Feeling confident about job prospects because of your extensive work experience? According to researchers at Ohio State University, previous work experience may be a downside if you don’t also possess the adaptability needed to fit into a new workplace. If you are well into your career or have spent years with one organization, it would be advisable to consider addressing these new findings.

“Organizations pay a premium for workers with job experience that will allow them to just step in and start contributing immediately,” said Steffanie Wilk, co-author of the study from Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. “But what employers don’t realize is that some of what their employees learned in previous jobs will end up being a negative.”

“Employees need to realize that not everything they learned in previous jobs is going to help them in a new job,” Wilk said. “They need to be sensitive to the context of their new organization and be willing and able to adapt to their new surroundings, even if that means unlearning techniques or ways of doing things they have developed in prior jobs.”

“Managers tend to assume that employees with previous experience don’t need as much guidance and hand-holding as inexperienced workers,” Wilk says. “But experienced workers may actually need more help, because they have to shake off the ineffective habits from old jobs and learn how to best serve their new employer.”

The research also indicates that individual differences in workers’ personality traits–particularly adaptability–may be key in determining how successful they will be in a new job.

Another factor in how well employees do at their new jobs has to do with cultural fit: does their new company have a culture consistent with what workers knew from previous jobs?  If so, they will probably have a more positive experience, according to Wilk.

Wilk conducted the study with Gina Dokko of the Stern School of Business at New York University and Nancy Rothbard from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Published in:
“Unpacking Prior Experience: How Career History Affects Job Performance”
Gina Dokko, Steffanie L. Wilk, Nancy P. Rothbard
Organization Science Vol. 20, No. 1, January-February 2009, pp. 51-68

Press release available at Ohio State University.

So what do “sticky ideas” have to do with “reluctant self-marketers”—a label I use with empathy and a great deal of insider knowledge? Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behaviour at Stanford and Dan Heath, a former researcher at Harvard and now a consultant, use “story” to convey the secrets of successful and memorable communication. The Heaths write (p. 16), “As we pored over hundreds of sticky ideas, we saw, over and over, the same six principles at work.” They go on to describe the six principles with fascinating research, stories, and examples. The principles are: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories. The acronym for their recipe is SUCCESs. Made to Stick is one of the most useful resources I’ve found—for those of us who are reluctant self-marketers as well as for the rest of you. You can visit the website for articles, interviews and Chip and Dan Heath’s blog.

Career Kick Start for Recent or Soon-to-be Graduates Program
December 18, 2007 (Vancouver, BC)
In a five week one-on-one training program, story and communication facilitator Shelley Hourston guides recent or soon-to-be graduates through a process that highlights their strengths and expertise, significantly increasing their confidence. Participants develop a ‘portfolio’ or collection of stories demonstrating their experience and skills. They can then use these stories to communicate their strengths to potential employers. In the words of one participant: “Today’s interview was such a testament to our sessions! I used story examples to answer a lot of the questions and did not have any problems with the ‘big’ questions as I usually do.” Gift certificates for Career Kick Start for Recent Graduates are now available. [more]

Annette Simmons, author of numerous books, including The Story Factor, has a new title called Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. In this book, Simmons provides a guide to developing personal stories to cover any scenario we are likely to encounter in our professional (and personal) lives, including: Who-I-am stories, Why-I-am-here stories, Teaching stories, Vision stories, Value-in-action stories, and I-know-what-you-are-thinking stories. Full of examples to illustrate her ideas, this book describes why story is so powerful and when and how to use stories successfully. If you are unsure of the value of story in communicating your character and expertise, this book will convince you. If you are already a believer, this book is a treasure and a lot of fun to read.

You can read more about Annette Simmons and her work at her website, Group Process Consulting.

Censorship you say? I’m not sure … maybe just common sense in the world we live in today. Many people, including some recruiters, believe that checking social networking sites to research applicants is unethical. But there are no hard and fast rules and if you’re using language or sharing information that might jeopardize the job of your dreams, you might want to think twice.

But don’t discount the value on sharing carefully considered and appropriate views and expertise online. Personal websites and blogs that profile your strengths, training, and experience are a great idea. In a world where “personal branding” is hot, think about exactly what you want to become known for and write about it.

If you’re self-employed (or want to be one day), caution and planning in building your online presence holds true for you as well. Potential clients and/or business partners may be just as vigilant as potential employers in conducting their research before accepting your word.

