5/23/05

Maybe It's Just Me

Before I get into this, let me say a few words about that story I wrote and posted here: Thanks for reading it.

Now: I'm not sure why, and I'm happy to entertain suggestions, but I get really depressed whenever I see or think about job resumes.

I just had to research the standard resume format for a project here, and I found several dozen websites with untold thousands of sample resumes, and every one I looked at just made me want to die.

"...More than 6 years' experience in industry-related fields, with strong focus on interpersonal skills. Certification from management training course in Fall 2003. Generated revenue for outstanding products with measurable returns from..."

Oh, death. Deliver me now from this earthly torture.

What's the deal, I wonder? Why do I abhor them so?

Do you?

2 comments:

Fireside International said...

To take our ordinary and mundane existence and spin it to look enviable... that's gotta be right up there with placing unmentionables in our mouths.

And yet we do so.
Eeeewww.

Cheers!
Luke

Colin said...

Actually, Luke, after giving it some more thought (I'm real generous with thought, you see) I think what bugs me most about resumes is how much they leave out - stuff like personality and hopes and dreams and so forth.
"You're not your job," as they say, and the base offense of resumes is their pretense of being comprehensive when really they're only covering a fraction of who you are.
And then - as you said - artificially puffing up that fraction to look hilariously disproportionate.
Yuck indeed.