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© 2025 Career Narratives with Doug Lester
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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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If your job search is taking too long and you’re a mid or senior-level leader, your gut may be telling you it’s time to broaden your appeal. To have a more general and therefore more appealing positioning. Don’t do it! Host Doug Lester explains, from a recruiter’s perspective, why broadening your positioning could be a big mistake. 👓 Read the original post on Substack 👉 Visit Craft Your Narrative on Substack 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the pod...
Is your LinkedIn headline your job title and company name? If so, you're taking a big risk. Host Doug Lester shares why, based on his experience as a Fortune 100 hiring manager, an executive recruiter and a coach to more than a thousand MBA alumni. And he offers an alternative approach that more effectively communicates your personal narrative. 🤓 Read the original Substack post 🎙️ Episode 8: Tips for a LinkedIn Headline That Communicates Your Narrative 🎙️ Episode 9: How to Write an Effective ...
What if one of your most effective networking strategies could be relying on your competitors to be your advocates? Host Doug Lester explains why this actually works, based on his experience as an executive recruiter at a top firm. And he offers a few tips for doing it the right way. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 100 hiring manager, an executive recruiter at a top firm, and a coach at...
As business leaders become more comfortable incorporating AI into their organizations, the shape of org charts will change. It's already happening, and it's going to have an impact on career advancement. Host Doug Lester shares classic tips about how to remain competitive amid all the changes. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 100 hiring manager, an executive recruiter at a top firm, and ...
It's just about summer, and if you think you have to wait until fall to network for your career or a new job, you're mistaken. Summer is actually the ideal time to do a little networking. Host Doug Lester shares insight from his experience as an executive recruiter at a top firm. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 100 hiring manager, an executive recruiter at a top firm, and a coach ...
Have you ever thought or said that you want to make the world a better place through your work? But are you stumped when it comes to how you're going to do it? Host Doug Lester provides perspective from working with over a thousand MBAs hoping to advance careers with meaning and impact. He shares the signs his clients look for and a potential source of inspiration. Mentioned in this episode: The Johnson & Johnson Credo 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe t...
Have you ever considered how the career choices you make can send intentional and unintentional signals to others that shape your personal narrative? Based on his experience as an executive recruiter at a top firm, host Doug Lester leads you through a quick exercise that lets you step outside yourself and see the forest of your career from the trees. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 100 ...
If you've ever struggled to communicate your personal narrative, there's a good chance it has something to do with context. What is the context in which you do your work and make an impact? The answer is probably more complex and nuanced than you might expect at first. Based on his work with well over 1,000 MBAs, host Doug Lester shares a framework for considering context that's new... and also familiar. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 N...
In addition to reviewing key learnings from previous episodes on executive recruiters and executive search firms, Doug Lester helps you understand how search firms are structured. Armed with this information, you'll be better equipped to build the long-term relationships with recruiters that can help advance your career. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 100 hiring manager, an executive r...
Host Doug Lester considers format updates to the podcast for 2025 and invites listener feedback and questions. Email your feedback to podcast@careernarratives.com. Send a written message or leave a voice message by clicking on the microphone in the lower-right-hand corner of the contact page. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 100 hiring manager, an executive recruiter at a top firm, and...
You should think twice about reaching out to an executive recruiter you don't already know and have a relationship with. Host Doug Lester explains why, based on his experience as an executive recruiter at a top search firm, reaching out to recruiters directly can potentially create self-inflicted career wounds that limit your advancement opportunities. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 10...
Have you ever been concerned that executive recruiters weren't calling you enough (or at all) or were calling about roles you weren't interested in? If so, then host Doug Lester shares five strategies for getting on the radar screens of recruiters for the right opportunities. They're based on his experience as a senior associate at a top executive search firm. Resources mentioned: 🎙️ 1: What's Your Narrative? 🎙️ 8: How to Communicate Your Narrative in Your LinkedIn Headline 🎙️ 9: How to Writ...
If you're a mid or senior-level MBA and want to advance your career, then executive recruiters are probably going to play a part in your narrative. To keep you from making some of the same incorrect assumptions he did, host Doug Lester shares what he learned as a senior associate at a top retained executive search firm. He pulls back the curtain on search firms, so you don't have to make some of the same mistakes he did when he was climbing the corporate ladder. 🎧 Take control of your narrati...
Have you made less progress advancing your career than you had wanted to this year? Or maybe no progress at all? If so, host Doug Lester shares a little social media psychology and a realization from his own life experience that could help you identify and get past your roadblock so you can move forward. Check out The October Theory of Changing Your Life in the Wall Street Journal (may require a subscription) 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast!...
If you're in your 40s or 50s, have you ever been advised to drop the dates from your education entries and remove a few of the earlier roles from your LinkedIn profile and resume? Trying to soft-pedal or hide your age and level of experience can actually work against you getting the aspirational senior roles that might be the best fit at this point in your career. Host Doug Lester shares his experience as a coach to MBA alumni and a former executive recruiter to make the case. 🎧 Take co...
If you want to craft a compelling work-life narrative, you need to stay focused on work that yields the stories you want to be able to tell about yourself. But truly important and impactful work tends to happen over time. So to keep yourself on track, you set arbitrary due dates for key milestones... and then you miss them. And then you reset your due dates — and do it again and again. It's not just inefficient. It can make you feel bad. There's a better way to keep the momentum going an...
If you've ever felt you nailed an interview, especially for a senior role, but you didn't get the call-back, there may be a problem with your storytelling, even if you're using the classic STAR method. Host Doug Lester has prepared thousands of MBA leaders for career-defining interviews, and he's noticed that even some of the best storytellers fail to do one critical thing. Find out if you're missing it, too, and what you can do to fix it. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your car...
If you've ever felt less than confident in a career networking conversation, you're not alone. Host Doug Lester shares a tip he picked up as an executive recruiter that helped him feel more confident and be more effective when he was networking for a living. It can help you, too. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and advance your career — subscribe to the podcast! 🤔 Need a thought partner with experience as a Fortune 100 hiring manager, an executive recruiter at a top firm, and a coach ...
If you’re trying to get started on networking for a new job or your career, the fear of reaching out to people isn’t the only thing that might keep you from getting started. Host Doug Lester shares insight from his days as an executive recruiter and professional networker that can help you overcome the friction that might keep you from making progress. Resources mentioned in this episode: Todoist Asana Pipedrive Evernote OneNote Covve 15% Discount for Covve (affiliate link) Doug's videos abou...
If you've ever felt that networking for a new job or your career is a lot of effort for very little benefit, then you may be doing it wrong. Doug Lester shares techniques he learned as an executive recruiter to get the people he was networking with to open up, share their knowledge and insights, and help ensure he never ran out of new people to call. You can apply those same approaches to improve your networking technique and help advance your career. 🎧 Take control of your narrative and ...
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