Your Career Story: How to Tell It And Sell It

And master the skill of telling their story and selling themselves in an authentic way.

So I signed up to get certified in personal branding.

There came a point in the certification where WE had to update our own LinkedIn profile and take a first pass at differentiating ourselves.

Of course! It made perfect sense that this was exactly what we needed to do. Test the learning on ourselves, get feedback and master the skills.

But I froze.

I found every excuse and every distraction.

I had a sudden urge to clean the refrigerator.

I waited until the v-e-r-y last minute.

This was immediately followed by beating myself up.

I mean, seriously, here I was calling myself a coach with a degree and experience running executive communications strategy for a global Fortune 50 Big Tech firm.

If there was anyone who should be able to communicate themselves, it was me.

And yet, the fear was gripping at the moment.

Looking back, I realize that I was afraid of being judged. Or an imposter who wasn’t a ‘real’ coach.

Despite the fear, I made the changes and pressed ‘publish’.  

And fortunately for all my future clients, I didn’t die. 😊

I learned a lot from that experience and have an enormous amount of empathy for the panic many people feel when they think of telling and selling their stories.

Why Telling Your Story Matters

There are typically two kinds of people when it comes to differentiating yourself and defining your personal brand:

Some people roll their eyes when they hear people talk about personal brand. They think this stuff is fluff and why bother.

If this is you, here's something important you need to know: 

If you don’t define your brand, others will. 

And you may not like what they come up with.

Other people think their accomplishments, experience and technical expertise is enough. They pride themselves on the hard logic of what they have done and what they know.

Then they start applying for jobs (particularly jobs in Tech) and they don’t get interviews. 

Or they get pinged for jobs that are way below them.

Or they make the cut but don’t get the hire.

This is a vicious cycle that can go on for months or years depending on your tolerance for failure.

Here’s a truth bomb:

If you don’t know how to communicate yourself clearly, concisely, confidently and credibly, the job will go to someone who can.

What Holds You Back?

Why do so many people struggle to tell their career story effectively?

From my decade+ experience coaching clients, here's what I see:

• Many downplay their accomplishments. If you value humility, you may be afraid of sounding arrogant or self-promotional. So you hold back, thinking "I don't want to be egotistical." But if you don’t own your achievements, nobody else will. And you can bet that competition who can master this skill will advance instead of you.

• Many don't connect the dots. Here’s what not to do: talk about your work history chronologically. Here’s what to do: review the job description and connect your background, experiences and accomplishments to what they’re looking for in the job. And for now, leave all the irrelevant work out of your narration.
• Many let imposter syndrome stop them. While this is common, it’s really important that you understand "I'm an imposter" is just a story your brain has made up to explain periods of uncertainty. It's not based in fact and it's simply unhelpful! If you know this has been holding you back but don’t know how to move beyond it, check out my 5-step framework to bust imposter syndrome. 

• Many use vague language. This is probably the most common miss in telling your story: using vague generalities to describe yourself and your work. Many of you reading this know that I use Myers-Briggs as a framework & tool in my coaching. So for those of you Intuitives out there, pay attention. This is your blind spot. You need to incorporate quantifiable detail to validate your credibility. 
• Many use too much language. It’s really common, especially when you’re nervous, to talk too much. Or worse, word vomit. While this is typical, it’s critical that you get your “tell me about yourself” story down to 2-3 minutes tops. If you don’t, you end up confusing the recruiter, hiring manager or whoever is listening to you.
• Many talk about the work, not impact. If you hang around execs long enough, you start to learn that they communicate in the language of impact. What you do is less important than the outcome or impact of that work. Master this language and you are light years ahead of your competition.

The 3-Part Frame of a Great Career Story

If you're reading this newsletter it's probably because you want to clean up your career story. Or have one. :-) So you may be wondering: How do you answer the ‘tell me about yourself’ question?

Here’s the framework we use with all our clients:

1. Speak to WHO YOU ARE –  This is a HUGE differentiator, mostly because nobody does this! When you know your strengths and values, you can start with who you are. This sets you apart and it gives the hiring manager an indication of what kind of a team member you would be and how you would fit with their culture.

If you have values of Contribution and Competency, for example, you can answer the first part of the answer by saying “What you can expect about me as a leader is that Contribution and Competency are very much a part of who I am. What this means is that I’ll always integrate the contributions from all stakeholders, while holding a high bar of competency from our entire team”

See what you're doing here? You're including words to describe who you are in the summary and how that relates to how you operate as a leader on the job.

2.  Speak to WHAT YOU DO – The big differentiator here is that you are talking about your background filtered by what is needed in the job NOT by recounting the first job you had in 2004 all the way through your last job.

That’s a snoozer. 

And it doesn’t instill a high level of certainty in the mind of the hiring manager because you’re talking about a lot of stuff you did that doesn’t matter to that role.

Identify the core 3-4 responsibility areas for the role and speak about what you’ve done in those areas. If one of the key responsibilities for the job is ‘stakeholder relationship and management’ then talk about a specific role you had where you did that, and give quantifiable data points and (ideally) success accomplishments.

