy.

So, what is this new economy? Here’s Vaynerchuck’s view:

[Business] … happens in the small, personal interactions that allow us to prove to each other who we are and what we believe in, honest moments that promote good feelings and build trust and loyalty.  Now imagine that you could take those interactions and scale them to hundreds, thousands, or millions of people …. Now, … it's necessary. In fact, those companies and brands that refuse to try could jeopardize the potential of their business, and in the long term, even their very existence.

Why?  Because when it comes down to it, the only thing that will never change is human nature.  When given the choice, people will always spend their time around people they like. When it's expedient and practical, they'd also rather do business and buy stuff from people they like. And now, they can. Social media has made it possible for consumers to interact with businesses in a way that is often similar to how they interact with friends and family.

A shorter way of saying this, and one familiar to many small business people, is: People do business with people they know, like, and trust.  And lest you think you’re not a small business person, consider that increasing numbers of workers continue to be hired on short-term, contract gigs, requiring an always-on pursuit of new opportunities. In fact, the new standard of “job security” is rooted in your ability to always find work. And this has implications for how you actually use social media. To mention a few, you need to:

Establish and Cultivate Professional Presence. If the “thank you” economy is all about doing business with people we know, like, and trust, then people need to know you. This means having an online presence that conveys who you are, the differentiated value you deliver, and what sets you apart from others. The trend is away from hiring the right skills and job titles and toward hiring the right people!

Convey an Authentic Story to Underscore Credibility. Today, people are especially astute in creating personal brand statements to convey value. Unfortunately, many of these are superficial. You now need to provide your backstory, showing you’re the best choice because your brand is truly rooted in relevant life and work experiences.

Identify and Connect with Your Brand Community. Contrary to what many social media advisors say, there’s little benefit in large numbers of friends, followers, and fans. The key standard is not the number but the relevance of your social media connections. So, you’ll benefit most from relationships with your people; that is, audiences who understand what you do, and who are most likely to look for you (or people like you) when they see an opportunity.

Use Platforms that Display Your Expertise. You probably understand the importance of having an online profile at sites like LinkedIn, but have you settled for providing just career history? If so, you risk being too easily ignored or forgotten. You can only stay relevant and current – and memorable – when people see your expertise expressed in fresh ideas and new accomplishments. There are many ways to do this, from participating in LinkedIn Groups to tweeting, blogging, and posting videos and slide shares – just to name a few!

Invest the Time to Engage Others. Social media has deep roots in the idea that markets are conversations. And with the powerful platforms available today, it’s possible to have conversations with people from anywhere in the world, and at any time of day, and over extended time periods. Short or long, regular online conversations go well beyond exchanged information to facilitating trusted relationships built over time.

Cultivate Good Karma. “What goes around comes around” applies to positive thoughts and deeds as well as to negative ones. On social media, pushing your own agenda, especially if you have not taken the time to help or acknowledge others, can be a negative. So, find ways to put others first. You generosity can take many forms; for example, extending simple congratulations, providing links to resources, answering questions, putting up how-to posts, promoting others or their causes, or even consulting with someone who could use your expertise.

Frankly, all this requires a commitment of time and energy.

Yet, regularly showing up and engaging your brand community in small daily doses has a cumulative effect, and will generate good will and word-of-mouth marketing as your reputation spreads. As more people know you, chances are better that they’ll consider you for that next gig because they’re already predisposed to do business with you. Make the investment. You’ll thank yourself!

When it’s Time to Recycle Your Career

This month’s Career Collective topic is Best Advice for Career Changers.

When I think about how people make career choices, I often recall the scene from the classic movie, The Graduate. In it, a well-meaning family friend, Mr. McGuire, corners young Benjamin resulting in the following exchange:

Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Just how do you mean that, sir?
Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?
Ben: Yes I will.
Mr. McGuire: Shh! Enough said. That's a deal.

