BLT #17 | Sharing your story over the holidays

There are two sides to every coin during the holidays: it can be great to see family and friends, but it can also be stressful to answer inevitable questions like "How's work?" or "How's the job hunt going?" We know the feeling.

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WE BELIEVE:

You set the tone for the conversations.

No one knows your career situation better than you. That's why you should feel confident setting the tone for the conversations you have over the holidays. If you're excited to share updates about your work, feel free! But if you're getting lots of questions that you'd rather not discuss, you can set a simple boundary with a script like this:

"Hey, thanks for asking. Things are moving along, but I've been really looking forward to taking the day off and putting work stuff aside today. Have you been up to anything fun or new lately?"

SOMETHING WE LOVE:

"People forget facts, but they remember stories."

- Joseph Campbell

YOU SHOULD TRY:

Talk about your job like a story.

If you are ready and willing to talk about your work, we recommend skipping the specifics and keeping it high-level. Try framing your work like a story by sharing a simple problem and how you solve it. This can help keep things relatable and memorable.

Here are a few examples:

If you're a Business Development Representative or Account Exec, consider this:
"Imagine that you ran a business that needed a really reliable website because you do millions of dollars of business online. I sell software tools that ensure your website never crashes and you never lose business."

If you're in Finance or Operations, consider something like:
"Every year, we have to estimate how many products we're going to sell to customers. My job is to talk to all the teams across the business to accurately forecast how much product we'll sell, and then build our business plan around those numbers. Our guess has to be as accurate as possible so that we don't over or under spend money throughout the year."

If you're a Customer Support Rep, try this:
"Sometimes customers need help with different parts of our product. My job is to know all the ins and outs of our product and help get them back on track as quickly as possible."

No matter what you've got planned this holiday, we're rooting for you!