June 1, 2013
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Moulting
Every time I need to revise my CV, its a whole process. It doesn’t happen often– maybe once in a year, if at all. A lot of things happen in a year though.
As a general rule of thumb, people don’t want to read a resume that’s more than 2 pages long. I’ve had a pretty vagrant work history, and as a result, I could probably hand in one that was 5 pages long.
But that wouldn’t really add much, would it? We go through all these experiences in life– triumphs and failures– and we all have interesting lives worth communicating to other people.
The difficult part is in deciding that you don’t need to rely on past triumphs as much. At what point do you decide that some job you had 10 years ago isn’t so important anymore? Sure, it sounds nice in theory to have worked a lot– but perhaps the insecurity of clinging to the past is sometimes a result of not knowing if we’ll be good enough in the future. As I have to whittle my resume to sharp, focused point, I find it difficult to let go of the past. I find myself coming off as too eager to telling someone every last thing about me– please, pay attention! When perhaps, maybe the more classy approach is to say a little, just enough, and leave the rest up to imagination. It’s a fine balance.
I need to look more forward.
The whole process of redoing my CV reminds me of all sorts of things that helped shape who I am… but I can’t help but wonder sometimes what direction all that history is pushing me towards. I wonder– am I still capable of “travelling light”?
