During my lunch break today I was looking at my CV because I'm giving it to someone so they can pay someone else to file it somewhere in alphabetical order. Don't you think CVs would be so much better if they were true representations of what you'd done in your life - of what you were good at, and bad at, and proud of, and regretted?
A CV is such an inaccurate record of someone's life. I don't care what your major was in university, answer this question: do you wash your cup in the office kitchen after your coffee or do you leave it in the sink and then pretend to hear your phone ringing in your office and scurry sneakily away? How do you waste your time? If the answer is, "I have long, drawn-out conversations with my co-workers about my children" then you're obviously quite a distinct personality type. If the answer is "I tend to email people I feel regretful about not catching up with" or "I usually drag out a task that involves walking somewhere, like, for instance, going to the post office", then you're obviously me... er, I mean, you're obviously another personality type altogether.
I think we should revamp the entire system. That's all I'm saying. It would make for much more functional workplaces and it would eradicate CV-only expressions such as "charged with overseeing the co-ordination of staff systems" (which is the sort of crap people used to write on their CVs when I worked in a job reading CVs. I figured out eventually that what they actually meant was "I was a secretary", when what it sounded like was "I ran the UN for a while just after I graduated"). Having been a secretary, I know that these two jobs are probably equally as demanding, but they are not the same thing.
Anyway. Have an excellent weekend, everyone. Be glad you're not the guy in the street outside my office who was driving a truck-load of dirt down a narrow laneway and the back of his truck fell off onto the road in the centre of the CBD. Now THAT is a bad day at the office.
Yes, CVs are not an accurate reflection of people and their "distinct personality types".
To add another layer to this subject - sometimes I think people start trying to reflect their CV (or what they would like to their CV to be) rather than trying to let it reflect them.
If you know what I mean.
since rita and i are the only ones commenting at the moment, i saw rita's and had to make sure i had a word in as well.
i love my cv, because every time someone calls me up for a job and references something i've done, i have to quickly open it up on the computer to see what the hell they are talking about. and so i have found, more often than not, that my future employer reminds me of something i'd forgotten i could do.
and you thought i was going to say i'd been plain lying... shame.
but the bit i don't love is the fact there is no 'grading system' on these skills. it's basically just a place to put a list of all the things you've ever done. it's like a little personal history tour, encompassing your entire banal work life. so you do silly things like write down that you are a secretary because you answered the phone once or twice in the office while the real secretary was at QV buying hand lotion. then what ends up happening is the potential employer looks at your cv, and finds this skill you'd forgotten about and exclaims 'oh, yes i see you have done secretarial work' and the next fucking minute, you are spouting on about your exceptional ability to be courteious with customers, have a charming clear voice and posess exceptional skills in liasing with clients.
boll-ocks.
so really, the question is, at what point is a skill a good enough skill to put on a cv? how _far_ can we bend these rules? with this 'no job without experience' conundrum (you dont have any experience, but no one will give it to you) things lead to an awful lot of ... stretching ...
i guess it's all just an attempt to 'get through the door' because so many cv's land on peoples desks these days... it won't be too long before doing 10 years at the UN is just plain expected: for that job shuffling magazines in the foyer.
n.
Oh God that is so funny. You and Rits should just WRITE the diary. That is hilarious - and alarmingly close to my own experience. QV buying hand lotion. Hoh peehee.
hah, no, see it's really easy to make comments on things already thought up. it's a whole other kettle of fish to actually write something interesting from scratch.
you keep writing.
i'll keep commenting :)
n.