Good afternoon, Boston!
Since today is my first blog, perhaps it will be most appropriate to speak about the first step everyone must consider, and accomplish, when beginning their career search: the dreaded resume. Everyone has an idea of what information a resume should cover or how long it should be ie: education, work experience, and at most, one page long. Well let me tell you, Wheaton College, the college I attend, is a liberal arts school. A verrryyy liberal arts school; in the words of our President Crutcher, "they [students] have to come to some generalizations and realizations about the
material they are studying, rather than simply learning how to do a
specific task," while he explained the advantages to attending a liberal arts school. However, when I found myself junior year attending a resume seminar, President Crutcher's words rang far more literal than expected. The "specific task" I thought was the resume itself, but all I gained were some "generalizations" with few "realizations" at the end of the hour. My note pad read like this:
"1. Write in short something you excel in"... Easy enough, I really do know how to "cut a rug" on the dance floor. Then again, I normally dance to express and not to impress, so maybe I should leave this out?
"2. List a class that presented a challenge, how you conquered the challenge, and the final result" ... Well, for me, obviously math class entered my mind immediately. Yet, the word "conquer" definitely did not describe my final result and I certainly did NOT desire for my future employer to contact my teacher as a reference. Well, number two is out of the question. Hopefully number three will finally make this long-lost college hour worthwhile.
"3. Don't restrict yourself to the norm" ... EXCUSE ME? THAT'S IT? ... I always deemed resume guidelines were practically laws. Ignore or breech the social and occupational construct of the all-mighty resume and suffer the deadly ramifications, or more importantly in this case, the consequences of unemployment...
Long story short, I attended another resume seminar off-campus last summer where I received the ideas and restrictions I had been looking for since day one. Thank you everyone for your time and attention throughout my first blogging experience and have a great weekend!