Among the movie’s other themes, one review makes a great point about the implications for how  “…aimless and unalive the disaffected young generation was…and would become as they approached middle-age and worked in sterile corporate settings.” It was, in fact, a chilling prospect; and in many cases, has become a daunting reality.

I’d love to say that we’re well beyond the time when people drift aimlessly into a career choice with the hope of a safe, secure, and financially rewarding future. Certainly, the world has become too uncertain to believe in such an outcome. Yet, I often see mid-career folks who want to make a career move into a field with more stability and more reward. And so they look externally to career forecasts. Frankly, it’s not the place to start.

As I see it, if you are at mid-career, the first place to look is to your career journey. For it’s in your personal career story where you’ll find the clues that will help you make a more informed evaluation of your best direction. So, doing some introspective work that uncovers the theme or themes that have directed your choices over time, you’ll be able to create a clearer statement of the differentiated value that is your brand, and you’ll know how your story validates it.

Once you have those insights, you can then fold them into a career vision. For that, I would strongly recommend the “I SEE Career Vision” exercise presented by Laurence Boldt, in his excellent, Zen and the Art of Making a Living. Basically, it’s this:

Integrity: What work will best fit with who I am?

Service: Whom do I want to serve?

Enjoyment: What will I most enjoy doing?

Excellence: To what will I devote myself?

There is in my advice, a bias that you ought to figure out what you were meant to do, and go do it! So, today, if there is one word for career choice, I’d say it’s “authentic.”

Are you listening? Think about it. Enough said.

Break the Rules or Change the Game?

This month’s Career Collective topic is Job-hunting “Rules” to Break/ Outdated Job-Search Beliefs.

When I saw this month’s topic, my first thought was, "Wow. Easy topic." There are lots of rules that I think people should break, and there are lots of outdated job search beliefs. Yet, there is a larger truth that we all need to face, and it’s this: Job search is as much art as it is science. For example, whether you should have a one-page resume or a two pager is going to depend on a myriad of circumstances that you’ll need to figure out. Sixty-second, thirty-second, … or no elevator pitch? Who knows? Only you can decide what’ll work best, based on your specific situation!

If you are facing the very real need to find new employment, then you need to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. And you need to find that out quickly. Yet, whether you’re in active job search or not, what you truly need to consider is stepping out of the traditional career management model and changing your game to a longer-term career management strategy that relies on:

Differentiated Value.

It’s really not enough to define yourself in terms of a job title. Doing so merely makes you a commodity. Frankly, an accountant is an accountant is an accountant. If that’s all you tell others, you only give them a reason to ignore you. On the other hand, if you say you offer tax and financial advice to women entrepreneurs who want to have fun while becoming successful, you’ve made yourself stand out.

Authentic Story.

Of course you know you should have a personal brand. Maybe you even have a branded resume, bio, or online profile that reflects a unique promise of value. But how will people be able to see that the value you deliver is truly differentiated and authentic?

One way, is to document it in a career story that shows how you came to be good at doing what you do, and at serving the audience you serve. For example, if you are a sales and marketing strategist who is skilled at turning outsiders into insiders, then that ability should be grounded in your career/life journey backstory. If it is, you’ll be much more credible, and differentiated with a story only you can own.

Brand Community.

We all need a network, right?  And if you’re in job search, you’re probably actively building one. But what happens when you land a job? Do you, like many people who are working, put focus on the work at hand, forgetting about the people who helped get where you are? If yes, you’re making a big mistake. In today’s world, where jobs are just another gig, and the next opportunity is likely to emerge from a trusted network, staying connected is a career lifeline.

Changing the game is not easy. But it’s increasingly necessary.

If you remain mired in the traditional job-search model to manage your career, you may find moving ahead increasingly difficult. Instead, you need to stop being a job seeker, and start generating opportunities by becoming a trust agent connected to a trusted network that will turn to you the next time someone wants to find a professional who can do what you do.

In 2011, Increase Your Prospects With Better Differentiation

This month’s Career Collective topic is things job seekers should keep an eye on in 2011 (trends/tools/hiring practices). 

