Telling your story, warts and all...

Voco is all about collaborative career conversations, so it’s important to be honest and open about your career so far: the lessons you’ve learned, the challenges you’ve faced, the things you’ve screwed up.

By laying it all out on the table, you’ll be much more likely to be able to offer real, useful insights; and to build a meaningful relationship to help each other achieve what you want, whatever that it is.

The point is, no one’s career journey is perfect. It’s the complexity of everyone’s experiences that is interesting, and you’ll learn a lot more from each other when you take off the sugarcoating:
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• Be real. Set out your failures as well as your successes, and try and think about what you’ve learned from the things that haven’t gone right, as well as those that have.
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• Think about the obstacles you’ve encountered along the way… How have you avoided them? How have you clambered over them? Or did you crash right into them?
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• Offer up your biggest regret or biggest mistake. If you could have a do-over on one element of your career, what would it be and why?
  

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The future, not the past

Telling your career story isn't about giving a blow-by-blow account of everything you've done or every job you've had. It's about creating a narrative that tells someone else where you want to go, and the choices you've made in order to get there.

So try and weave a tale about your destiny, not your history. Yes, use points and experiences in the past to frame the story, but don't get too hung up on every little detail. Keep things relevant to where you're at now and where you want to go.
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This isn't LinkedIn ;)

Your Voco conversations are a safe space for honest reflection on what you really want from work. You don't have to put on a front, or try and share your genius or wisdom to impress anyone. Keep things real and low key - there are no likes or shares here.

Building empathy with someone else is about seeing yourself in their position, so telling your story in an authentic and vulnerable way can be a great way to give your match an easy insight into what you want from your career. The quicker you peel off the layers, the sooner you'll get to the good stuff.

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