Resumes, Bios, and Profiles - an exercise in narcissism.

I recently started an internship with a great branding and marketing firm here in Denver.  The principal of the company is an incredibly intelligent, educated, and accomplished professional (and a good friend of mine) with a laundry list of professional achievements and accolades.  So, when he asked me to put together a personal bio to be included on the company website, I was super flattered.  He wants to include me as a representative of his company, his brand!  So I went to work, writing out a list of my accomplishments and capabilities... and hit a wall.  All of a sudden, my resume didn't appear that impressive.

So what did I do?  I compared myself to a Slap Chop.

She slices, dices, makes tuna salad...!  Hilarious, right?  I thought so.  But, this is what I always do when I'm uncomfortable: I make a funny.  Why was writing out my accomplishments and professional experiences making me uncomfortable all of a sudden?  Oh, that's right... I'm unemployed, and have written and re-written my resume about a hundred times while applying for jobs, to no avail.

I didn't realize the major toll this had taken on my ego until yesterday, when I literally couldn't get past the Slap Chop comparison.  It's not that I don't think I'm intelligent, educated and accomplished, because I am.  It's just that sitting down and trying to explain it on paper, again, was really difficult.

In the professional world, one has to be a bit narcissistic.  You're selling the greatest product in the world: you!  But what do you when your ego has been badly bruised, and all of a sudden that product isn't feeling so hot?  That feeling can make or break the search for a job or promotion, and can definitely get in the way of achieving any personal/professional goal.  Personally, I'm trying really hard to fake it 'til I make it.  Even when I don't feel great, I'm trying to get out there with my chest puffed out and my head held high.  Because, let's face it, if you don't think you're awesome, no one else will either.

I'm not going to let my bruised ego get in the way of an awesome opportunity.  So I'm going to step away from the bio, go to the gym and come back with a freshly oxygenated brain, and hopefully some endorphins.  The skinnier me I find at the gym can't hurt my inner narcissist either.

What do you do to give your professional ego a boost?

Taking the bull by the horns, and hoping not to get stabbed.

Last week, I came across two amazing job opportunities available with one company.  The jobs matched my experience perfectly, and the company sounds amazing!  It's a small operation with national reach, and asks its employees to wear many hats and to come together as a team to get the job done.  DONE!!  That is how I love to work, and fits my "jack of all trades" experience to the tee.

So I applied for both positions on LinkedIn, writing a personalized cover letter for each position and attaching my profile and resume.  And then... I never heard back.  That was over a week ago.  Yesterday, I saw that the hiring manager had viewed my LinkedIn profile.  That's good, right?  Or maybe not, as I haven't heard form them since...  AAARRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!  This is so frustrating!  I hate tossing my resume out into the abyss and hoping it sticks.

Not one to give up easily, I've been cyber-stalking the company since and am falling more and more in love.  Their social presence is funny and inventive, and garners a lot of feedback from their fans - always a good sign.  Their work is creative, and the company culture sounds laid back and yet hard-working: perfect!!  I found their address and am contemplating my next move: dropping off my resume in person and asking if the hiring manager is available to chat.  Bold?  Yes.  Arrogant?  Perhaps.  Stupid?  I hope not!

I really don't want to let this opportunity go without a fight.  So what would you do?  Would you walk in uninvited and ask to chat with the hiring manager, risking the potential of turning them off entirely by not going through the right channels, or by interrupting a busy day?  Or, maybe instead of turning them off, I'll impress them with my go-getter-ness and can-do attitude.  I don't know... I'm leaning towards just doing it, and taking the proverbial bull by the horns.  If you strongly envision me getting stabbed by a horn as a result, blogosphere, please let me know!!!

Stopping to smell the... music.

 I was driving to a networking meeting yesterday, when "Summertime" by Sublime came on the radio.

I hadn't heard this song in AGES, but over the past two days, it comes on the radio every time I'm in the car.  Could it be a sign?  Hearing it in my car, driving with the windows down and the sun shining in put a smile on my face, and made me realize that I haven't had a summer off since... I can't remember!  In my frenzied search for a new job, I often forget to take time to appreciate the little blessings that have become a part of my unemployed life. Little blessings, like the fact that it's summer, and I don't have to sit in a cubicle staring longingly at the few rays of sunlight peeking through a tiny window above my walls, aching for a breath of fresh air and sunshine.  Instead, I get to sit at coffee shops and patios, chatting with new and interesting people and contemplating my next step.

So, while I'd really love to find an exciting place to work, and to know where my next paycheck is coming from, I'm going to take the time to stop and appreciate the little things.  If you see a girl driving down the street with the windows down, belting out a Sublime tune (off-key), that might be me stopping to smell the roses.

"Summertime and the livin's easy..."

I have no idea what i'm doing... and neither do you.

In my recently embarked upon quest for a meaningful career, it has become increasingly evident that I have no idea what I want to do with my life.  Actually, that's not true.  I have waayy too many ideas of what I want to do with my life, and am having an impossible time sticking with any single one of them.  How do I pick a profession or industry and decide that's what I want to do for the next however many years of my life?  I am experienced in and capable of so many different professional functions within lots of different industries*, so my path is definitely not clearly laid out for me.  Just to give you an idea of how disparate my job search is, here are some of the positions I'm currently applying for:

• Inventory Analyst/Merchadise Planner
• Writer
• Account Manager, Marketing or Ad Firm
• Consumer Goods Marketing
• Sustainability Expert
• Small business Ops Manager/Consultant

This is the first image that showed up when I googled "confused".  I find that hilarious.

Uh... yeah.  And I have experience doing the majority of that, just to give you an idea of how disjointed my resume looks.  Apparently no one is hiring for a "jack of all trades" these days.

I was in the middle of looking at Masters Degree programs in Urban Planning (to add some indecisive icing to my confusion cake), when a girlfriend called to ask if I wanted to grab coffee.  Yes!  So I left my cave and joined her for some much needed sunshine and caffeine.  We got to chatting about my job search, where I promptly diarrhea-style dumped on her about my lack of direction.  It turns out I'm not the only one.  She told me story after story of people she knows that went to school for very specific degrees, only to find they hated their chosen field or couldn't find a job in it, and are now going through a predicament very similar to my own.  Apparently it's a pretty common issue amongst my peers.

Should I be relieved?  Well, I was at first... but then I realized my lack of uniqueness in this quandary may be a bad thing... Are there thousands of late twenty-somethings roaming the interwebs looking for professional purpose just like I am?  And if so, how do I, with my random cornucopia of capabilities,  look better than the rest in case someone is hiring for my dream-jack-of-all-trades position??  Ugh.  I have no answers or insightful references to end this post with.  Maybe you do?

*I  have yet to discover whether this is helping or hindering my job search, although I am inclined to believe the latter, but that's a whole separate discussion.