Well, it’s that time again! As we put one year behind us and position ourselves for improved fortunes, we look to the experts to give us the edge. A shot at a better career, and a better life. It’s probably why predictions are so popular at the start of each year. But let’s face it. Without a concerted effort to act on your own behalf, what good is all that advice?

Certainly, there are trends that will have a direct impact on your career prospects. For example, as social media continues to grow, employers will rely on it increasingly to source and qualify candidates. Knowing this, it’s likely that you’ve already established an online presence on LinkedIn. But how differentiated is it? Does your profile present you as a plug-and-play candidate, or does it establish you as a truly differentiated and attractive?

Hard to know, right? But knowing is increasingly critical.

In a sea of sameness, only the truly differentiated stand out. It’s as true of job candidates as it is of products. Of course, avoiding the perception of sameness has two broad, though interwoven, requirements: understanding the offering and understanding the market. In managing your career, you are the offering, and your customers are the people you’re most suited to serve.

Like an entrepreneur running a business, you need clarity about these things. In fact, making your career your business begins to drive the process of differentiation. As Pam Slim, author of Escape From Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur, says"...knowing the fundamentals of how to work for yourself is a core career competency that everybody should really be learning….” That is, you need to be in control of your career. Yet, even if you agree with this perspective, your first order of business is actually not creating a business plan. 

It’s making the choice. 

In his book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, Seth Godin tells the story of Binny Thomas who got a new job without leaving her old one by simply choosing to stand out rather than fit in. According to Godin, one of the most fundamental shifts in our new economy is the role of self-determination. You can no longer make it on connections. Working for the right boss matters little. Even the right background won’t help.

What matters are your internal choices. According to Godin, “How we respond to the opportunities and challenges of the outside world now determines how much the outside world values us.” Yet, this is not solely about what you deliver, but how. It’s about your ability to give generously, to transform others by going beyond the expected. Godin sees this as your artistry.

Artistry, of course, is not something you can get from a “ten tips” in a CareerBuilder article. No, it’s more a product of the deep insights that show you where you’ve been, the choices you’ve made, and what you’ve achieved that makes you the proudest. This is your backstory. Knowing it helps you uncover the themes that will be the most reliable guides to shaping your future. It’s introspective work, and until you do it, you’ll simply not be in the best position to sort out what tools and trends will work best in running your career and making a difference.

Why?

Because if you know what drives you to accomplishment, and for whom, you’re better prepared to stand up and make the choices that matter and pave the way for you to put your own artistry in service to the world.  Not an easy path, for sure. Yet, this kind of differentiation is the price of admission in an increasingly mature marketplace.

Superstars Need Not Apply

This month’s Career Collective topic is common HR/job search misconceptions; for example, HR's primary function is hiring, the person doing the hiring does the screening, every word of every resume is read, the reader "cares" about what you want, the reader will take the time to figure out where you fit in their organization, the hiring authority will only check the references you provide, etc.

Recently, a LinkedIn Group I belong to posed a question regarding Holiday advice for job seekers.  There was lots of good advice about networking, and that’s a good thing, provided it’s done well. And done well, means abandoning the job-seeking mode in order to truly get to know others, share career stories, and build meaningful relationships. Especially with people in one’s professional community. And not just at the Holidays.

Yet, in that same discussion thread, there was also advice that was dominated by the traditional notion of “applying for a job” and using a strategy built around seeking openings that need to be filled. The advice included things like the impact of budget cycles on hiring, Human Resources having more time to look at resumes and schedule interviews during this slow period, less competition for openings, and decision makers planning to fill spots in the New Year. Advice like that always makes me cringe. Not only for the misconceptions it fosters, but also for the way it limits the job seeker's ability to step outside the traditional “pick me, pick me” job-seeking model.