An example of this would be “I know a key responsibility of this role is stakeholder relationship and management. When I was at XYZ company, I led a team of 10, where we were responsible for building trust and managing a developer stakeholders community of 300. They were critical for our product set, and with their collaboration and partnership, we successfully launched and realized revenue of $20M for the company."

3.  Speak to WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOU – It’s important for you to speak to the value you believe you can bring to the role.

Prep ahead of time and pick 1 quality about you, 1 area of superpower expertise, and 1 success story example that’s relevant to the role. Be honest and authentic about this, don’t make sh*t up because recruiters and hiring managers can spot this through your language or energy shift.

Make sure to include the outcomes of your work, not just the activities you perform.

For example, this might sound like “There is strong alignment between the X, Y and Z that you’re looking for in this role and my background of X, Y and Z. Contribution is a core value of mine, and you can expect me to contribute to the team and business from day one. The experience I have in X and the impact of Y means I can integrate and start creating value from day 1”

How to Start Selling Your Career Story

If you’re struggling to articulate your story, here 5 tips on how to start:

1. Identify Your Themes, or as I like to call them “Your Threads”

Think about the moments in your career when you’ve had the greatest impact. Are you the one who drives change? Builds teams? Transforms companies?

Identify the themes that run through your work and center your story around them. As you think back across the multiple roles you’ve had, what are the ‘threads’ that are consistent? This could be a quality about you like your work ethic or your curiosity to solve tough challenges. These are important to name, especially if you are pivoting roles or industries because they will be applicable in any role you take on.

2. Change Your Relationship with Fear

This might sound a little weird, but stay with me. Many people struggle to tell and sell their career story because of fear or self doubt. "Am I doing it right?" "I sound like an idiot" "They're gonna see right through me" "I can do this for everyone else but not for myself"

Any of these resonate?

If yes, then it's time to change your relationship with fear.

Most of us look at fear as something we need to run away from. If you're feeling even a little bit uncomfortable or afraid you'll be rejected, you might give up. Or procrastinate until you "have more time" (mmm hmm. and when would that be?)

My husband told me a story about backpacking with his dad in precarious areas with cliffs and drop offs that were very scary. He hold me something his father said that I'll never forget:

The purpose of the emotion of fear is to have us stop and take notice.  

This mantra fits everywhere. Including fear that comes up with telling or selling your story. If you feel fear, stop and take notice. What do you need to pay more attention to? More preparation? Getting feedback? Additional wordsmithing? 

Do that, and fear can become a helpful friend not a foe.

3. Use the STAR Method (But Make It Engaging)

The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) works, but don't make it sound like a checklist. Tell the story behind the numbers. Make it flow.

Saying, “I managed a project,” isn’t memorable.

It’s boring.

Saying, “In 2023, we were faced with X challenge in the business. Costs were up 20%, and we were (understandably) getting pressure from management. Our goal was to reengineer our supply chain. Over the next 6 months, we rallied together, laser-focused and one of my proudest moments was leading our cross-functional team that delivered a $2M cost savings by the end of fiscal.”

Numbers make your story alive, tangible – and results-driven.

4. Make It Future-Focused

Your career story isn’t just about where you’ve been—it’s about where you’re going.

Always tie your past experiences to what you want next.

Share your vision of what you could do or deliver or how your background, qualities and experience could transform the business in a way the hiring manager needs.

If all you talk about is your past work, that can provide proof of your credibility but it’s not enough to build that strong sense of certainty that you understand what's needed for the hire.

The Bottom Line

Your career story isn’t just something you tell in interviews. Mastering the skill of communicating clearly, concisely, confidently and credibly is a skill that will take you forward to your next promotion.

And the next. And the next.

When you learn how to tell or sell your career story effectively, you:

✅ Enable others to fully understand what you’re communicating

✅ Showcase and demonstrate the value you can bring
✅ Make networking conversations more impactful
✅ Stand out in interviews and negotiations
✅ Build a reputation as a highly impactful leader

Here’s a good benchmark.

On a 1-10 scale, with 10 “get hired” high and 1 “I got nuthin” low, where would you put yourself?

Is the story you’re telling now the one that will get you where you want to go?

If you’ve been working on this for a long time but you’re still scoring yourself anything less than a 9, STOP.

I am all about ROI. And if you’ve been wasting too much time trying to figure this out yourself, get help. 

That’s what we’re here for.

 Helping you differentiate yourself and master the skill of telling your story and selling yourself in an authentic way.

Weekly Career Edge

Now that you’ve got a head start on your story, start thinking about how this translates to your resume and LinkedIn.

Think of this as brand integrity.

If I met you and you told me your story, or if I saw you online or if your resume was forwarded,

Would they all be telling the same story?

For most people, this point catches them off guard.

How you communicate yourself across all avenues matters. A recruiter is most definitely going to research you before presenting you as a top candidate for the role. Make sure what s/he finds in that research is consistent.

That’s the kind of thing that few people think about, and it can also be the very thing that sets you apart.

That's our weekly edge for you.

If you need a little more guidance on telling your story on LinkedIn, check out the free LinkedIn checklist resource on our website.