Want To Stand Out With Employers? Professionalize Your Narrative

College students often master the content contained within “courses” while employers are looking for people with “skills.” To bridge the two worlds, students need to become great translators.

Last week, I sat in on a simulated networking conversation between a client, Cole, and a friend of mine, Douglas—a former colleague who generously offered to help us run a practice session.

I often encourage clients to “burn a few pancakes” before the real thing. Interviews and high-stakes conversations are too important to practice for the first time in the wild.

Business Expectations, Meet Academic Jargon

Douglas opened with a simple, classic prompt:

“Tell me a bit about yourself.”

Cole started confidently:

“I’m studying Information Science.”

And then… I watched Douglas’ expression shift.

Not negatively. Not judgmentally. Just honestly.

He had no idea what studying Information Science meant. 

And without my intervention, he would have been polite, nodded, moved on … and Cole would have missed his chance to make an impression.

Instead, we were able to redirect the conservation with Cole using terms more familiar in the business world: 

• Analytics

• Business Intelligence

• Data Science 

Turning that moment into a productive networking conversation required translation.

Why This Happens (And Why It Matters)

Students typically emerge from college thinking in terms of: 

• Majors

• Minors

• Concentrations

• Course titles

• Credits

But employers usually think in terms of:

• Skills

• Capabilities

• Challenges

• Growth

• Impact

• Opportunities

• Outcomes

• Value

There is a translation gap - a big one.

And most universities—despite their best intentions—do little to bridge it.

Students learn content. Employers hire for capability. Those two worlds sound related, but they’re often miles apart. 

And this gap can cost a great candidate an interview, a callback, or a job offer.

What Employers Actually Want to Know

As a general category, employers don’t care about your major as much as they care about:

• What can you do?

• What drives and motivates you?

• How fast can you learn and contribute?

• How do you turn knowledge into action?

• How do you help teams win?

• What business problems can you help solve?

If a candidate can’t express their potential value in terms employers understand, the conversation might end quickly - just like it almost did for Cole and Douglas. 

How We Help Clients Bridge the Gap

At IQ Catalyst, we specialize in helping clients make this translation clean, powerful, and compelling. We call it Professionalizing Your Narrative. 

We can do this because:

• We’ve built teams ourselves

• We know how employers think

• We know what hiring managers value

• We understand the skills behind the course catalogs

• And we know how to turn messy academic experiences into clear professional stories

This is not “coaching.” 

It’s narrative engineering, positioning, and differentiation - delivered through a mix of 1:1 working sessions, tailored talking points, and a refined career story aligned to the roles our clients are targeting.

It’s teaching clients to speak the language the market actually listens to.

What This Looked Like for Cole

After a bit of work together, here’s what the core of Cole’s revised introduction sounded like:

‘I’m the person on a team who can take in large volumes of data and use tools like machine learning and AI to turn raw information into actionable insights that help the business win. Because I spot patterns quickly, work fast, and communicate clearly, we can translate those insights into action almost immediately.’

Now that is a value proposition.

Clear. Concrete. Business-aligned. 

And Douglas instantly understood how Cole might contribute to a team. 

Do You Need Help Professionalizing Your Narrative? 

Whether this is for you or for someone you care about, learning how to communicate your skills in a way employers feel and understand is one of the biggest career unlocks there is.

Need help crafting your narrative—and powering your search with clarity and confidence?

Schedule A Free Strategy Session