The first approach we will take to career is a narrative approach. It’s been found to be particularly helpful to those experiencing or aiming for change within their career.

Narrative is another word for what we would commonly call a story. Stories are an age-old way that people use to make sense of events that happen over a period of time. As we have seen, career is a series of events over time, so creating a career narrative is a way of connecting and making sense of the events in our working lives.

There are good reasons for using this approach:

1. Those who are involved in career changes often begin the process by telling their story and trying to make sense out of what has happened in their career so far. If change has been forced upon them by outside circumstances, this often feels necessary to them before moving on to consider the future.
2. Using words – either by talking or writing – is the basis of many ways of making life changes, for example through psychotherapy and counselling. Writing is increasingly being used for therapeutic and personal development aims as well as artistic or creative reasons.
3. There is evidence that the way we understand ourselves and make sense of our world, lives and careers, corresponds to the way stories are constructed. What we know about the organisation of information within the brain supports this view.

Bill Law, one of the UK's most prominent career theorists, has been arguing for some time that careers work needs to make 'more use of stories and less of lists'. We think he is correct.

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