I had the great honour of being featured on former Amazon VP Ethan Evans’ Level Up newsletter last month and it has led to a LOT of interest in career walking decks 🎉

You can read the full guest post on Substack
👉🏼 kkarenism.com/levelup

What former Amazon VP Ethan Evans said about the career walking deck on LinkedIn:

Today, I am excited to share a powerful new tool to get a job or promotion. It works by helping make a strong visual and emotional connection with the manager.

The Straight Truth is that hiring decisions are as much about *feelings* as they are about *facts*. If you can get the hiring manager to believe that you are the right person for the job early on, they will come up with reasons to justify that you are the best person as the hiring process continues.

It is difficult to do this with just a resume.

The first resume was sent by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1482. Now, hiring managers drown in dozens or hundreds of similar applications that have not changed much in 500+ years since Da Vinci.

Among other flaws, resumes are flat, have static text, and usually in black and white. In a TikTok era, there is a big opportunity to do better.

Today, Microsoft CEO Communications Manager Karen K. Ngo explains how to create and use a “Career Walking Deck” to make a lasting impression.

To get a new job, the hiring manager needs to picture you being successful in the role they are filling. They need to know you, like you, and trust you. The Career Walking Deck gives you a structured tool to achieve this.

Here is why this tool is powerful:

It changes the typical interview pattern and gives you control of the narrative. Most interviews are backward-looking, focused on dissecting your resume and experience. A walking deck flips this by offering a forward-looking, visual story of who you are, what you’ve done, and where you want to go.

It allows you to show them how you think, how you operate, and what you will bring to the team.

This helps the hiring manager with the hardest part of hiring, which is making a leap of faith. By presenting yourself as a potential partner in solving problems, you are making them more comfortable with taking a chance on you.

According to Karen, the best walking decks consist of the following slides:

→ Personal brand, philosophy, and values
→ Goals, interests, and aspirations
→ Proudest wins and achievements
→ Your SWOT analysis and action plan for success

In my mind, a unique part of this tool is that you include your own 30-, 60-, and 90-day onboarding plans in it. This is a great way to help the hiring manager picture you in the role, which will increase your chances of getting the job.

If you can get a manager to engage in a discussion of your 90 day plan, it moves them from judging you to working with you to make you successful. That in turn pushes them from thinking about hiring you to assuming your are joining and focusing on how to work with you.

Karen has put together a detailed newsletter that offers exact advice on how to build your own career walking deck, as well as links to examples and other resources.

Read the FREE newsletter here: Why Your Resume Isn’t Enough (What to Use Instead) (substack.com)

Just want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Ethan Evans and Jason Yoong for this opportunity to share more about career walking decks! They are both wonderful to learn from when it comes to career development so I highly recommend checking them out too ✨