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When writing news articles, journalists will often front-load their stories by following the inverted pyramid structure.
This structure involves putting the most important information (ie the who, what, where, why, when and how) in the first paragraph or two. Then adding less important information and finally the least important information.
This hierarchical structure gives the audience the ability to read the most crucial details quickly and then decide whether to continue or stop reading the story. It also assumes that readers have short attention spans and may not read the whole article.
When writing a LinkedIn About section, creating an elevator pitch or answering the question “tell me about yourself”, you can also choose a structure to help your reader.
One simple structure for telling stories is: Present, Past and Future.
📚 Present: who are you? What are your hard skills and qualifications?
📚 Past: what have you done? What is your experience and soft skills?
📚 Future: where do you want to go? Let readers know what type of opportunities you are looking for and why you are a perfect match for a particular role or industry.
You can also include a call to action – do you want people to connect with you on LinkedIn, get in touch if they have an opportunity for you, or read more of your posts? Add this to the end of your LinkedIn About section.
Another structure that is often used in interviews, answering selection criteria or even to present your experience in a resume is the STAR technique (situation, task, action, result) also called CAR (context, action, result) technique. This behavioural-type story builds on the fact that if you have done something in the past you are more likely to be able to do it in the future.
All of these structures have one thing in common. They help you to tell stories in an engaging way.
As a Career Storyteller, I help people structure their career stories.
Reach out if you’d like me to help you develop yours.
(Image: Wikipedia)