Depending on your life situation as you read this, you may be surprised that I want to begin the “making a good life happen” conversation by talking about The Resume. Please don’t plug your ears or stop reading because you think you already know what a resume is and/or you think you don’t need one. You do.
Let me start by saying something you may have never heard of or thought about before: YOU are your resume; it’s not the piece of paper. The piece of paper commonly referred to as The Resume may or may not reflect the resume that you actually are. And let me go out on a limb and say that it probably doesn’t.
To make the switch from thinking of the piece of paper as The Resume – something different from or other than you – let’s change the title of the document to something more illuminating, like the Who I Am Summary. Before you can write down that summary and express it clearly, authentically, and effectively, you have to be fairly clear yourself about who you are. This takes some work, but trust me, it’s doable.
My intent with every coaching client is that he or she will, through our work together, end up knowing and embracing their own story and be able to speak it without a lot of apology or false embellishment. The story needs to be well thought out, edited, rehashed and rehearsed until it makes sense to you and whoever is listening.
There’s just no point in avoiding the Who-Am-I question. It keeps at you, in one way or another, as long as you live, whether you pay attention to it or not. But if you want to make a good life happen, you need to get a handle on who you are and what you want, and be able to express it effectively.
Then you have a good chance of getting the story of who you are down on the piece of paper called The Resume. Then, of course, you need to get clear about your criteria for the bull’s eye you seek, but that’s another story.
For related concepts, check out the interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman and CEO of Mattel in the article “The Resume? No, Let’s Talk About You,” by Adam Bryant, originally published December 26, 2010 in the New York Times, Sunday Business Section and online http://nyti.ms/hr7eYZ
Our dear Bonnie Bonetti-Bell was the force behind our Career/Life Coaching services, until her passing in 2019. As a principal of our firm, Bonnie had an innate talent for seeing the best in people. Moreover, she helped others see the best in themselves. Bonnie is fondly remembered and deeply missed.