True Backstory

by Scott Keneally

In early 2023, Microsoft announced it was shutting down AltspaceVR, the pioneering metaverse platform where I worked as lead copywriter. I knew it was coming, and in the six months leading to the company's sunset, I was hyperactively hunting for whatever was next.

But the job market was brutal. Waves of layoffs were hammering white-collar workers, and LinkedIn was flooded with job seekers. Every open role seemed to have thousands of applicants and required something I didn't have: "6–8+ years of in-house or agency experience."

Prior to my two-year stint at Microsoft, I spent two decades freelancing across industries and formats. And though I'd experienced a lot of success, it didn't read on a résumé. What I once celebrated as versatility now felt like a major liability.

Of the hundred fifty or so jobs I applied to, I received a small handful of responses and exactly zero interviews.

I knew the level of storytelling craft I could bring to the table. I just needed a way into the room.

So, outside the box I leapt.

I set out to create something different. A cinematic narrative portfolio. Something as wildly unexpected as my career itself.

I mapped out my story and shaped it into an arc. Then I began laying it out with visual assets that served the narrative. This thirty-day sprint resulted in a 75-slide, actually fun-to-read portfolio that I shared on LinkedIn.

It landed like I thought it might. Friends shared it, strangers saw it, recruiters reached out, and doors opened.

What I didn't expect, however, was how much I'd gain from the very act of creating it.

The process required me to look back and reflect on my journey. The highlights, lowlights, successes, failures, pivots. It jarred memories of pivotal projects I'd long since forgotten. It made me smile, constantly. And as I built my story, beat by beat, slide by slide, I started to see it: the skills I'd picked up along the way, the mentors who helped, the lessons I learned.

What looked like a series of disparate work experiences on a résumé felt, in this light, like a constellation.

And with that clarity came a confidence I didn't know I needed…