Know Your Story to Find Your Future

A lot of my friends and people in my professional network are looking for work. The presidential election is to blame.

Presidents get to appoint about 4,000 people to jobs in the federal workforce, and a lot of them live in the Washington, DC area. Having lived in DC for most of the time from late 1997 through late 2019, I know a lot of people living and working there. 

And because my politics and the politics of 99% of my friends and network are diametrically opposed to all things MAGA, I know a lot of people who are about to be unemployed. 

I’ve been catching up with a number of these friends and colleagues via Zoom, and I’ve been struck by a consistent sentiment that I’m hearing. 

People don’t know their own story.

One example is a friend who has spent their entire career in the federal government, with a stint or two working at the state level. They said their resume didn’t add up to a coherent story, because the agencies where they’d worked didn’t focus on a consistent topic, constituency, or service.

They were looking to move into the nonprofit sector, and didn’t think they had a compelling way to talk about their career. 

I reflected back that their public service itself IS the story to tell. A key part of the narrative is explaining what motivated them to go into the government--and stay there for over two decades. This story is pretty compelling, I told them, especially since a number of times they could have gone to the for-profit sector and made a lot more money. But they didn’t, choosing to stick with public service. This led us into a values discussion that stretched back to their childhood and family upbringing, and the worldview that their parents instilled in them. 

We basically stitched together, in 30 minutes, a narrative about who they are; where they come from; why they’ve done what they’ve done; and what they want to do next. 

Of course they needed to write this all down and make it as coherent and compelling as possible. And even once they did that, they were far from guaranteed to get a job. 

But I could sense a bit of relief once they realized they did have a story, and that their life’s work was something that resonated with their personal history and likely internal narrative about themselves. This breakthrough, I think, gave them a new way to approach their job search. 

It’s also useful material that can help inform or shape cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, or a personal website. 

If you’re struggling with understanding or telling your professional story, take a trusted friend or colleague out for coffee or lunch and run some ideas by them--or just ask them what they think it is (if they have known you long enough). 

A coach who knows your area of work could also be a helpful partner in identifying a throughline for your career, and helping you to tell your story as compellingly as possible.

Most of all, if you’re looking for work right now, regardless of the reason: Reach out to people and be honest about what you want to do or are struggling to do. In my network, I see a lot of people supporting one another as we navigate the political situation. For some of us, acts of  mutual aid are a resistance practice, and a way to have a positive impact in a broken world.