The Resume' Writing Begins

Kids did my job today. It has given me a chance for the first time in a very long time to really sit back and contemplate my former, present and future work life. I have a direction and an idea of what I want myself to look like on paper.

People think this is a small thing but it isn't a resume is that few minute look that tells someone who has never met you that you are worth a second, third, fourth look and a meeting. It tells them to put you in the next pass file instead of the don't bother pile. So it has always been important to me to have the kind of time to think about what all that means before I start committing words to paper. Because once I have that figured out the words actually are pretty easy.

I'm not sure many people consider that aspect when writing a resume'.  Format and form is one thing but really a resume' is a piece of marketing material.  You are marketing yourself for a job.  How well you come up with a marketing strategy attracts customers (aka employers) to find out more about you.  If you think of it this way then everyone on the planet has experience in marketing and selling (the interview) because this is something we will do a few times in our lives.  It isn't just once in awhile.

I think it is important for me to use this process this way because there are so many days when self-doubt and a crisis in confidence happen that by looking at it in this way I'm able to see my value, realize what I have contributed and it is all positive and it isn't lying.  There is so much I've done with my life both on the job and off and so often we get caught up in the minutia of petty details that are irrelevant to what is important and how important our role is in things that we forget to celebrate what we've done. 

So whether you are looking for a job or not.  Whether you think it is relevant or not when you put yourself in this process which we all should do at least once a year it reminds us that no matter how much life is beating us up and it seems like we are on the shitty end of the stick that we have value, we have something to contribute and that even when we think the world isn't recognizing it we can take time out to celebrate that for ourselves.  It does a lot to change your mindset and make you realize that even if everyone else thinks things are stagnant and that you are rotting in your humdrum life you really aren't. 

Stay at home parents, people who left work to care for family either children or parents or both, people who went to part time to go back to school or because of some other need you have and continue to gain skills.  Maybe these aren't the skills you think of when going through your day but they are employable skills. Things like organizational abilities seriously be a parent in charge of a household, you know who has the master schedule for all the activities, appointments and spouses world events and travel itineraries.  They are the ones that can managed to clean, cook, run all day and maintain an environment that the seemingly impossible is always done and most of the time smiling about it.  They take pride in not only being efficient and seemingly in 12 places at once but when they can come in under budget it is cause for celebration and usually with a treat attached! I was trained as an accountant, in that world the debit was always the debit and a credit was always the credit, the rules really never changed.  Money is the result of business, it isn't the business, the business is what you market.  The finances are the result of marketing. 

So we all have worth and importance.  Just like I tell my children there is no such thing as a dumb person.  No one is unmarketable, you just need to have the time to sit down and say what is it in tangible terms that I can do.  What have I been doing in the past that requires the same skillset, just under a different job title.  When you look at the elements of living and relate them to a job you will be surprised at how many actual real skills you have that can change not only the opportunities you can reach for but how you perceive your own self worth.

That elusive thing called time that is so precious but so needed to slow down for now and then I got today.  Today I got the time to sit without interruption for enough minutes that I could realize I have so much to celebrate about my career in the past, career in the present and excited to get going on the future.  That and my house is clean and I didn't have to be the one doing it.  My delegation skills worked like a charm!!! Hope you find this inspiring or helpful.

Until next time