My Career Journey

The story of your career is about your jobs, profession, and work life in general. It’s how you make (or made) your living. It’s about how you support (or supported) your family. A big part of one’s identity and sense of purpose comes from work. Most likely, you count your co-workers among your good friends. It’s not one story but a series of stories. Telling one of these stories is also a great way to celebrate your retirement, or a co-worker’s retirement. It’s also a good way to honor a boss or mentor who did a lot for your career.

Preparation

• Reflect on your beginnings. Think back to your first job. What were your initial impressions? How did it shape your career aspirations? Reflect on the lessons learned and skills gained.
• Gather your thoughts and materials. Review your photos from work and artifacts from important projects you worked on.
• Create a timeline. Outline the progression of your career from your first job to your current position. Highlight key milestones, transitions, and significant experiences.
• Highlight key achievements. Identify notable achievements, projects, or roles that have been pivotal in your career. Describe how these experiences impacted your professional growth.
• Showcase your skills. Discuss the skills you’ve developed over time and how they have evolved. Highlight specific examples of how you’ve contributed to projects or teams.
• Jot down key memories, emotions, and sensory details that stand out when thinking about your career.
• Choose your focus. Pinpoint core memories, a specific event, turning points, themes, or emotions you want to convey. Will your story be about a specific job, company, project, or about your influence and contributions to an entire profession?

Audience

Are you writing this story primarily for fun and self reflection, or will there be an audience for the story? If the story is primarily for your own consumption and reflection, don’t worry too much about structure or flow. Simply reminisce freely without worrying about spelling, grammar or sentence structure. Your virtual biographer will compile your memories into a coherent story for your enjoyment.

If you are writing the story as a memoir or to inspire others, give some thought to what they would enjoy most about the story. Think about who will be reading your story—whether it’s colleagues, mentors, recent graduates, or a broader audience. Tailor your writing style and level of detail accordingly.

Structure and Flow

A story written for others starts with a good “hook” and unfolds with authenticity and emotion. Begin with a powerful memory that draws readers in. For example, did you choose your life’s work or did it choose you? Was your career an accident or carefully planned? Life stories can be told both chronologically and thematically.

A chronological structure is good for recounting the order events happened. A thematic structure is focused on the ideas, thoughts and feelings of the characters in the story. A chronological approach works well for a career trajectory narrative, starting with your first significant job and progressing through to your last job. A thematic approach lets you explore different aspects or themes of the different jobs you have held. Consider a narrative arc. Show growth and development. Did you discover a passion, gain specific skills, or overcome initial anxieties?

Your virtual biographer can weave both approaches.

Don’t try to cover everything. A career can cover decades. Focus on a specific theme such as key roles and responsibilities, achievements, bosses, successes and failures, lessons learned, overcoming challenges, or the evolution of your career goals. Choose 2-3 key jobs to illustrate your points. Remember, you can use the ‘Times of My Life’ app to write multiple stories about the many jobs you held and the important things you did during your career.

One of the most important choices to make about writing the story is what point-of-view the story will take. Do you want to tell it in the “First Person” (you as narrator) or the “Third Person” (an objective narrator). Most autobiographies, memoires, and life stories are told in the first person because they are character-driven stories. They are more intimate. However, writing and telling the story in the third person offers objectivity and omniscience. Do you want to tell the story as you lived it in your own voice, or tell it as a third party observer with you as one of the main characters?

Answer the Important Questions; Skip Those Less Relevant

The ‘Times of My Life’ app provides you with a Virtual Biographer (VB) to interview you about your work life. Yes, it’s an AI bot, but a very smart and intuitive one. Your VB has instant access to similar stories written and shared by millions of other people. It can help you relive events, thoughts and feelings. It can help illuminate the essence of your experience, and then tell a story that is uniquely yours. If your VB asks a question that doesn’t seem relevant to your experience, just skip it and move on to the questions that assist your recall and are important to how you lived that time period.

Add Details

If your virtual biographer fails to ask you a key question about your work life, simply tap the “Add Details” icon to add the memory when it comes to your mind. To add a detail, you can type it or use the microphone to record it. The VB will use your answers and the extra details you add to write a great story.

These ideas will get you in the mindset to answer questions and add details:

