Lesson One: What's Your Story?

I had my first failure as I live my life without fear.

Guess what?

I didn't die. 

I don't feel bad about myself. 

I want to do it again!

I recently applied for a PR Comms job with The Onion. This was straight up traditional position that required media contacts and established relationships. While I have done ALL of this, it's been years since I was out there, working the media list. Recently, the most I've done has been some promotional postings in the social realm for a philanthropic organization and my brother's racing page.

I knew about 5 minutes into the call that this was not going to move to a second interview, but I stuck it out to try and refine my "elevator speech" for myself.

THAT was the lesson of this call, this first fearless attempt for a job outside my comfort zone.

Could I have done the job? Yes, or I wouldn't have applied. But even I wanted to recommend a couple of others that I knew would hit the ground running, and give The Onion the coverage and plan that it deserved. I respect the company, and wanted to provide more viable options for them. My integrity was winning the internal dialogue.

But, back to the crux of the issue identified in this call... 

What DO I want to say about myself? How am I going to explain what I can bring to an organization? What is my sales pitch, for me? What's MY story? 

If I can't sell myself, how do I expect to convince others why I'm the right choice? It sounds simple, but you don't realize how derailed you can get, if you're not focused.

So, I started a list of strengths I feel I can bring to an organization/team. Simple words, not industry-speak. I needed them to be simple so I wasn't confusing the situation or the interviewer. It will help you to not "over-share" and to be very focused on what you want to convey about yourself.

There will always be questions about your experience. Here's where a secondary list comes into play. What have you accomplished? What did those strengths result in creating/leading to/contributing? What STORIES have you shaped out of what you've done before?

Then, for your internal dialogue, what do YOU want out of this next job? What do YOU hope to accomplish? What are YOUR priorities if you take it? One of mine is that I want to find a place where the people genuinely LIKE working with each other, where a "culture statement" isn't necessary, it just "is."

Lastly, have a list of questions you want to ask. They are going to have to be questions for different audiences; 

1. HR/Screening call; 
2. Hiring HR rep/Senior member (probably your boss); 
3. The team you'll be working with/for or over. They all have different points-of-view when it comes to you being hired, so make sure you recognize that and prepare for them each, separately.

The next interaction I have for a job, I will have my "elevator speech" and questions...and in the first five minutes, I will know if I nailed it or if I need to refine it, but I'll go into it with confidence and a story.

We are the SUM of our experiences, our lessons, so how do we tell our story to others? How we share those stories will define us to others. So, take care, craft your story well, and share with an honest heart.