Resumes and Dates

The thing I hate about resumes is not writing the resume. Writing is easy and I say that not because I am a writer but because in doing so, you have options. Among the many, you can start by telling the truth about the work you’ve done. This will not only make you feel proud and accomplished but also make you realize, hey, I’ve got skills. Secondly, there are so many examples and formats available on the internet to follow that it’s almost impossible to go wrong. You can just close your eyes, point your finger, and go with whichever makes sense to you. No, the thing I hate about resumes is including the dates associated with each of the jobs.

Dates, date you. Either you’re too young or too old. Dates become the wielding tool, a sword of sorts to whoever has the authority to decide the direction with which your resume will follow; either into the next set of hands on the hiring chain or the trash basket. The other thing about dates is, once you’ve collected enough of them – who can remember when what happened, it just did – and believe me if I say I did the job then, I did the job. What difference does it really make when I did the job? I got the juice so let us stay in the carpe diem.

During my mom’s era, the resume had two entries. The first was the job acquired right after graduating from college. Perhaps this was the starter job, just to get the ball rolling. The second entry was the real job, the one that grew out of your major, more commonly known as landing a job in your field of study. From there, you got promotions. Up the ladder to the roof until it was time for retirement where by this time you had earned the badge of honor and a proverbial gold watch. Can you imagine! In those days, you didn’t just have a job, you had a career with all of the trimmings that go along with it.

Me on the other hand… my resume is so long I don’t even know where to begin. I remember a person much younger than myself once said, as she perused my resume, wow look at all of the jobs you’ve had. I chuckled as I replied, no, this is not what you want – get one job and stick with it. Now, however, I am proud of my long interesting, diverse, illustrious resume. It is more than a mere skill evaluator. Far from boring, my resume can be used as a conversational piece at cocktail parties, talking points for a class lecture, or for tactical purposes to be used whenever someone doubts my ability to do this, that, there, and the other. Just go ahead, try and call me an airhead and I’ll pull out my resume. Just don’t ask me to produce the dates.

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