Your CV: A statement of your life

Sometimes things come together. Perhaps it is serendipity. Perhaps it is the way of the World.

In the space of a week, three separate folk got in touch with me and each spoke about having to rewrite their Curriculum Vitae – the story of their experiences and qualifications.

It is worth noting that all of the three folk were well versed in life (a combined total of over 140 years on the Planet) and each hadn’t put a CV together for ages. Yes, perhaps it is a way of today’s World.

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My conversations with each sparked ideas about a general CV, a statement of life. Welcome to me! This is what I’ve done, this iswhoIamandhereiswhatIcanbringto you and your place.

The Selfie

If there is an image of today’s World that is (perhaps sadly) symbolic it may very well may be that of a person holding up a smart phone and taking a snap of them self and then sending it out to the nether lands of virtual connectivity. The Instagram invites you to capture your moment and do a visual shout out – look at me, look at me, look at me!

All of the three CV folk are not Instagram types. They are more likely to take photos of others rather than want to be centre frame themselves. However, a CV needs to put you centre frame and you need to be positive in your self – assessment. My trio undervalued things they have done.

Value Experience

Some years ago I was running a programme on Presentation Skills and asked people to tell a story from their recent months that could captivate listeners and then make a valid point about a theme they wanted to explore. One of the women said that nothing much had happened in the previous three months; certainly nothing other people would be interested in hearing.

I asked her to look again and that sometimes it is the simple things in life that we need to explore. After quite some time she stood up and started to relate a story of something that had happened to her a few weeks prior. The (true) story started with… ‘Three weeks ago we were flying back to Australia from Spain where I had been playing for the Australian Women’s Basketball team …’

Sheez – nothing much had happened in the previous three months!

On a related note, one of the trio of CV folk said she didn’t think she had anything muchtoputinaCVasshehadspentthe last 20 years only doing casual work and being a Mum to her two children.

Instead of seeing this as ‘nothing much’ and ‘things that most other people have done’, these two things might be a road to some of the most important traits for today’s World.

Her range of casual work included a plethora of activities, job tasks and situations all indicating her ability to learn new things, be flexible, adapt to new surroundings and be a good team player. Even though her jobs were ‘casual’ she had done them for a long time and had a good relationship with the employers.

And being a Mum – and a very good one – for 20 years. Well, her two kids would write the best testimonial that anyone could wish for.

State Your Ethos

Another of the CV trio said that he wasn’t reaching an interview stage for any jobs and felt his CV wasn’t getting passed the first scan. He said he thought he needed a better opening to his CV, something that inspired the reader to at least go to paragraph two if not page two.

When I first went out teaching I was asked to go to a series of interviews at a Government High School in Western Australia – Wanneroo Senior High School. In 1979 the newly built WSHS was a Lighthouse school – a state experiment with teaching zones of 100 minutes, a six-day cyclical timetable, 30 minutes of Pastoral Care to start every day and a handpicked staff.

In my first interview the Principal Glynn Watkins asked me to explain my ethos as a teacher – my philosophy for life and education. I was 21.

Whatever I said worked. After three lots of interviews, I was selected to teach English and Social Science. I was also asked, along with each of the other first year out teachers, to give a short talk on my ‘ethos’ to the other staff members. Wow – nice stretch!

It was through Glynn Watkins that I learned the word quiddity, meaning ‘essential about-ness, your inherent nature or essence’. To me that exploration is the most essential thing in life. Work out what you stand for and represent that in your daily living. So perhaps an opening paragraph could be:

When you employ me this is what you get: character, experience, flexibility in learning and a belief that you do your best with everything you attempt.

And then…

If I was a song I would be the old Tex Williams song ‘Do what you do do well…’ give everything your best shot. Except I think I’d bring a more modern beat and rhythm to such a tune!

Character

The third member of the CV trio is an old mate. When I looked at his CV he had omitted some things from his life that I thought would be valuable to know.

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Simple things like:

1. He was a Gold Medal Professional Dancer at the World Competitions in Royal Albert Hall, London

2. That after he finished as a professional dancer he competed in Aerobics and he and his partner finished 5th in Australia even though he had only been involved in aerobics for 6 months.

He responded by saying that his job applications were for jobs in IT and data programming and dance and aerobics weren’t highly sort after skills for sitting at a computer screen. I responded by saying, “Yes, but they say so much about you as a person.”

• The ability to perform under pressure
• The character trait of grit
• The aspect of teamwork

When you are hired to a workplace, you are hired to do a job but you bring far more than a single skill set, you bring who you are and your ability to reach and teach others.

Finally, when you lead a learning life, your CV is a rich one. If somewhere in your brew of jobs you have been a teacher then your CV is even richer. Good teachers bring empathy, ethos, character and skill to workplaces – they also bring the ability to create thriving environments for learning to take place.

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Glenn Capelli


An author, songwriter, radio and television presenter and creator of the Dynamic Thinking course for Leadership, Glenn delivers a message of creativity, innovation and thinking smarter. He teaches people how to be a learner and thinker in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world through the use of creative thinking, humour, enthusiasm and attitude. Glenn’s new book, Thinking Caps, is available from Spectrum. www.glenncapelli.com