ACTIVITIES: It’s not surprising that résumé writing leads down a path bordered by anxiety, self doubt, and frustration. There’s a lot of pressure as you seek to garner the respect of others on whom your self-conception relies. When students come into the Career Center at Boston College, many times Ann Flynn, who helps with résumés and personal statements, looks at an arrival and thinks to herself, “Maybe you’re not here just for a résumé critique.”
Used to seeing students’ moods change from lighthearted musings about résumé formatting tweaks to grave brooding about future choices, Ann believes a miniature life-crisis hits because we haven’t been preparing ourselves. All of a sudden, a blank résumé with your name at the top sits before you and wham, reality is right there too. Reality that beyond having a degree, beyond having relevant job experience, and beyond having a solid character, you are also supposed to participate in ambiguously labeled “activities.” Pondering what to write essentially becomes a type of therapy session. You get to appreciate the things you’ve done, at the same time you realize you can still do more.
In fact, Ann thinks employers and graduate schools may even use the résumé to weed those people out who aren’t ready to talk about themselves, a sign of immaturity. But mature or not, twenty-two and looking for a first career job, or forty-two and contemplating a change, this phenomenon of a résumé identity crisis will happen several times throughout your life. Ann’s advice is to “realize that this is just a piece of your life… right now, you’re in this part of the cycle that will, indeed, cycle.” So, it’s something everyone goes through and you just have to get over it.
According to the satire newspaper, The Onion, 91% of ‘calm downs’ are ineffective, so taking a deep breath or channeling your energies to a higher place may not work, although that doesn’t mean ignoring arising life questions will either. As Atisha, one of the prominent Buddist teachers of the tenth century, said, “The greatest precept is continual awareness.” If not continually, at some point you do need to address the life you’ve created.
SKILLS: Atisha also said, “The greatest action is not conforming with the world’s ways.” Imagine if you could write your résumé the way you wanted. It wouldn’t be so intimidating. It could be a list of things you never expected to be an expert at:
- Getting other people to do your work
- Peeling potatoes
- Beating credit card companies at their own game
- Giving expert advice
Which, on the flip side, brings up the things you thought you would be an expert at by now:
- Pouring milk from a gallon container into a glass
- Saying goodbye
- Avoiding the influences of TV commercials
- Starting conversation with people you’ve met for the first time
Funny that you're writing about this now--I've recently started working on mine from my grad school applications. Most of the things that were relevant at the time no longer are...For instance, being able to run my own NMR experiments and familiarity with GC/MS are now things that one should assume I'm good at in the 4th year of my Ph.D...So I had a full resume (not going to try and put accents in here) before, and I am once again looking at blank paper! Will major pharmaceutical companies care that I studied abroad and had a helluva time?? hmm.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point Bob. The "relevance" of our experiences/accomplishments definitely changes depending on the ultimate goal. I'm already doubtful that it matters what honor societies I was a member of. But I guess it shows that you've come a long way too. And there are still many who would consider running your own NMR experiments as impressive.
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