Own Your Story, Don't Outsource It
The best person to tell your story is you!
Storytelling is an art, not a science. Many of the most respected storytellers achieve success by crafting stories that resonate with their audience on an emotional level, often using the literary technique of pathos to invoke empathy for their protagonist.
You may not think it, but the retelling of your own life is a powerful plot. I believe the ultimate outward expression of self is to have the courage to tell your story; to share it so others may take inspiration from your successes, and caution from your failures.
In my view, your CV isn’t just a list of job titles and tasks; it’s a form of autobiography.
I’m therefore frustrated by the ads I see for CV writing agencies charging a hefty sum to put your work history in a cookie-cutter template. Many use AI tools to scrape data from your LinkedIn profile and regurgitate it jargon-packed corporate language.
Most of them read badly; some are passable, but very few truly represent the subject.
If you’re considering buying a CV, please stop and think about how that serves you:
Have they/it lived your experience, overcome your challenges and grown?
Do they truly understand your dream job and what it takes to land it?
Are they going to be there in a job interview to talk on your behalf?
I very much doubt it, so why take the risk of them misrepresenting you and what you have to offer? I’ve worked with lots of people who struggle to write a good CV, but the problem is almost never that they lack the skill to do so. The problem is usually that they don’t have a compelling story to tell about themselves, which I help them solve.
The solution is to go back to your values and vision, then write your story, and only then translate that story into a CV format. If you do the preparatory work properly, writing your CV should take no time at all; and the output will be much, much better.
If you’re ready to embrace the process and see where it leads, check out this guide:
Be The Hero of Your Career!
In my last post, I shared my Career Failure Story and showed you how to write yours. Now I’m going to show you how to write a compelling hero story, so you can convey your value clearly and confidently to hiring managers, recruiters and your network.