I've been reviewing mine lately, and I started to really think about what it says about me. The more I reviewed it from different angles, the more I realized what talents and skills are left out. Does being a mother hold any accountability on a professional resume? I'm not really sure what the answer to that would be, but I thnk it should. Skills include time, financial and conflict management. Food preparation, janitorial and laundering services. Negotiation abilities. Shuttle service. I've never been in the situation of going from stay at home mom to professional businesswoman (and I've never had the guts to redo my resume that drastically) but I can't help but wonder how creatively one could describe these everyday duties, to entice a potential boss.
After giving my own working life another look, I'm grateful for:
1. Having a variety of jobs. I've always thought that my area of "expertise" is fairly slim, and perhaps it is, in the grand scheme of things. However, upon closer inspection to the jobs that I've held throughout the years, there is a pretty large range. Waitress, retail cashier, radio announcer, feature story writer, bartender, sales person, customer service rep, recording engineer, musician...these are all positions I've been paid for. I've discovered there are quite a few skills that can cross over from job to job easily.
2. Hidden talents. I've realized that I posses a lot more talents that what I had previously put down on paper. Writing being one of them. I've taken the fairly typical English classes in high school and college, and have never set out to be a published author, but writing is a talent that not everyone can effectively use to express themselves. I'm proud that I can.
3. Having jobs, period. I started working when I was 16. I'm not one of those who was delivering newspapers when I was 7, or mowing lawns when I was 10. I worked in college, but I didn't have to work 4 jobs in order to pay for my own loans. Still, I understand the importance of a strong work ethic and sense of responsibility. I chose to stay home for about a year after my oldest was born, and I was unemployed for about 9 months a few years ago. Besides that, I've held jobs pretty steadily for a good part of my life.
4. Being a mom. No, that's not on my resume, but as I mentioned earlier, that responsibility has definitely helped hone skills that I use in the workplace. And some aspects of my jobs have helped at home too, like learning how to speak to my kids in a 'professional' and calm manner when I'm angry.
5. Balancing home and work. I am not about to begin the professional mom vs the stay at home mom controversy. I see validity in being either, and nothing stated in this blog post is meant to praise or offend one side more than the other. I've had times when I've wished for nothing more than to stay home with my kids. I've also had times when I've wished for nothing more than to leave the kids home and run away to work! Most of the jobs I've had have allowed me enough flexibility to be with my kids when I need to, and that's what is important to me.
So, what's in your resume? What skills, abilities and talents are hiding beyond the professional workplace? Or what professional skills, abilities and talents have you gained in a non-professional environment? Back in my unemployment classes, I also remember our teacher talking about transferable skills and how two seemingly unrelated professions can utilize similar traits. That's a pretty cool concept, and it's amazing how many skills can cross lines that are way far apart, if you look carefully enough.
Probably get it out of the way from the onset, and pardon my use of course language, from the venerable but incredibly outdated "What Color is Your Parachute" in the 1980s to TheLadders.com today, the reality most people in positions of hiring will say is resumes are bullshit. Utter, exquisite, crap. A person can not be confined or defined on a page. They're at best a foot in the door, at worst, a way that some people can work a system where other extremely qualified candidates will not even get a first interview, especially when there's inhuman woefully overused and misguided online software such as Taleo et. al. that exists. As a recruiter friend of mine in NYC told me a few years ago, the only reason resumes still exist is because there is a resume business to be upheld and the act of hiring is usually a conservative endeavor, otherwise, and his words too are, they're bullshit.
ReplyDeleteEvery good job I've ever had – and it's not exactly a bunch of unknown places The Coca-Cola Company, Adobe, The Home Depot, Philips – I was hired without a resume. Yep. No resume. None. Purely I knew people or knew people who knew people though that alone by no means guaranteed me any of the jobs, I'm not THAT connected. However it did get me interviews where I could meet face-to-face with one or several people, at the same time, over a course of a morning, or days, to talk about myself, talk about their needs, see if there's a fit, etc.
Good hiring, which seems rare these days because of the business of the resume, does not use a piece of paper, it uses face-to-face, it uses handshakes and open conversation, it uses people getting to know people to make the determination of fit, not some algorithm of keywords (which can be easily tricked). Hiring done the best way is done as a people business.
The points you made are completely valid. My wife enjoys working, a lot, so I've been a stay-at-home husband for periods leaving gaps in my work history. Being a parent as you know can at times be the most challenging, and rewarding, job you can get, it is the toughest job you'll ever love. You had three children, I cannot imagine, it was like spinning (literal) plates when I was at home with both boys trying to prepare a healthy dinner or even trying to take a shower. Multitasking at a place of work has nothing on multitasking as a parent, plus at most jobs it's not as potentially life-or-death. If you can be a GOOD parent, there's pretty much no job you can't do with the right training.
Last but not least, one of the most interesting resume advice pieces I read, aside from doing the right thing and abolishing them, is write them for the job you want to have, not the ones you've done. This is very hard to do, but makes sense. I know from experience my resumes tended to be overly rearview mirror, the reality is though, I don't want to do what I used to do, I want to take a leap and do new things. The issue is the conundrum "to get a job, you need experience, to get experience you need a job." Still, the thought is logical that your resume should speak to the employer of why you can solve their needs, and why you're the right person to do so. A good resume should represent who you want to be, not who you were.
Colin, although I have been traditionally trained to rely on my resume, I see your point of view and agree that a whole person cannot be defined by a piece of paper. I'd much rather meet and talk with someone in person, than try to cram everything that I think they might be looking for onto paper. Your advice to create a resume for what you want to do, not necessarily what you've already done, makes a lot of sense. Twisting around the perspective to show what experience (job related or not) you can provide is a great way to dig a little deeper into yourself. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and the info!
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