4. The Power of Storytelling in Career Navigation

Listening to career compass, a Himalayalearning audio course. Be sure to check out all of the other awesome exclusivecontent in the Himalaya app or on himalaya.com.

Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining ustoday. This is Nereda Salinas, your host for career compass. An audio coursefor those on a journey to find work that more accurately aligns with theircareer compass. Today, I have Irma Venkatesh on the show. She's an assistantDean of career education and associate director of career communities atStanford Irma.

His work has allowed her to help hundredsof clients in their exploration of meaningful, diverse career paths. She's aregular collaborator with Stanford's life design lab. Irma uses a storytellingframework to help people name and frame their past experiences to unlock futurework opportunities. Her career followed a series of paths starting with designeducation and labor activism.

Before she ventured into curriculumdevelopment. Graduate student success. And now career planning. Irma hasdegrees from UC Berkeley and the university of Michigan, or, and I discussedvarious storytelling frameworks that we use with our clients to capture the keyexperiences that demonstrate the skills and strengths our clients can bring todifferent situations.

As Irma was so eloquently, put it. We areeach a series of stories from our past that shape our present and help bringabout our futures. A story can help a potential employers see that your pastexperience shows your future potential, which can be especially powerful. Whenyou find yourself pivoting in your career journey.

Irma. In a previous episode, we talkedabout career assessment tools and why they were important and powerful infiguring out what you wanted to do in your next chapter. I know you're verydrawn to storytelling as a framework for describing who you are and whereyou're trying to go. Would you mind sharing more about this framework,Carmella?

Actually Nerida before we dive into myframework, I'm curious about what prompted you to have this conversation aboutstorytelling? That's a very good question. I feel that we focus a lot in theworld of career advice and coaching on knowing who you are. But I think it'sreally important to be able to deliver this in a succinct and memorable mannerto other people.

So with the clients that I've coached overmy lifetime, I always say that the hard work of knowing who you are should endup leaving you with. Some type of story to tell. And I like to use theframework and there's many frameworks for this of these are my interests, whichusually have, you know, my pivotal moment where I became interested in workingwith autistic students or whatever it was.

Right. This is my interest. This is what Ibring to the table in terms of skills and talents. Knowledge basis, expertise,networks that I have very unique access to. And this is where I want toleverage it. This is the type of industry, organization, and function that I'mlooking for. And you, you don't usually get a chance to tell the whole story,but I feel that if they're, if people understand the why I E the interest andit's grounded in that pivotal moment, they're more likely to remember if youtell a compelling, memorable and succinct story.

I think people are more likely to rememberyou to remember what you were about and therefore more easily will connect youwith opportunities when they find those opportunities. So you almost haveScouts out there that you never even meant to have. And I think as we getolder, um, and more. Advanced in our careers.

That's the way a lot of these jobs andopportunities get sourced. So that's, that's where my interest comes from, butI feel my framework is one of many, and there's a lot of great frameworks outthere. So when I saw in your bio that this was something you were interestedin, I thought, Ooh, there might be something interesting to explore here.

So I think that what draws me to the ideaof storytelling as a way of moving your career forward is that essentially. Ithelps people see that there is a through line to what they do when they look atwhat they've done, figure out what is the story, and then move forward. It'ssaying even if my life is a series of crooked pounds, I am.

What is coherent and cohesive about it? Itis my set of traces and decisions, right? So I am the one unique thing thatmakes it all make sense. And so I came to thinking about storytelling as aframework in general, because I found that. Especially for people who areeither pivoting or who have felt regretful about a choice that they've made andnow need to completely switch, um, or who perhaps pursued an educationalcredential that now it turns out is not going to be useful to them.

You know, people basically were faced withregret. Um, I find that when they have the opportunity to stop and say, what'sthe story that brought me here, what does that give me now? And where can Itake that? That can really help people. And so I think when my storytellingframework essentially is, um, in three parts, so.

