A framework I use with clients
The Professional Narrative
The coherent story of who you are, what you value, and what you want next. Not a resume. Not a bio. The thing you reach for in interviews, in networking conversations, in coffee chats, in cover letters, and on the days you are trying to work out whether a role is actually right for you.
It comes down to three questions
What I have done
Your impact and what you are known for. Not a timeline of roles. What you have built, what you have learned, and what you carry with you.
What I value
The qualities that guide your decisions and shape how you lead. Not the words a company puts on a wall. The ones that show up in what you have walked away from.
What I want
Your direction. What draws you, what environment brings you alive, and what contribution looks like in the next chapter. Specific enough that it rules some things out.
Answered properly, those three fit on a single page. Getting to that page is the work.
Six steps to get there
Working Genius and your problem statement
Where your energy actually goes, and what you are really trying to solve.
The CV walkthrough
Your career one role at a time. What you were proudest of, what you would not repeat, what you took with you.
The values exercise
The three to five things you will not trade away, and where each one came from.
The 5 Ps
Purpose, People, Passion, Progression, Pay. Which ones you can live without right now.
Your first draft
You write it. We work on it until it sounds like you, then you practice saying it out loud.
The story map
The questions your narrative invites, and the stories from your own career that answer them.
Usually about six sessions. Click any step for what actually happens in it and what you walk away with.
That is the whole framework. If you want to know how each part actually works, and why it is built this way, keep reading.
You write it, not me
The first person you are writing this for is you. If you do not believe it, nobody else will either.
So I will not hand you a polished paragraph about yourself. You would read it, nod, and feel nothing. My job is to ask the questions, reflect back what I heard, and tell you when a sentence sounds like someone else. Your job is to wrestle it out of yourself.
That is the part that makes it hold up when you say it out loud to a stranger.
Why it is built in that order
Most career advice starts with what you want, which is the hardest question and the worst place to begin. People answer it with a job title they have watched someone else hold.
So we start behind it. Where your energy goes. What you have actually been doing regardless of what your title said. What you keep walking away from. By the time we get to what you want, you are answering from evidence rather than from aspiration.
The story map comes last for the same reason. Interview prep works when you already know what you are arguing. Before that, it is just rehearsing.
How long it takes
Usually about six sessions to do it properly. The CV walkthrough is the part that stretches, since it depends on how long your career is and where you want to stop and dig.
You can start with four. By the time we are through the 5 Ps you will know whether you want to keep going. Most people do.
Two pieces of it happen on your own. The values exercise takes a few days of thinking rather than a session, and the first draft of the narrative is yours to write before we look at it together. Both come back into the room afterward.
If you get stuck on the bigger question of what you are even good at, we can take a detour through Ikigai. That sits outside the six and usually takes two sessions of its own.
What you do with it afterward
- Interviews. You stop assembling an answer on the spot and start drawing on something you already believe.
- Networking and coffee chats. A thirty second version that does not sound rehearsed.
- Cover letters. The opening paragraph writes itself once you know what you are actually claiming.
- Your CV and LinkedIn. Both get sharper when there is a point of view underneath them.
- Deciding. When a role comes up, you have something concrete to hold it against.
It also goes stale, which is the point. Come back to it in two years and you will see how much has moved. That is usually more interesting than the document itself.
Where to start
Book a discovery callPeople come to this from different directions. Some are job hunting. Some feel stuck and cannot name why. Some are trying to move from engineering into product, or from doing the work into leading it. The starting point is the same conversation either way. Email leah@leahfarmer.com if you would rather ask something first.
And if you are not looking for a coach, take the three questions and use them anyway. Write a page. Read it out loud. You will learn something either way.