• Humor and Vulnerability: Weave in relatable moments of workplace humor or early career anxieties. People connect with vulnerability. A funny anecdote about a cafeteria mishap or a disastrous science experiment can add levity and connect with readers.
• Include Dialogue: Put sentences in quotation marks to let your virtual biographer know that it is a direct quote, and who said it. Incorporate meaningful conversations that had an impact on your work. Include snippets of conversation, funny anecdotes, or specific details that paint a vivid picture of what went on at work.
• Discuss Challenges and Growth: Be honest about any challenges or setbacks you’ve faced in your career. Describe how you navigated these obstacles and what you learned from them.
• Show Your Passion and Motivation: Explain what motivated you in your career and why you are/were passionate about your field or industry. This helps readers understand your professional drive.
• Offer Insights: Reflect on the lessons you’ve learned throughout your career journey. Discuss how these insights have influenced your approach to work and decision-making.
• Vivid Details: Paint a picture with your words. Describe the uniform you wore, the smell of freshly brewed coffee at the office, or the camaraderie in the breakroom.
• Internal Dialogue: Share your thoughts and anxieties, especially early on. Did you question your career path or feel overwhelmed by responsibilities? Did you achieve work-life balance or were you consumed by work?
• Highlighting Growth: Focus on “before and after.” Show how your first job impacted your future choices. Did it spark an interest in a particular field, or make you realize the importance of a specific skill?
• Celebrate Achievements: Don’t be shy! Highlight promotions, awards, or projects you’re proud of, showcasing your skills and dedication.
• Be Authentic: Share your true thoughts and emotions. Authenticity will resonate with readers and make your story more powerful. Use your voice and your perspective.
• Bosses, Coworkers, and Mentors: Highlight people who played an important role during your career. Who impacted your career most of all?
• Reflect on Your Career: Was it a good career? Why? Would you do it again or choose a different path? What words of wisdom do you have for people just starting out and thinking about going into your line of work?

Don’t Just Tell; Show

Instead of just stating facts, show what happened through detailed descriptions and actions. Instead of saying “work was busy,” describe a hectic trip, an all-nighter getting ready for a trade show, or the frantic effort to get ready for a meeting with a client. Photos, narration, and music will also help you “show” the story. The ‘Times of My Life’ app is excellent at helping you visualize the story in multimedia formats.

Write the Story; Add Media

• After the interview and after you add whatever details you think are important, you will have the option of writing the story yourself, or having your virtual biographer write the story. It only cost $0.99 to have your VB write the story — and will save you hours of work writing it yourself. You can always edit what the VB writes.
• If you prefer to write the story yourself, use your answers from the interview and the details and notes the app captured, to guide your writing. Tips for writing the story yourself can be viewed by tapping the “Tips” icon in the app. Additional tips are listed below.
• After the story is written you will end up at the ‘Enhance Story’ screen. This is where the magic happens.
  • Tap “Add Media” to insert images and/or video clips into the narrative of your story.
  • Tap “Narrator” to choose a narrator. NOTE: A narrator is great if you ask your virtual biographer to write the story in the Third Person. If it is written in the First Person, then YOU are the narrator of the story.
  • Tap “Music” to add background music to your story, assuming you plan to publish it as an audiocast or a video.

Edit and Revise

After the story is written by you or your virtual biographer, you can “share” it for free through he app with friends and loved ones. Their feedback can provide valuable perspective and help you improve your story. After you get their feedback you can go back and edit the story as desired — or ask your VB to rewrite it with the feedback!

Publish Your Story

One of the best features of the ‘Times of My Life’ app is that it will produce the story in multimedia formats.

• Tap PDF to create a nicely formatted printed version.
• Use Audiocast to download an MP3 file.
• Click Video to download a high resolution video, complete with narration (if you choose a narrator), background music, and your uploaded images and video clips.

Sample Outline

1. Start with Reflection

• Reflect on Your Beginnings: Think back to your first job. What were your initial impressions? How did it shape your career aspirations? Reflect on the lessons learned and skills gained.

2. Outline Your Career Path

• Create a Timeline: Outline the progression of your career from your first job to your current position. Highlight key milestones, transitions, and significant experiences.

3. Focus on Significant Experiences

• Highlight Achievements: Identify notable achievements, projects, or roles that have been pivotal in your career. Describe how these experiences impacted your professional growth.

4. Describe Your Skills and Contributions

• Showcase Your Skills: Discuss the skills you’ve developed over time and how they have evolved. Highlight specific examples of how you’ve contributed to projects or teams.

5. Include Personal Anecdotes

• Add Personal Touches: Share personal anecdotes or memorable moments that illustrate challenges, successes, or turning points in your career. This adds depth and authenticity to your story.

6. Discuss Challenges and Growth

• Address Challenges: Be honest about any challenges or setbacks you’ve faced in your career. Describe how you navigated these obstacles and what you learned from them.

7. Show Your Passion and Motivation

• Share Your Passion: Explain what motivates you in your career and why you are passionate about your field or industry. This helps readers understand your professional drive.

8. Reflect on Lessons Learned

• Offer Insights: Reflect on the lessons you’ve learned throughout your career journey. Discuss how these insights have influenced your approach to work and decision-making.

Abbreviated Outline

• Introduction: Introduce your first job and how it shaped your career aspirations.
• Career Progression: Outline key roles, projects, and achievements over time.
• Challenges and Growth: Discuss challenges faced and lessons learned.
• Reflections and Insights: Reflect on your career journey and future aspirations.
• Conclusion: Summarize your career highlights and key takeaways.

By following these tips and structuring your writing effectively, you can create a compelling narrative that captures the essence of your professional journey—from your first job to your current career accomplishments, and eventually to your retirement.