Face it, we live in a time when “plug and play” positions are increasingly fading away. Few companies want to look at candidates who are merely well qualified. They want superstars. They want people with strong personal brands who stand out from the pack in offering value that's distinctive from everyone else. Perhaps that’s why the average job posting is often comprised of what seems to be an unrealistically long list of requirements and qualifications. Such positions seem to be impossible to fill. Who knows? Maybe it’s a misconception that complex postings represent what the company is really looking for.

Frankly, I think it’s possible that many hiring managers take an “I’ll-know-it-when-I see-it” approach, and entertain the hope that the candidate who has some “secret sauce” will show up. Managers looking for that special something might, in fact, be doing candidates a favor. While this may seem unfair, opening the possibility of discovering that kind of resonance can lead to a win-win for the hiring manager and for the candidate. So, how to make these discoveries? Well, it’s back to networking done well – including sharing stories. As I’ve previously suggested that shared narrative connects people in job interviews and in networking. The value of trading stories, in fact, is something that science increasingly seems to back, as Kathy Hansen points out in a recent post.

So, what’s the lesson?

It’s time to step outside the misconception built on “applying for a job” and raise your visibility and credibility with hiring managers. By connecting via networking that’s driven by shared career stories, you may discover you’ve become the superstar in some decision maker’s eyes. And that can lead to discussions of opportunities you could never have “applied for.”

Your Best Job Search Resource? You!

This is another post in a series of monthly advice posts made in association with the Career Collective, a group of professionals who collaborate to provide guidance for job seekers and careerists. The topic for September is   “Favorite Resources for Job Seekers.”

Normally, when people ask about resources for job seekers, they mean something that will be useful in helping the job seeker successfully secure new employment. It could be a book, a website, an article, an assessment, a contact management tool, or a networking or professional organization. There are lots of possibilities. And all you need to do is launch your web browser to find them. So, this post isn’t about any of those.

When all is said and done, success in a job search is meeting a short-term objective on a longer journey of career success. So, as I see it, the best resource for a job seeker is his or her own good judgment in making choices that lead to successful career management. Individual choices will be different for everyone. However, there is one common theme: developing the self-knowledge to be able to recognize the right kinds of opportunities, and then exercising the discipline to get out there to meet the people who can help connect you to them.

Frankly, the world of work has undergone epic change. Part of the reason more than fifteen million Americans are out of work is not simply due to economic melt down. No, loss of jobs started well before, when companies realized they should focus on core competencies and outsource everything else. This, of course, was aided and abetted by a global leveling of the playing field, so that work could be shipped anywhere on the planet.

So, the game has changed. Dramatically.

On a fundamental level, your ability to find work is all about making your career your business.  This doesn’t necessarily mean starting your own company. But it does involve your readiness to stand up and make dramatically new choices that allow you to make a difference.

Consider the case of Binny Thomas, as related by Seth Godin in his book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Binny got a new job, without leaving her old one. How? As Godin relates it:

One day, Binny Thomas stood up.

She stood up, spoke up, and started doing a new job. She didn’t leave her organization, didn’t even get a new title or new responsibilities. Instead, she started doing her old job in a new way. Binny stopped going to meetings with the goal of finding deniability or problems to avoid. Instead, she started leaning in and seeking out projects where she could make a difference.

Suddenly, Binny was inspired. She was looking for opportunities instead of hiding from blame.

 

According to Godin, one of the most fundamental shifts in our new economy is the role of self-determination. Conformity is not the path to success; rather, how “… we respond to the opportunities and challenges of the outside world now determines how much the outside world values us.” And this affects both job search and long-term career management.

Aside from reading Godin’s wonderful book as just one step, I can’t think of a single resource that will help you decide when and how to stand up. Yet, if you are looking to find a new job and to run a successful career thereafter, you need to turn to yourself and figure out when and how you can best take charge of your career, and what resources you’re going to need to make that happen.

Cross-posted at William Arruda's Personal Branding Blog

Networking: It's A Way of Life!

