This is a great question.

It comes from a marvelous woman who coaches new arrivals to this country and helps them acclimate to the language and culture they face in New York City, which I admit was hugely challenging as a new suburbanite in 1979 when I arrived in Manhattan with my wide eyes. Imagine how foreign-born people adapt?

She asked this excellent question, and I was pleased to answer her:

I believe that some of the best experience we can garner comes from the challenges we encounter and how we adapt and adopt their teaching.

One of the people my colleague was asking about is an Afghan female doctor who seeks new employment in NYC.

Can you imagine the challenges a female met and overcame to become a doctor in Afghanistan recently?

If she is not able to practice medicine in the USA, what transferable skills can she bring to a different environment, while using her medical training? What wisdom can she offer a new employer, and how can she tell it best?

I counseled my colleague to help her write her career narrative on LinkedIn, emphasizing the skillset she possesses and her experience to date in a way a reader will want to know more. And/or create a video or audio snippets that compel us to pay attention to her backstory, enough to want to contact her and explore how she can become a contributor to the company’s needs she can fulfill.

Be amazing-er than her competition–because she took the first step and left everything behind to come here and be part of a new alien society.

She has to retell her story to a new audience.

LinkedIn is the storytelling machine to help her, you, and me leapfrog in our professional world.