How to Tell an Empowered Career Story by Finding and Defining Your Throughline (Cee Reel, Cultivate Your Weirdness)

Think about your favorite stories. Can you name one or two? What is it about those stories that you love? Is it the characters? Is it the plot? Is it universal themes like good triumphing over evil?

Many classic stories have plot twists and elements of surprise. If your working history doesn’t follow one specific discipline or career path, it might feel like your career story has a few plot twists of its own. Are you unsure of how to tell your story without losing the plot? Well, fear not. In this article, you’ll learn how to find the clues that can help you craft a compelling career story that highlights your skills, all by finding your throughline.

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Storytelling is powerful

You may have heard about storytelling here and there in the marketing world. It’s a popular buzzword because the concept of storytelling has been around as long as humans have. We’ve been telling stories since before recorded history, and depicting stories in art for over 50,000 years.

Storytelling is such an effective method of communicating information because it helps to establish a human connection via shared emotional experiences.

Your career story can do the same thing. By weaving in your authenticity and passion, you invite your audience (professional connections and hiring managers) to form a more meaningful connection with you than just data on a resume.

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Find your throughline

If you’ve pursued multiple career paths and are having trouble connecting them all, or if you struggle to explain how your skills transfer onto a new role, you might benefit from finding your throughline. Your throughline is your North Star: a recurring theme in life and work that has guided you through your career to this point. You are likely to have at least one throughline but may in fact have multiple. If you do have more than one, don’t worry: it’s actually a good problem to have.

How do you find your throughline(s)? Start by looking all the way back into your childhood for clues.

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Revisiting your childhood

Find some time when you can sit quietly and focus for at least 30 minutes and ask yourself the following questions. Be patient with the answers as they may take time to come to you, especially if it’s been a long time since you’ve thought about your childhood. You may wish to write your answers down in a journal or record them in a voice note.

Note: if your childhood was traumatic or revisiting your childhood brings up discomfort, please proceed with care and caution and skip this exercise if you need to. You can work on finding your throughline starting in adulthood or at whatever starting point feels most comfortable for you.

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?
2. If you wanted to be more than one thing, what did all of those things have in common? What did they allow you to do? What did they allow you to feel? What kind of person did they allow you to be?
3. What kind of imaginary play did you engage in?
4. Who or what did you pretend to be?
5. If you pretended to have superpowers, which ones and why?
6. What did you daydream about?
7. Who were your heroes? Were they fictional characters, famous people or people you knew in real life? What did you admire about them and why?
8. What kinds of stories did you enjoy?
9. Which TV shows, movies and books did you like?
10. What kinds of stories did you like to make up and tell with your friends?
11. What kind of scenes did you like to create in visual art?

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Brain dump your past positions, passions and pursuits

Once you’ve had a chance to get reacquainted with your younger self, next, make a list of everything you’ve ever done. Ever. It doesn’t have to be or feel “professional”. You’re not creating a resume just yet, so please do not self-censor at this stage or avoid writing something down because you think it might not count. Everything counts and all your experiences are interesting and valid parts of your story.

If you were able to reflect on your childhood, start there. Here are some things you can list: 

1. Extracurricular activities both in and outside of school
2. Hobbies - anything you did for pure enjoyment
3. Jobs such as running a neighborhood lemonade stand or selling magazines
4. Courses you enjoyed in school and things you enjoyed learning outside of school

Next, list all the jobs you’ve ever had beyond the childhood lemonade stand, such as:

1. Volunteer, including boards of directors, sporadic pro bono work
2. Full-time
3. Part-time
4. Self-employment and entrepreneurship
5. Gigs (rideshare driving, contracting, freelancing) and side hustles

Finally, list all the hobbies and interests you’ve had in your life, even if you’ve not remained consistent with them. These are things that you’ve enjoyed practicing or learning about at any point in time, even if you think you’re not good at them.

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You’re already good at your dream job

Examine the answers to the questions about your younger self, as well as your brain dump, and identify any throughlines that emerge. It’s likely that at least one of the throughlines will align with your current career goals. Or, if you feel unclear about which role to pivot into next, use evidence from these exercises to make that decision in line with your throughline(s).

If you’re interested in a role or industry that’s new to you, it’s most likely appealing to you for a reason. You’ve probably demonstrated proficiency in its core skills before somewhere else in your personal or professional history. What is it about the new role that appeals to you? Can you connect the skills in the new role to something you’ve already done that you really enjoyed? If the answer is simply “more money” while none of the skills align with what you’re good at or enjoy doing, you might not end up enjoying the job, despite the pay increase. There is a job out there that will pay you what you’re worth and allow you to do what you love (or at least somewhat enjoy because let’s face it - most of us don’t really dream of labor but we pretend to anyway because of capitalism), so don’t give up if you haven’t found it yet.

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Write a powerful summary statement

Once you have your throughline, you can create a summary statement that helps hiring managers understand your goals.

These statements are common in entrepreneurship spaces and allow entrepreneurs to clearly communicate how they deliver value to their customers.

Here’s the statement that you can use to communicate your value:

I’m a [role] who helps [type of client/company] [solve a specific problem] so that they can [achieve a desired result].

For example, my summary statement for my business, Cultivate Your Weirdness is:

I’m a coach who helps creative brains and self-identified weirdos design work and life around their energy, authenticity and values so that they can go from burned out to burning bright.

You can create as many summary statements as you need for as many types of roles as you’re currently pursuing. If you’re looking to pivot into a new role, there’s no need to say, “I’m an aspiring ____” or “I’m a future ____” as it undermines your confidence. If you’re confident you can do the thing, you are the thing! No need to apologize if you haven’t officially held the job title yet, especially if you’ve been learning and practicing the skills or if you have transferable skills from another role.

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Next steps

This article covered part of the content from the Empowered Career Storytelling webinar, which also offered networking techniques and further tips for crafting your career story.

To take what you’ve learned in this article and the webinar even further, sign up for the Get WEIRD to Plan Your Career Workshop on Wednesday, July 17th. You’ll have the opportunity to receive live coaching and complete a variety of engaging exercises toward setting and achieving career goals in line with your energy, authenticity and values.

Above all, remember that you are the only one who can tell your story, and the role you’re best qualified for is being yourself. So bring yourself and your authenticity to new opportunities and behold the incredible stories that unfold!

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About Cee Reel

Cee Reel is a design generalist and authenticity coach who helps both brands and leaders tell their stories in a genuine and playful way. In a business world where authenticity and genuine human connection are rare elements, Cee helps creatives, multipotentialites and anyone who feels too weird for the traditional workplace learn to recognize and value themselves as pure gold. Subscribe to Cee’s newsletter to learn more about how to connect with your authenticity.

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