In the course of a job search, you will have many messages to deliver. Cover letters. Resumes. Introduction emails. Voice mail messages. Thank you notes. The list is long. But your story needs to be consistent, and once you have a few paragraphs you like, you’ll find it easy to mix and match and re-use without having to keep developing something new.

A newspaper and TV anchor friend had a suggestion for any and all writing or story-telling:

Start with just two or three words.

If you can’t do that, you don’t know your story yet! In the news business, maybe that’s easy:

• Man shot
• Building opened
• Car crashed
• President elected

OK, can you use that same concept to describe your ideal position? Try for two words, fall back on three, or even four if you have to, but fight for just two!

• Develop [mobile] software
• Hire people
• Enhance user-experience
• Make life easier
• Save money
• Make music
• Tell stories

Your turn. Now, make sure any message you tell clearly refers back to your two or three words. If you can do this, your story will be so much easier!

Or is this just the KISS principle?

Compare to: 5 Tips for Explaining Your Job Description to Your In-laws

Another thought on shorter messages, Ditch the Elevator Pitch. Expecting that many will disagree here. Give it some thought.

Last updated: 10/14/2014

You can find all my Job-Search related articles here. Please remember, a job search is normally an ordered set of steps. If you try to skip steps, it usually doesn?t work out well.