For the past couple years I have read a bunch of LinkedIn posts written by Robynn Storey pertaining to corporate hiring practices. Her stories, many passed on through discussions with her clients, resonated with my experiences about finding a suitable profession after my retirement from the USAF. A couple years ago I looked closely at hiring Robynn, but money was tight and my applications to grad schools were gaining traction. It seems as though now is a better time, so I set up an initial consult with Robyn’s Storeyline business for later this week.
One of the routine practices that took place annually in my USAF career was that my supervisor would ask me to write my own performance evaluation (but leaving the ratings blank). I always felt uneasy doing this. It seemed to me that I was boasting about my own work, rather than someone else doing the boasting about me. I also felt that it was the supervisor’s responsibility to do the research on my merit and conduct the writing. I see now that these conclusions were short-sighted and that these writing and thinking exercises were very useful to prepare for resume writing that would come years later.
This past weekend I had a small break of a couple days and used that time to consider the steps I needed to take for a career trajectory after my studies are complete. Strategic planning, yum, a task I enjoy immensely. I went back through 22 years of military performance reviews, military decorations, and several years of academic work since then and tried to determine if I had the requisite experience to work a professional role I am considering. After convincing myself I could be successful in this arena, I took a look at the resume I used to apply for grad school programs two years ago. My visceral reaction was to rip its heart out, bury it to electronic oblivion, and rewrite it almost entirely from scratch. Confused, awkward, imbalanced, bloated. The old portrayal of me needed to go. This is when I reached a tremendous philosophical light-bulb moment about what good resume writing really entails.
So what does it mean to write a good resume? Really? First, it is a personal history review. I began with what was actually performed during my entire past and what impact resulted from those actions. Afterwards, I identified personality traits and character strengths that steered me to successfully complete those actions. While I worked though these threads, I consulted extensively with a dictionary and thesaurus to find precise words to fit what I learned about myself. Then I took another step back and searched for common themes that would describe my history in general and where my work led me. Perhaps this is not too different than an self-imposed out-of-body experience?
Second, good resume writing is a present assessment. I have been asking a lot of tough questions of myself for the past several months. Am I where I need to be? Can I take my personal history and extend it to where I am now? Does my current occupation challenge me, cause me to grow, provide me with a sense of purpose and meaning, and generate hope for a successful future direction? Is my work meeting my long-term emotional and physical well-being? This last question required me to be brutally honest with myself. It has been constantly nagging me–I just needed to address it, otherwise bad things will certainly happen.
In the final step, the answers I come up with in the first two steps are now my guides into opportunities I need to explore that may open doors for a future role. I am using SMART goals to assess the possibilities, especially realism. Many require some sort of professional statement–hence the requirement of an updated resume.
So what is good resume writing, really? It is not a boast. It is the result of strategic self-reflection: what I have done, what I am doing, and what I wish to do. It is an assessment of personal and professional needs, and a process that formalizes an action plan to address those needs. This work must be done even if one consults with a resume writing service such as Robynn Storey, so take it seriously.
And in case anyone is wondering, I am absolutely not considering dropping my PhD program! This is an area of my life that I believe is spot on.