‘I Don’t Have A Résumé; I Have A Story’

“I’m embarrassed to say it, but I’m supporting the white male.”

That remark was from earlier in the presidential campaign, when a middle-aged white woman confided — or was it confessed? — to a television reporter that she planned to vote for John Edwards.

That was when political analysts were reporting, with surprise in their voices, that being a female candidate was a “net positive,” as was being African-American.

I’m not a political commentator, and no one wants to hear the views of a white male on discrimination, but an election is a kind of job-placement process, and there’s one thing that white males know about race and gender discrimination that blacks and females do not — what white males say, alone together, about blacks and women.

Here it is: When it comes to corporate hiring, as in voting, being female is a net positive, as is being black. Hiring is deciding who gets in and who doesn’t, so it’s a matter of being discriminating. Thus, hiring is discrimination.

Everyone faces some net discrimination score. For instance, having an MBA is a big positive, yet there are people who won’t hire MBAs (believing them overpriced or overrated).

What are the biggest net negatives when it comes to hiring?

High Negatives

There’s having a criminal background, of course. But also high up in the negatives are a history of drug or alcohol addiction, as well as extreme job hopping.

Which brings us to business coach Stan Hustad, of Tucson, Ariz., and his experiment with job coaching. Hustad’s regular work is with business owners and executives, but as a favor, he agreed to turn his coaching skills to a job search.

The man in question — let’s call him Smith — had two of the big net negatives: alcoholism and possessing a deplorable job history. And this wasn’t a young man who’d lost his way; he was in his mid-50s, competing for jobs with much younger workers.

What Hustad immediately understood was that a conventional, résumé-based job search would be fruitless. So, Hustad got Smith to replace his résumé with a “story card.” It was printed on 8 1/2-inch-by-11-inch pieces of card stock, and Smith started telling people, “I don’t have a résumé — I have a story.”

Smith would hand them a card, which opened with, “I’ve made some bad choices and had some bad luck,” and ended with, “I’d be grateful for a chance to audition for a role at your company.”

In between, Smith said, “Here are some of the things I learned from my experiences,” and “This is how I believe I could be of help to your business.”

Smith took his story to job fairs and went networking. Whenever a contact would say something vague, like, “I’ll keep my ears open,” he’d ask them for a favor — to give his story card to two people who might be able to hire him.

The upshot was that he got several interviews and landed a better job than he’d hoped for, one with training and benefits — the sort of job that doesn’t go to a man with a lousy résumé.

Hustad added this observation about Smith’s self-esteem: “Before, he would go to interviews feeling he was having to hide his past, hoping not to be asked about it. But with the story card, he went in, as I say with my coaching clients, ‘dancing naked.’ He went in honest, and people respected that and wanted to give him a chance.”

Which takes us back to discrimination. Sure, there’s plenty of it. But against that is one of the most glorious of human traits: the willingness to help.

Dale Dauten is the founder of The Innovators’ Lab. His latest book is “(Great) Employees Only: How Gifted Bosses Hire and De-Hire Their Way to Success.”