Such scenes always reveal your value, worth and contributions.
Exercise: Skill Movie Clips
If your life is a movie, when you talk about yourself in a job search you've got to decide on just a few frames. Movies are promoted through trailers --- the whole plot condensed into 3 minutes. The skill clips exercise sends you back to the cutting room to create a condensed, all-action version of you.
In the movie of your life, what are the key moments? Your best action scenes are the ones where you're doing things, getting results, interacting with people, starting or finishing projects.
Home movie rules for editing and composing your skill clips
1. Zoom in as tight as possible --- avoid long sequences. One day is good. One hour is better. Keep it concise. Like a movie clip, it's got to convey a lot in a short space of time.
2. Use slow motion --- reveal the action as it happens by thinking about what you did and how you did it.
3. Use a good screenplay --- does this scene convey a message about skills, about overcoming obstacles?
4. Keep the star in shot --- make sure this scene is about the hero: you.
5. Make sure the clip has a happy ending --- an achievement or a skill revelation.
Fix on one event. Start with an occasion when you felt a great sense of success or achievement. Picture your 'clip', and give it a title. Then ask yourself the following skill discovery questions:
What obstacles did | have to overcome?
What did | have to do to achieve this?
What was the task or challenge?
How did | work with others?
What planning did | need to do?
What was my best moment?
What skills did | see myself use?
How did | surprise myself or others?
What skills did others see me use?
What did | do personally?
Some prompts for your skill clips:
Think of times when you achieved something you are proud of. This doesn't need to be a work-related achievement. How did you do it? What difference did you make? Turn the event over in your mind until you see skills, particularly those you don't normally claim for yourself.
Now look at your achievements from your non-working life. Times in the past when you overcame the odds, did something that surprised you.
Think about work-related clips that demonstrate the full range of skills: things, people, information, concepts, etc.
Keep drawing up these skill clips, either alone or, even better, with a fellow career developer. If you show a series of movie clips from the work of famous film director Alfred Hitchcock, you see similarities of style and content. After five or six skill clips you'll start to notice a pattern of skills, or a set of master skills, and you'll get a strong sense of what you are really good at and enjoy doing.
How to Get a Job You Love, page.92-93
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