How to Share Your Story

Sharing your story is simple.

When you open StoryPrompt, simply choose Record your reply or Write a response.

You'll be asked four short questions about your experiences at UCSF. It takes about 10 minutes, and you can record a video or type your answers.

What's your name and...what are you doing today, professionally?/where are you in your training?

Looking back, what decisions or experiences during your time at UCSF best prepared you for your career?

What advice would you give today's UCSF's trainees about making the most of their time while at UCSF?

What role, if any, did OCPD - the Office of Career and Professional Development (formerly the Career Center) play in your career development?

Seven Frequently Asked Questions

Not really. We encourage you to speak or write naturally from your own experience. You can review the four questions before you begin and take a moment to think about what you'd like to share.

If you're recording your responses, aim for about 1–2 minutes per question. If you're writing your responses, a paragraph or two per question is plenty. These are guidelines—what matters most is sharing what you think would be useful to someone coming behind you.

No. You can use a computer, tablet, or smartphone with a camera and microphone. StoryPrompt works through your web browser, so there's no special recording equipment required.

Yes. You'll have an opportunity to review and re-record your response before submitting it.

Selected responses may be shared with UCSF students and postdocs through career programs and workshops, events, online resources, social media, recruitment materials, and other Career and Professional Development communications.
We want to share your responses as real life examples - for example, if you shared that informational interviewing was really helpful for you, we would send our a clip or snippet of your story when we are offering a workshop in informational interviewing or play it at the beginning of the session.

That's completely fine. The OCPD question is optional. Career and Professional Development is just one of many resources and experiences that may have contributed to your career preparation. We're most interested in what you found valuable - whether that was a mentor, professional network, student or postdoc organization, internship, career program, informational interview, research experience, or something else entirely.

Please contact Patricia McGrath at [email protected] with any questions about the Pay It Forward Project.