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New here? Employee Evolution is dedicated to helping the Millennial generation answer the hard-hitting questions that come with the biggest transition of our lives. Be sure to visit our about section for the full story. Since you're here, check out our best articles in the archives. We've also put together a list of some Millennial-friendly employers on our jobs page. Any questions? Feel free to contact us.
Today’s post is by Potres. We met him through Employee Evolution a few months ago and have had some great conversations about work and life since. Potres is 28-years-old and has a background in non-profit, journalism and business.
While in college, I saw my classmates putting a lot of work into participating in student organizations, voluntary research activities, workshops and conferences, mainly because “it looks good on a resume”. In our final year of school, most of them were not so much into finding jobs they’d find fulfilling, but rather, jobs with big name firms, whose culture, organizational structure and policies they didn’t care much about. “I need to put something really good on my resume and then I’ll be able to find a job that I really like,” was their rationale.
I can understand the importance of a resume for the hiring process, but I cannot understand how building a resume can almost become a profession in itself.
It is understandable that in the early stages of their career, people have to make sacrifices and investments so they can move forward. Some people might know exactly what they are doing; the results of their research and networking, specific internships, or leadership experiences, will largely help someone land that particular job with the company they admire.
On the other hand, there are people who were told by their parents, career counselors, and authors of outdated books, that building a good resume is the way to land a good job. And in the early stages of your career you have to work hard to build a resume so you can enjoy the many “perks�? of it later. The major problem with this way of thinking is that a lot of these people get to learn about how important a good resume is for their career before their career even starts.
Here is what I am struggling to understand: Is taking a lame job and spending hours handing out flyers for your student organization really worth the time, effort, and energy? Are people who are trying to improve their careers by doing what “some day will look good” really better off than all the others? And finally, if you can buy a right to add any single sentence on your resume, how much would you be willing to pay for it? What would you be willing to do to earn that right?
I remember buying ridiculously expensive “things�? just because I convinced myself they were worth the price. They were really cool and I’d be able to use them for years. Now, my storage unit is full of stuff that I COULD use forever. I just don’t care enough about them any more. Changes in my interests, technology and the market have made all of them obsolete.
Think of that one “wild card sentence�? that would look really good on your resume. Think about what it is that you would be willing to give up so you could have it there. Whatever price you pay for it, make sure you save the receipt.
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I’m torn on commenting - mostly because, if I had college to do over again, I would probably do it differently. However, I did spend most of my college career “building a resume”. But my experience differs from what Potres discusses in the way that I built a resume with meaningful experiences. I wasn’t passing out flyers. I was working on presidential campaigns and starting grassroots programs for major trade associations. The only difference between flyers and the campaigns is a knack for networking and the confidence to ask for the jobs you want.
My disclaimer: Spending my college years on meaningful resume building didn’t leave a lot of time for the normal college experiences. If these things are important to you, stick to the flyers. But as I think about it, no campus house party can possibly compare to driving in the presidential motorcade at 90 mph and feeling the heat of Air Force One taking off from the tarmack. I didn’t party the same way my friends did, but I graduated with a pretty impressive resume and some absolutely priceless memories.
Jacqui, I think it all comes down to finding balance between what are you investing and what you expect to get out of it. In your case, creating “priceless memories� goes well beyond a few bullet points on your resume and it seams like it was worth the time and energy that you invested.
I thought that you Gen Y guys were like so into getting fast, direct rewards and not serving time at something dull for a long term reward. This guy’s description of his friends and even himself contradicts that completely. But at 28, maybe he’s over the hill.
I’m a headhunter but I don’t work with fresh grads. Here’s my advice, however.
Some companies might like to hire the volunteer kind of person but unless your volunteer activities relate directly to the job you hope to land and are therefore a kind of internship, your prime reason to be in school is to study. And that should occupy most of your time.
Volunteer activities can be a good way to meet and make friends. But that’s another issue.
In later life the volunteer activities you engage in may make a difference. For instance if you’re an accountant and want a job in healthcare, it could make a difference if you serve on the board of a local hospital because it indicates a knowledge and interest in the field.
For the most part though they are irrelevant. I used to tell people to leave all non work activities off of the resume but now I advise them to include them as an ice breaker at an interview.
I’m really surprised that kids of your generation (I’m 45, so I’m at least one gen removed) are so focused on what looks good on a resume. What ever happened to “finding yourself” - a more Thoreau-ian approach to life? Finding and defining all of who you are - your likes and dislikes (dislikes are as pivotal as your likes) which eventually define your strengths and weaknesses - is key to joy in your job. Doing what looks good on a resume is so superficial - and eventually the truth will come out.
I’ll try to speak in specifics. I was a teacher training consultant. It served me for 15 years. I avoided gossip since I wasn’t a part of the group of teachers I worked with. I enjoyed the extreme variety of working in 3 counties and 25 school districts. My body of knowledge increased at an expontially faster rate than if I had worked in one school, let alone one district, but my deep connections to a community of workers didn’t develop. I was OK with that because I wanted a breadth of experience and didn’t want to get weighed down by gossip and other stuff that didn’t matter.
I’m now ready for a deeper connection and have a breadth of experience that serves me well. I often stayed late when I was younger to learn more and widen my experience and knowledge. That allowed me some important freedoms when I moved to NJ - i.e., to spend more time with my children by negotiating myself into part-time job.
Everything I did, I did because I wanted to learn, not because it looked good on a resume. My question, to you 20-somethings, is “Is my goal to learn for the purpose of learning any different than ‘It looks good on a resume’.?” Eventually, I found it became a bargaining chip - when I was 35 years old. So, is your generation just more savvy? Do you know your packed resume and variety of experience will become a bargaining chip in the future? But are you denying your personal strengths and/or desires because it “looks good on a resume”? Is there harmony between my 2 questions?
One more final question - is my perspective–a female of the 1960’s - 1980’s–a primarily female perspective in that I can follow my dream, but my husband has to do what makes the money? (By the way, some of the women of my generation make more $$ than their husbands.)
Hi Denise,
You make some excellent points, and I couldn’t agree more, learning and figuring out your likes and dislikes etc. is much more important then packing your resume.
I think the point Potres is trying to make is that colleges stress packed resumes with tons of volunteer time or leadership experiences in other organizations and the same holds true in the corporate world. A company wants to see all the things you have done. Substance doesnt seem to matter as much as quantity.
I recommend you read some of our past posts and some of my posts over at the Brazen Careerist (blog.penelopetrunk.com). Specificially my “17th grade” post. Our generation is all about learning and figuring out who we are. This is why stressing activities to simply fill up a resume is a terrible way of “getting ahead”
Thanks for the comment
-Ryan
Hi Jim. Photos i received. Thanks