This is another post in a series of monthly advice posts made in association with the Career Collective, a group of professionals who collaborate to provide guidance for job seekers and careerists. The topic for July is “Networking, tips for overcoming fears, and even making it fun!”

It’s no secret that most job seekers resist networking. I always find this amazing, since continuing to meet new people and build new relationships is such a key part of managing your career – and your life.

In fairness, it seems, networking that is so immediately goal directed as finding a new job can be stressful. And perhaps it always will be. Yet developing your networking skills can bring intrinsic satisfactions – from the immediacy of an interesting conversation with a colleague to the satisfaction that comes from realizing you are connected to a broad community of people who matter.

When I think of networking as part of life and all the intrinsic satisfaction it can bring, I think of Carol Ross. Serving as coach on for her Networking Naturally Program, I know that Carol's philosophy is that networking truly is a way of life and can happen anywhere and any time. So, I asked if she’d do a brief interview for my July Career Collective post. She said yes, so I recorded the following Skype call. While the video call quality is not crisp, I think Carol offers clear ideas on ways to be more successful in networking. Enjoy!

Once again, many thanks to Carol!

Is Your Career Trapped in the Matrix?

This is another post in a series of monthly advice posts made in association with the Career Collective, a group of professionals who collaborate to provide guidance for job seekers and careerists. The questions topic for June is "Heating Up Your Job Search."

I know that with the shape the economy is in, people who are looking for a job are really feeling the heat. The reality, though, is that frustrated job search has been a long-standing concern, even in better times. Part of the problem, it seems to me, centers in job search methods. They are traditional and passé.

I’ve been thinking this for a long while, and planned to do a post to offer some new perspective. As I was about to write, I stumbled upon a great post from Chris Brogan, “Avoid the Many Versions of the Matrix.” He raises the question, “Job security= being employed by a stable company. Matrix or no?,” and concludes: “There’s what we think is real; there’s what we observe as real: and then there’s what we can change.”

In reading the post, it occurred to me that many of us career coaches foster being trapped in a version of The Matrix. No, we don’t take the role of Agent Smith, the relentless villain who pursues Neo and other humans. Rather, we more often function as Morpheus, offering our clients the blue pill of illusion or the red pill of reality. And not raising too much of a fuss if most choose the blue pill.

The fact is, we more often support a matrix-like view of how people can be successful in getting a job. You know the one. Prepare a sharp resume, strong cover letter, network for job leads, and sharpen up your interviewing skills. Add to this, the propensity of many job seekers to rely on “applying for the job,” and you can see how this leads to a situation where people operate inside of what they “think is real.”

So, what is real?

Well, putting aside the truth that “there is no spoon,” one view of reality is this: for years, insiders have had the edge in winning job offers. And the evidence for this is the vaunted “hidden job market,” which fills an estimated 70 – 80 % of jobs before they’re posted. If you think about it, the candidate who wins an un-posted job most certainly has an inside track of some kind. Either they are an internal candidate, or have a relationship with a company insider.

None of this is to say careerists should abandon traditional job search methods – they still seem to be successful 20 –30 % of the time. It is to say, however, that your focus needs to be not on heating up job search, but in pursuing the “cool” status of someone “in the know.” In short, you need to work at becoming an industry and company insider. And this does take work. Yet, today, we know what matters and have the capacity to do something about it.

What to can you do? Here are just a couple of ideas.

Start by unearthing your personal brand. It’s the foundation for your success. In the process, you can achieve the clarity that helps you articulate what you want to achieve professionally, the unique value you offer, and who needs to know about you. Your personal brand establishes your point of view and provides a platform for engaging others inside of your brand community.

Cultivate relationships with people already in your brand community, but also work to expand it. You probably already know lots of professionally relevant people. In fact, if you attend professional meetings, you likely share drinks and stories with them. Still, there is real benefit in growing your brand community beyond geographic boundaries. Today, via the magic of social media, you have unprecedented access to people globally. And among them are the industry and company insiders you need to meet and start “hanging out” with.