First there is what are all the storiesthat I have to tell? Just like, what is the content, the massive amount ofcontent of experience that I bring to the table, which I find actually, youknow, whether you're 18 or 85, uh, actually is a question that you can answer.It's just about, um, being creative about where you look for those, thosestories.

Right? So there's the first is the processof story finding what are all of the learning experiences I've had. Um, and howdo I name them? Just what was happening at the time. What did I learn and howcould I leverage it going forward then there's, um, the process of actuallychoosing from among that portfolio of stories, what is going to actually berelevant to a specific audience.

And so if you are looking at a particularrole where you know that certain qualifications are desired, or you're making achange from one industry to another, and that they look for a particular setof. Um, technical skills or soft skills that you developed in a differentsector, let's say, um, what are the parts of your stories that are going to berelevant to your audience?

And then the third piece is figuring out.Of those curated stories. Um, what are the formats that I'm going to have tolearn to, to deliver those stories in? So you could take the same story about ajob that you had, uh, or summer internship that you had, um, a completelydifferent career that you had, let's say, um, and figure out how do I tell thatstory in a resume bullet point in the answer to the.

Interview question. Tell me about yourself.Um, in a moment when you're meeting somebody at a party and they say, you know,w what kind of work do you do? And you weren't even prepared for that question.Um, there are so many places where you're going to be asked to tell a storyabout your work. That makes sense for that audience, that I like the frameworkof know all the stories you have so that when the audience comes in front ofyou and asks you to deliver that in a particular format, you're ready to go.

So the framework really suggests that it'snot just the ability to tell a story. It's the ability to tell the right storyfor the right audience. In the right format. That's really, um, that's reallypowerful. I, I like, I like that framework that, that you provided and what I'mhearing from you is it's almost like a little bit of a, of a database thatyou're suggesting there.

Yeah. Have you ever known any of yourclients to actually construct their stories into like many databases andpreparation for interviews or things of that sort? Absolutely. I think that. Ithink that if you cracked my head open, he would see like one huge Excelspreadsheet. I think that's basically how my mind works.

So I think, yeah. Got it. And what I checkat work? Absolutely. Absolutely. Lots of wines, lots of math and lots of colorcoding, little art in there too. Um, so when I work with clients on. On thisprocess of finding the stories, then choosing the stories and the crafting thestories often, I think where people get stuck really is I'm not even sure whatstories are going to be useful to people I don't have.

I don't have knowledge of that. And I'llsay, listen, right now, we're just building this in a vacuum. We don't know whoyour audience is. You haven't applied for a job yet. Just focus on, um, whatare the key experiences where something transformed? Start with transformation.When have I felt the transformation?

When did I have an aha moment? When did Ihave some kind of insight about myself or the world around me and then askyourself what was happening? What was the story? And often, you know, if wetake a kind of classical traditional sense of a story, we think of it as herewas the context of this is what was happening at the time.

This was my role. Um, here was thechallenge that I was faced with or the problem that I needed to solve. Here wasthe ah-ha moment I had about how to move through that problem or thatchallenge. And then here was the resulting impact. That context context, I callit basically context, tasks, skills, outcomes.

And it's really not actually differentfrom, you know, the kind of once upon a time fairytale, it's not different somuch from what we as career counselors and coaches talk about with the starframework. Tell me a time when you know, this is what was happening and this iswhat I did and written response.

And then this was the positive result,right? So they're all actually just different versions of the same kind offramework. Um, and what I think makes things memorable and why. Store why thisborrows from kind of the age old storytelling practice is, you know, we allfight for some kind of hero, some kind of a situation where things are goingwell until they're not.

And then how did you come in and what wasyour intervention? What was your, um, transformation? What, um, somebody thatis dear to me, Paula, wisher always says, she says, what was the, before areMala and the after or Mila? If you were to ask yourself that question about aparticular situation, might the answer be the story that you can end uptelling, especially in something like an interview or a resume.

