Making A List
I was recently updating my resume / CVand wondering what all could go in it. The fun thing about writing a resume / CVis that we can go back a few years of our lives and think of all the achievements we have made in our lives and present it in a form of paper. It is almost like bragging about yourself but without the tag of being an irritating bugger who brags :P.
A couple of days ago, we wrote a post on why we should brag about ourselves a bit. It is not actually bragging, it is more of marketing and we all should be able to do that well, atleast in the current day world. Here is a post on how you can effectively brag :) – Bragging isn’t necessarily bad.
And esp if you are looking at a performance review with your boss, there is no way you can be the simpleton, you got to be a little assertive – Tackling a performance review in office
1) What all can go into the resume / CV?
At the onset, it looked like a very simple deal, I mean how hard is it to write those things in my life which have happened in the past two years and those things which I am quite proud of. Well as it turned out, it was much harder than I imagined.
So I thought, I would make a list of all the things I had done, I made two categories – personal where I talked about all the achievements which I had made like the books I had read, exams I had cleared, movies watched, friends made, new tricks learnt, etc etc.
But to be honest, an employer is not going to care about that. But I did it anyway, it did feel very good writing about myself :)
2) Listing professional and personal achievements
Then came a list of professional achievements which like you can imagine are much shorter than the personal ones! Turns out even this list was bigger than what I had imagined.
A lot of those things which I had shunned as completely useless were actually quite commendable and in fact I firmly believe that they can help create an impression!
3) Integrating the professional and personal achievements
After having done these things, it was the time to integrate the two and provide a consolidated report.
A resume / CV sometimes gets a little tricky cos it has to have a fair mix of who you are professionally and also give an idea as to what kind of a person you are so that it helps the interviewer get a good glimpse of you before you guys get to start talking about you!
Somehow I managed to do it and there it was, a freshly prepared copy of my resume / CV which is not going out for any interviews. I just did it for the sake of doing it.
4) It made me feel good looking at the long list
While I proudly look at it and see what all I have done, I realize that it was a fascinating experience to remember what all has been done in the past two years of my life.
The resume / CV although was a very short glimpse, the idea of making it, making a list of all the good things I have done in the last one year, trying to focus on the achievements was nothing short of a glory.
It felt that I was acknowledging every act of mine and was patting my back cos I felt so good about it!
5) Appreciating ourselves for the little things
That makes me think, how often do we set out a time where we appreciate ourselves for the things we have done, the small things like being a reason for someone to smile, helping an old person push a cart or a blind person cross the road, offering our unconditional support for someone in struggle, getting ourselves over our small fears like riding a cycle or standing up to ourselves or sending food back in a restaurant cos it sucked and so many things.
I mean there are so many fascinating things that go on in our lives that we don’t even set out time to acknowledge cos we are too busy being caught up in something else?
What if we set out, say about 5 mins a day where we make a list of what all we have done in the previous day, to identify how we have improved from our former self?
6) Here is why you should keep doing it a little more often
Does that make you feel happy? Does that make you feel a little more confident about yourself? Does that make you feel that your life is a lot more rewarding than you give it credit for?
I am not asking us to avoid all the negatives in life, all the things that are wrong with us. They will be there, staring at us and we spend an enormous amount of time on them.
But do we do that for the positives as well? Now that’s something to think about isn’t it?
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The list of professional achievements are always meant to be much shorter than the personal ones. Be proud of it :)
Thanks Jay :). Nice to hear from you matey! I agree, that’s probably cos we dont relate that strongly to them and they are very objective as compared to the personal ones which can take any variations and lengths :)
Beautiful post Vinay and well said.. All we need is five minutes in a day to think what we have achieved that day.. then everyday would inspire us to do better in life :)
Thank you Shruthi :). True, all we need is 5 mins a day! :)
Customize the “secrets” to fit your own needs and style,
and start creating your own great life today for your achievement !!
S – SIMPLIFY
E – EFFORT
C – CREATE PRIORITIES
R – RESERVES
E – ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS
T – THOUGHTS
S – START
Thank you Veena :). SECRETS indeed :)
Congrats for your achievements. Best wishes for the future ones, Vinay :)
Thank you Anita, I guess we all have that beautiful list within us, we just need to keep acknowledging it quite often :)
Resume writing is a difficult job. Portions need to be highlighted also varies from situation to situation. Glad that you have taken the trouble to streamline your resume. Personal aspect of resume may not interest an employer immediately, it definitely show diverse interest, curiosity and entrepreneural spirit of the person. Looking back it also helps boost confidence of the candidate. Really, i did this!
Thank you Abhijit :). I agree, I used to find it so difficult to collect all those things that can be represented in a format. It used to seem so juvenile and stupid but now I guess I see the importance of things now, every single bit matters :)
It can be the source to rebuild our confidence and gather the energy for new tasks. Enjoyed reading it. Will share this post with my friends. :)
Thank you Anshul. I am glad you found the article useful, always a nice feeling to hear such thoughts :)
A good idea really- It can boost your self esteem. somewhere along the way you may have forgotten all the good things about you…
Thank you Rajeev :). It certainly does, I mean we all are put down by so many things in our lives, but to realize that there are so many things that we can feel good about is definitely a great endorsement in ourselves :)
Very well written sir..!! Appreciating oneself is the best way to stay positive…and apart from everything or everyone else, loving oneself is equally if not more important…! :)
Thank you Vikrant :). I agree, somehow somewhere in the process we are taught that appreciating oneself is considered bragging and is avoided in the society. But at the same time it becomes extremely necessary in our lives to enhance the quality of thought as well. Of course some people don’t find it that exciting but I guess that is always open to debates :)
Achievements always bring some satisfaction and confidence…well written Vinay… :-)
Thank you Maniparna :)
Very well written Vinay, but to be very frank I don’t prefer making a list of achievements. After all what is the point in storing them? Do achieve some achievements which others should remember and you should start focusing on achieving something else :)
But then as I said that it is entirely my own thought, and I know not many will like it too :)
Thank you Alok :). I think it is more about acknowledging what we have done and what we have gone through to do a certain things in life. Most times I think it is often considered the last thing since it equates to bragging. But I’d say, there is so much more to life and when we have done it, we really deserve a pat on the back, esp when we have done so many things to get to that..
Why you should make a list of your achievements once in a while! http://t.co/AJfFsyxHvv