Christian Buckley agrees. He says:
Both hiring manager and job candidate have a story to tell. The interview is just as much about the hiring manager telling a compelling story about why the candidate should want to come to work for that company, as it is about the candidate wanting to tell a compelling story about why she should be hired. People need to do more than answer simple questions, and provide basic responses–they need to provide a narrative around their experience. They need to engage the listener, express some passion, and make it a memorable experience. Whether interviewing for a job, talking to potential investors about your company or idea, or conducting a project meeting within your company–make sure your story is compelling, and people will pay attention.

[From "Mangosteens, Adhocracy and a Working Life: An Interview with Christian Buckley" by Aneeta Sundararaj on May 3, 2006. For the full interview, visit her website, How to Tell a Great Story]

Buckley was responding to a question from Sundararaj about what he meant when he wrote: “inteviewing is storytelling” on his blog called Life is Work (which unfortunately seems to be defunct) Read more from Buckley at buckleyPLANET: Musings on collaboration technology, marketing, and the evolving world of management).

Roger Carl Schank’s work originally focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and how computers could be programmed based on what we know about how human beings learn. Since then, he has shifted his focus from AI to human intelligence.

In the following quote from pages 84-85 of his book Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1995), Shank says:

It is all well and good to say that understanding means telling good stories and to say that we respond to stories with stories, but this leaves out a key question: How do we find the stories that we wish to tell? And from this question there follows another question: How does one know that one has a story to tell? The answer to both these questions is one word: indexing. [Music to a librarian's ears!]

No matter how the story of Artificial Intelligence is told, no matter whose point of view is adopted about how the mind works or how a computer mind might work, the problem always reduces to search. A mind must be able to find what it needs to find, and it must know that it has found it. To tell a story, you must have labeled it properly, stored it away with a name that will allow it to be found, possibly many years later, when some process calls its name. If there is no way to find a story, it might as well not exist. If it cannot be found by reference to its content rather than by reference to a number or unrevealing name, for example, then it might as well not be there.

How often do you think of a story about an experience in your past in
response to a conversation or event today? Sometimes we remember things that we haven’t thought of for years. Shank’s comments highlight the importance of preparing in advance the stories that illustrate our strengths and expertise. Walking into a job interview or meeting with a potential client HOPING that you’ll hear something that will spark a memory of a perfect story is VERY optimistic … and probably not very effective. If your goal is to convey your best self, don’t rely on your indexing system! Stress has a way of wreaking havoc on human indexing systems.

So what’s the answer? Have a collection of your stories ready to draw upon! Spend time identifying your strengths, attributes, and expertise
well before you ever meet someone who might be interested. This is an exercise that will take more than an hour at a cafe. Ask your colleagues and friends for their opinions–as difficult as that might be. It’s human nature to play down our strengths and knowledge.

Once you have a list of strengths and expertise, develop a portfolio
(written to start, but you’ll need to be able to recall them at will) of
stories–experiences that illustrate your skills in action–not a
shopping list of events. These should be interesting stories that
communicate your emotion and enthusiasm as well as your strengths. They need not be long and might be only a few sentences long. My favourites are the stories that can be used to convey a range of different strenghts or positives. In fact, I’ve been told that my use of a particular story more than once in a job interview indicated an ability to perceive different aspects of a situation [yes, I got the job].

When you’re preparing for an interview or meeting, knowing as much as possible about what the interviewer or client wants is key to being
prepared with your best stories.

Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

Ancowitz offers nine excellent self-promotion tips for introverts and the first is:”You don’t need to brag to promote yourself. However, by preparing well for encounters in advance, you’ll have ready indisputable facts about your accomplishments and what you excel at and enjoy, plus you’ll feel comfortable stating them.”

Doesn’t that sound like the definition of a story? For those of us who feel uncomfortable conveying our strengths and achievements, there’s nothing like a story to capture the highlights. Stories are a delight for the listener and a painless way for the storyteller to communicate our interests and abilities.

Want a tip from this introvert though? Ancowitz is right. Preparing in advance is key. Don’t rely on your memory and dazzling communication skills to profile your strengths in stressful networking opportunities (which of course include the bus stop, the grocery store, workshops, and more formal networking events). Prepare by creating a “mental portfolio” of stories communicating your strengths and accomplishments that you can draw on when opportunity knocks.

Jantsch says that once you find your word–and it’s difficult–use that word to market yourself.

His article started me thinking about story. If we want to be successful in life, if we want to be “outstanding in a field,” we need to know what makes us different and outstanding. We must be conscious of our stories and we need to be able to communicate the essence of what makes us best suited to meet the needs of a client, employer, university, etc. Boiling it down to one word, as Jantsch suggests, would enable us to be crystal clear.

To quote John Janstch, “What’s your word?”