Writing Your Unofficial Resume
There are three parts to this document:
- Reflection Questions to get under some of how you think about what you have to offer and how who you are and what you have done shows potential for what you can do
- The Thinking. Jessica's notes as she went through these questions. Note: she didn’t answer every single question, just the ones that sparked something for her
- Jessica’s Unofficial Resume which is really just a fun way for her to pull together her thoughts into more of a story and a set of items she might draw upon to advocate for herself (in a cover letter, job interview, promotion conversation, etc)
Reflection Questions
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The Thinking
What work experiences (paid or unpaid) do you have that you don’t put on your Official Resume?
What work experiences (paid or unpaid) do you have that you don’t put on your Official Resume?
- Odd jobs ages 12-17: babysitting, filing, data entry, tagging merchandise in a seasonal retail shop, detailing work vehicles
- Age 15 and 16: Server at retirement center
- Age 16-18: manager of small bookstore
- Age 18-22: retail jobs
- Age 20-22: purchasing and customer service at herb store; technician in herbal pharmacy
- Age 23-25 herbalist, women’s health coach, doula (private practice)
- Current: professional coach, sabbatical consulting
Why don’t you include them?
- Jobs of youth “not professional”
- Not relevant to current profession/brand
- Not qualified or don’t have credentials to back it up (my own perception)
What did you learn from these experiences?
To show up, to manage balancing complex and competing schedules/priorities in my life, operations of small businesses, customer service
What skills did it take to be successful (if you were)?
Humor, flexibility, thinking on my feet, emotional intelligence, prioritization, judgment, discretion
What non-work experiences shape who you are?
- Parenting
- Growing up in a dysfunctional family
- 20 years as a serious ballerina and modern dancer
- World travel, living in Mexico and abroad
What skills have you learned in dealing with the people, places, and circumstances you grew up in?
Negotiation, creative problem-solving, attunement to others (dancers in the “corps” move as one body), resilience
What are your most prominent character traits? Which ones can be viewed negatively? How might you look at those from a different (positive) perspective?
- Opinionated ⥤⥤ Articulate
- Loud ⥤⥤ Clear/Bold
- Compassionate
- “Ready, Fire, Aim” ⥤⥤ Action-Oriented
Where do you get intensely curious?
Human/behavioral psychology, what makes people who they are, other cultures, other places
In what ways are you creative or insightful?
I see a problem and a light switches on...everything is “figureoutable”