- Resumes Highlight Your Skills and Abilities
Years ago, I ran a resume writing business, and many of my clients had lost their jobs. The upshot of losing their employment was that many of them lost their self-confidence as well.
They had identified themselves with their profession, and losing it made them feel dejected. From my client who had worked at Tim Horton’s, to my client who was the television announcer for Molson’s Hockey Night In Canada, (and was off during the strike), it wasn’t WHAT job they did, but HOW they did it, and how it made them FEEL, that was most important.
As I compiled their skills and abilities on their resumes, and restored the client’s glass half full mentality, they grew more optimistic about selling themselves at job interviews to prospective employers. It was easier to find a job with a positive emotional state.
One of my clients had experience as a janitor, but his dream job was to be a karate instructor, and he had taken karate classes for ten years. We designed his resume to showcase his work experience, but also his karate experience, so he could work as a janitor, and train to teach at a dojo also. His attitude about his job search improved immediately, having taken a small step towards finding his dream job.
It was the clients who envisioned their dream job, when applying for jobs, who felt motivated to excel at whatever job they got.
Even the simplest job can be done with passion, quality workmanship and love, in the spirit of service to others. The following story illustrates that HOW you do the job is more important than WHAT job you are doing.
An old story tells of three stonecutters who were asked what they were doing. The first replied, ‘I am making a living.’ The second kept on hammering while he said, ‘I am doing the best job of stonecutting in the entire country.’ The third one looked up with a visionary gleam in his eyes and said, ‘I am building a cathedral.’
The first stonecutter is working to earn his pay for his labour. The second stonecutter continues to hammer while saying he is driven to be the best stonecutter in the country. But cutting the stone is his ultimate goal, without regard for the reason he is cutting it. The third has a vision – he recognizes the significance in the task of creating a cathedral. He sees the big picture and how his contribution connects him to his community. Enhancing the spiritual lives of the residents fulfills him, and the fruits of his labour of love extend beyond benefiting himself, to benefiting future generations, long after he is gone. He puts his heart into cutting the stones, with an understanding of WHY he is cutting them.
photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/reid-bee/5424049276/”>jazzijava</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>