On overnight TV I heard (eyes a bit blurry) that a 4-year old soccer prodigy was signed to a professional team. That’s a rocket-fast trajectory for a career, don’t you think?
What if he later wants to become a nurse, an actor, a stay-at-home-dad, a nonprofit fundraiser, a {fill in the blank}? What are his parents thinking, other than dollar signs?
Well, he will have a rather two-dimensional straight line career story from age 4 to…let’s say…30.
So, I ask you, what is your career story?
Is it “lifer” as I call it (as in you are working in the same company or field today that you went to college or grad school)–I doubt it. That’s a fast-changing yet old-fashioned expectation in today’s internet world.
Or is it several mini-careers, you rolling in and out of various industries? Or is it a squiggle line of opportunities taken, paths explored, culminating in who you are today?
Why did you take those paths and what did you learn along the way? Time to reflect: you gained rich experience and marketable skills that make you the person you are. Tell us on your LinkedIn profile: make it your career narrative: why you, and why do you do what you do?
Then you will be a lot more attractive to clients than the competitor, having given yourself permission to be more insightful than you probably think you could be, now that you have the opportunity to tell your story. Just let the story bubble up and onto your LinkedIn profile. You can and should.
In your own words, tell us the story of your career to date, and where it might take us, with you, in the future.