The new reality of successful career management is that you must gain visibility and credibility – and connection – with the insiders who can be important to your professional success. Today, web presence not only provides that visibility, but also drives relationship building. Consider LinkedIn. It has grown dramatically to become a robust tool for engagement. Sure it is, and has been, great as a resume, Rolodex, and job search engine. Today, however, features like Answers, Groups, Status Updates, and a host of application, including Google Docs, Twitter, and SlideShare help you to bring your profile to life.

Even more, these are tools of attraction and connection. Not only do they invite people to learn about you, but allow you to learn about others. They also give you a basis to start conversations that lead to genuine relationships. So, the real value of social media is in your ability to find people as well as information – and then engage based on what you find. Over time, you gain the reputation and connections that drive the perception of you as an insider. 

There is, of course, a paradox here. Once, online connections were looked at suspiciously. Online relationships were not seen as a real relationships, but as fragments of virtual reality, kind of like the Matrix. Yet, increasingly, a heated up social media is driving an ever-increasing range of “real world” mass-mingling events. The game is changing. You now have the tools. And today, if you want to move ahead, your best choice is the red pill.

The Job Interview As Shared Narrative

This is another in a series of monthly advice posts made in association with the Career Collective, a group of professionals who collaborate to provide guidance for job seekers and careerists. We’ve observed that sometimes a long-time job search winds up in an interview scheduled with little lead time; so the questions is: What should job seekers do now to prepare for interviews? 

Let’s face it. The phrase job interview conjures up feelings and images most of us would rather not entertain. And it only adds to our apprehension when interview advice references terms like targeted selection, behavioral interview, situational and stress interviews, panel interview – just to point to a few! Nor does it help that most people seem to reserve interview prep for the time when they’re in active job search, and feeling especially pressured to make a great impression in order to win a job offer.

Yet, it seems to me that there is a flaw in the typical thinking about job interviews: it is in the notion of being a job seeker preparing now for an interview. The real question, I think, is how does the interview fit with the long-term management of one’s career?

If we take the long view, managing one’s career involves having some degree of self-awareness of specific instances of one’s successes and failures. Ideally, we are able to capture the elements of those successes and failures to monitor, maintain, or improve our performance. And if we don’t, there is very likely someone else who will. It’s what performance reviews are intended to do, after all.

Taken as a whole, these individual instances of success and failure weave the story of our career, and perhaps even our life message. While seemingly disparate elements, they are episodes, or chapters, or plot lines that form a larger narrative. In fact, this relationship to story is not novel. It is clearly captured in the most fundamental approach to interview prep: create accomplishment stories to describe your experience. It’s what the STAR Technique is all about; namely, creating stories that tie together discrete situations and/or tasks faced, action steps taken, and results achieved.

Our careers represent our narrative, with stories that get told in formal performance meetings, in “water cooler” chatter, after hours with colleagues and friends, during mentoring conversations, and while networking generally. Indeed, our stories are what give us visibility and credibility inside of the communities of practice made up of the people who do what we do, and more broadly in brand communities that include the people we serve.

I believe that thinking of our careers as narrative has a powerful implication for how we conceive of professional interactions, in general, and job interviews, in particular. And it’s this: discussions of our professional experience are truly opportunities for shared narrative. Trading stories with an interviewer about our shared experience allows for a sharing of meaning, and supports the kind of bonding that takes place in discovering the things we share in common. It is a fundamental human need that drives folklore, which is often a device for transmitting a culture's morals and values.

If the final outcome of a job interview is to select the candidate who has not only the required skills but also represents the best cultural fit, then your ability to engage in shared narrative over the course of the process can have an impact on your success. Still, this is not something you should construe as just another interview strategy. In a world driven by digital presence and always-on social networking, the ultimate approach is to step outside the analog, on/off thinking that conceives of discrete events that are part of a job search process. Instead, find regular opportunities to share who you are in a way that ties you to the culture of you communities.

Cross-posted at William Arruda's Personal Branding Blog.