Good on Paper

This picture represents my current state. First of all, it's very Midwest. Look at all that sky! Also, being stopped at an intersection--not my favorite place to be. But there's a big fat promising rainbow just ahead!

At the end of my rainbow, there's a job. I need one, and it's tempting to go straight back into the service industry because a) writing a resume for a bartending or waitressing job takes hardly any time, b) the interview process is lightning-fast, and c) it's easy to find a place where you can "come as you are" to work.

Of course it would be nice to know how much money I'll actually make from week to week, and to occasionally talk to sober people who don't have their mouths full of food, and to have that thing I'm supposed to get...what's it called again? Oh yeah, "health insurance."

I'd say I spent about 16 solid hours over four days working on my cover letter and resume this time. It's been a while since I applied for a job outside the service industry, and I had to do some Major Research deep in the bowels of my inbox and phone contacts to get everything organized. But the hardest part was deciding exactly what tone and form my documents would have.

At first I wanted to downplay or omit the fact that I've been freelancing and making drinks with no career plan in mind. I considered different "alternative formats" for my resume to make it look like I hadn't been away from the full-time scene for quite so long. Then, on one of the many "resume advice" websites I visited, I found some advice that made me feel better instead of filled with panic and despair:

Hiring managers are people too. And people tend to forgive everything but deception.

That was definitely the turning point, and while my cover letter didn't exactly write itself from then on, it did start to sound a lot more like me.

All right, so I have a non-traditional job history. A series of "real" full-time jobs in totally unrelated fields, followed by three years of service industry work and various part-time and freelance endeavors. Big whoop. It's not like I was parked in front of a slot machine or running from Interpol. In fact, I probably learned more from three years of "experimental employment" than I would have if I had stayed in the salaried circuit.

I also realized this: if a hiring manager decides that I'm too unconventional for the job, then the job is probably too conventional for me anyway. I'd rather be rejected because it's not a good fit than go unnoticed because I tried to make my resume a crowd-pleaser. Or worse: get hired and hate what I do every day at work.

When I finally had a game plan I felt comfortable with, I wrote the first draft by being as honest and thorough as possible. Then I applied some good sense and brilliant editing until I felt that I was authentically represented on paper. The reaction I'm going for is this:

"Well now, this one has some pepper in her pot! I'd like to meet her. Better give her a call before someone else does!"

Since completing a cover letter and resume to my satisfaction, I'm doing a limited amount of job hunting each day. When I start to feel like I'm stuck in a foggy bog and nothing makes sense anymore and I can't even make heads or tails of the job descriptions I read, that's when it's time to step away from the computer.

I'm sharing this because finding that one piece of advice that worked for me was a huge help, and I'm hoping my experience and conclusions will be helpful to other hopeful job-seekers out there!