Career Narratives with Doug Lester

May 24 2024

Career Narratives with Doug Lester Podcast artwork

Craft a work-life narrative with meaning. Present as a more compelling candidate to the decision-makers who hold the keys to your career advancement. In episodes short enough for busy schedules, Doug Lester offers perspective based on more than a decade of coaching ambitious MBAs and professionals transitioning up and into leadership roles.

Doug is a Wharton MBA with experience as a Fortune 100 hiring manager. He was a senior recruiter at a top executive search firm and pulls back the curtain on networking, interviewing and recruiting. A coach to alumni and students at the Harvard Business School for over 10 years, the leader of an executive coaching program for the corporate strategy group of a Fortune 100 company, and the founder of Career Narratives. Doug has personally helped over 1,000 people gain clarity, craft their stories, and advance their careers.

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13: Sharing Your Narrative Could Potentially Save Your Job

May 24 2024 13 mins

If you've ever thought there was a chance that your manager or skip level isn't clear on what you do and the value you bring to your company, then this episode of The Career Narratives Podcast is worth a listen. Host Doug Lester shares his perspective about how a strong personal or team narrative can help advance your career, or even save your job.🎧 Take control of your narrativ

12: You May Be Diluting Your Personal Narrative

May 03 2024 7 mins

Words and phrases you think you need in your resume and LinkedIn profile can unintentionally dilute your personal narrative. As a hiring manager, executive recruiter and coach, host Doug Lester shares the prime suspects and makes a case for avoiding them. He also explains how using them may even work against you by raising unneeded questions in your readers' minds. 🎧 Take contro

11: A Simple Way to Increase Your Odds of Negotiating a Good Job Offer

Apr 18 2024 11 mins

When you're negotiating a salary and other compensation for a job, do you say (or think) that you're negotiating with a company? If you do, then you're making a critical mindset mistake that could cost you a lot. As a hiring manager at a Fortune 100 company and an executive recruiter at a top firm, Doug Lester saw how the wrong approach to negotiation can stand in the way of gettin

10: How to Write a LinkedIn Experience Entry That Answers 3 Key Questions

Apr 04 2024 14 mins

Based on his experience as an executive recruiter at a top firm, Doug Lester offers a strategic perspective focused on crafting a concise, helpful LinkedIn Experience entry. Emphasizing an intended reader's requirements, Doug offers a straightforward approach to writing a LinkedIn Experience entry that focuses on answering the three key questions that executive recruiters (and hiri

9: How to Write a LinkedIn About Section That Supports Your Narrative

Mar 21 2024 11 mins

Is your LinkedIn profile actually written to connect with your reader? Do you have a LinkedIn Headline that communicates what you do, the context you do it in, and the impact of your work? If not, give Episode 8 a quick listen Then listen to this episode and find out how to write an engaging LinkedIn About section that will give your reader confidence that the claims you're making

8: How to Communicate Your Narrative in Your LinkedIn Headline

Mar 07 2024 11 mins

If you don't define your narrative, then someone else might do it for you. Why take that chance? Doug Lester shares a simple, three-part framework he picked up as an executive recruiter that you can apply to your LinkedIn headline. You'll help the people who find you on LinkedIn make sense of your experience and, more importantly, understand where you're headed. 🎧 Take control o

7: An Easier Way to Make Direct Eye Contact on Zoom – the Elgato Prompter

Feb 29 2024 19 mins

Making direct eye contact or what feels like direct eye contact on Zoom is hard. Beyond looking back and forth between a person's image and your camera lens, which is less than ideal, you need a teleprompter to make it work. With a teleprompter, you can look directly at your camera lens and the eyes of the person on the other side of the camera. But teleprompter setups are expensiv

6: Make Direct Eye Contact on Zoom and Improve Your Executive Presence

Feb 22 2024 15 mins

If conducting important meetings or being interviewed on Zoom leaves you feeling at a disadvantage, you're probably missing the direct eye contact that happens when you're meeting in-person. And your executive presence is probably suffering as a result. Doug Lester shares two ways he's managed to simulate direct eye contact on Zoom in his work as an executive and career coach. And

5: Stop Looking for The Perfect Job, Try This Instead

Feb 15 2024 9 mins

Is looking for the perfect job getting in the way of finding any job at all? This can be a problem at any stage of a career. Doug Lester offers an approach to thinking about career advancement that takes a little of the pressure off. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast!🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 100

4: Being a Generalist is Limiting Your Career

Feb 08 2024 10 mins

If you're a mid or senior-level manager or executive in business and you've ever referred to yourself as a "generalist," then you're probably limiting your career potential. Based on insight he picked up as a consumer products marketer and a senior recruiter at a top executive search firm, Doug Lester shares why you need to start thinking of yourself, and positioning yourself, as a