Technology often intimidates executive careerists who feel out of touch with marketing their value through continually disrupted digital channels.
However, bogging yourself down in digital woes can be a drag on career momentum. While most hiring decision makers will read your resume digitally–as you are reading this blog–the key driver of your career is not technology; it is YOU and your story.
By keeping your focus on the words that comprise your story, you can keep career lifeblood pumping. Following are four crucial storytelling venues executives can revamp today to catapult your career forward in the new year:
1. Your Resume: Building an executive resume story is not a one-and-done process. In fact, as you continually evolve and grow, so does your story. Many nutritious ingredients fuel a resume revamp, including (but not limited to): testimonials, thank-you notes and commendations from bosses, colleagues or clients; and, achievements such as projects you’ve spearheaded; transformations you’ve led; products you’ve developed; processes you’ve improved; people you’ve influenced; awards you’ve won; money you’ve saved; revenue you’ve spurred; and more.
Go old school, and jot these wins down in a notebook; open up a Word file or create a file on Evernote to corral all career-related achievements. When it’s time to refresh your resume, you won’t be scrambling for information. You’ve been tracking it all along.
2. Your LinkedIn profile. Okay, so LinkedIn is a technology-based career networking portal, but the point of listing it here is that the ‘story’ you tell on LinkedIn is valuable, regardless of the platform.
For example, I’ve written robust LinkedIn profiles for executive resume clients who later converted the content into biographies and other career communications that fueled offline conversations.
By reviewing and updating your LinkedIn story, you are compelled to focus in on your current narrative and how it relates to your target audience’s needs.
For currently employed careerists, consider how to best market your company’s value proposition while also conveying your value beyond your company’s doors. In other words, build content that is a strategic blend of offerings.
3. Your E-Pitch (Elevator Pitch). While it is important to have a more meaty version of your personally branded story, it is equally important to have a crisp pitch that says what you do in 30 seconds or less. Optimally, you will have a couple of pitches and/or a rolling pitch that expands and contracts depending upon the audience’s needs.
4. Your Cover Letter. Ignore the cover letter detractors for a moment, and think about this. When was the last time you responded to an unsolicited document without some sort of an introduction or synopsis? The cover letter’s value is multifold, but the most obvious, perhaps, is its value in introducing your resume, and in way that is different from what the reader will see on the resume.
The cover letter also is an opportunity to genuinely express why you are particularly interested in this company’s product, service, culture, etc., while mapping your value proposition to theirs.
Moreover, the conversational quality of the cover letter enables you to inject a bit more personality and verve than is expressed in your resume.
There is no need to wait or get waylaid by the noise and overwhelm of technology. Start brainstorming your stories today, with the tap of a keyboard or the stroke of a pen–get the momentum rolling on your executive storytelling journey. It starts with just one word.
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Dip your toes in the water with my low-cost starter kit. Email me for more information at jacqui@careertrend.net.
Image credit: Nico Time
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