So it's basically sub the context, figureout what you were doing, figure out what the problem was and how you responded.And then what was the result and where I think that is powerful for people andwhy? I think a storytelling framework works is it's that last piece. It's thatimpact piece. That's the transferable expertise.

That's the piece that an employer wants tohear because you may never do the thing that you just described ever again. Youmay never, you know, build the wall widget that you built in your last job.Again, you may never write the dissertation that you wrote when you were agraduate student. Um, you may be a medical doctor, but now you're moving intoscientific communication.

Yeah. You may never perform heart surgeryagain, but what is the thing that you got from that past experience that shapesyour present self? Such that now you imagine a future in this role. And sothat's really at the end of the day, why I think the storytelling framework isso powerful because it actually says in my past I developed a set of skills,strengths, tasks, talents, et cetera, my past.

Made me who I am today, which is mypresent, which helps me understand where I can be tomorrow. And that kind oflinearity I have found is very useful for people like me, who could notpossibly have imagined the changes that I would have made professionally andhow everything, nothing made sense. There was no linearity.

So I find that a storytelling framework isactually not just the way you can tell a story in a compelling way, um, and howyou can frame the story itself. But the framework of knowing you, you are aseries of stories that from your past, that shape your presence and bring you afuture that I find builds a sense of confidence and peace of mind for clients.

And it all come when, what is. Coming backto me is what you said at the beginning. And I don't know if it was thisconversation or a previous one, but of you being the unifying factor or theunifying component of all of those stories. And it reminds me. Of just the ideathat a couple of different people have thrown out, you know, there will neverever be another person like you with your talents and your experiences walkingon this earth again.

And it reminds me of Mary Oliver's quote,like what will you do with your one wild and precious life? Right. Um, and soit just, um, there's something very. Empowering of that. And I think withpeople to pivot there, there's a certain degree. Yes. Sometimes of just regret,like you were saying, and sometimes shame that needs to be overcome and brokenthrough before you realize the power and being able to tell your story from aplace of power.

So I think, um, I, I'm so grateful for.Everything that all of the different frameworks that you were sharing. Cause Ithink they put you as that unifying being that really almost is the keeper ofall these paths, you know? And so there's just something very powerful on thator Irma. Is there any, any partying, last words you want to share with our audienceon this?

Um, before we say goodbye, storytelling asa practice, I find unlocks. Access for people from all kinds of backgrounds. SoI think that jobs are often opportunities that come with networks. They comewith, uh, the privileges that some have more than others. And, um, when youdon't inherit networks or models for experience, that helps you understand howjobs are gotten and, and how careers are built.

Um, being able to assess who you are andthen be able to tell that story for an audience allows you to enter intoprofessional networks. It gives you language to participate, um, in networksthat you may not have access to or inheritance socioeconomically. And so it wasthe reason I like stories is it really helps suggest that if I understand theneed that you have, and I understand the experience I bring.

I may have a story to tell, um, that canhelp persuade you as an employer, for example, that I really have what it takesto do this work. And I think that it gives the kind of confidence that storytellingcan be a problem. Solving tool employers have problems to solve. People aresolvers of problems. And a story can help an employer see that your pastexperience shows your future potential.

That is so powerful. And, um, thank you forthat last thought, because I think it's a really powerful thought of howstories can be that ticket that, um, that really gets you in the door into a,an amazing opportunity, uh, which is why it's so important to know who you are.And then to think about the language that you use to describe.

What you bring to the table? Irma. That wasgreat. Thank you so much for that. Thank you so much for your time today and,and best of luck with all of your future chapters. Thank you. Nereda it's beensuch a pleasure.

I hope you enjoyed our conversation withIrma Venkatesh. If you go to the episode notes, you'll find some of the greatreflection questions she mentioned in our conversation. I hope you find thesehelpful in creating the database of your own career stories. Thank you forlistening to episode four of career compass, a Himalaya learning audio course.

Be sure to check out all of the otherawesome exclusive content in the Himalaya app or on himalaya.com. .