Difficulties Describing Self And Updating Cv / Resume

[jaccat]

I've recently been promoted into a position that comes along with yearly appraisals. In these I have to make a list of my positive traits, my negatives, and where I see myself in the company in two years time. Were I to answer honestly it would go along the lines of:
Positive: I couldn't care less whether people like me.
Negative: I get so frustrated at how useless other people are I am at risk of going postal.
Where I see myself in two years? Either I've been promoted to a goddam better position than I'm in now or I won't be working for you. Of course that in part depends upon the outcome of my therapy, which you know nothing about...

Any surprise I have difficulty?

 

[sun seeker]

I darn near wrote up a real resume /CV recently for a lateral thinking job on a lark (to improve the poor person reading them's day).

I get what lateral thinking is, but what is a lateral thinking job?

 

[Ronin]

Tbqh I write CVs with a plan to use them mostly as an exercise to self for jobs I don't want. Because everything I do want, either I'll get there with time, or it wouldn't be right for me and the door opens elsewhere, I just have need more patience, not giving up on working itself, and not botching life with frustrations like work.

But boy do CVs help at laughing at own life choices and reconsidering.

 

[illusionist]

Congratulations!
Yes had problems writing mine for the very reasons you list... I remember I was asked at an interview for dementia care work " what makes you feel safe"......I knew why they were asking it but all my brain was telling me was ..blinds down, curtains shut, doors double locked, everything switched off so I can hear if anyone's coming near the house, candlestick in easy reach, keys next to me so I can escape out the other door. I just couldn't think of a normal persons answer!...silence...she tried to cover the silence by saying " it's a hard question isn't it".. she so didn't realise how hard it was!..I stupidly replied " oh! A nice hot mug of tea" ..somehow I got the job.

 

[Mit]

Being dismissed from my job of ten years was the start of a period of huge upheaval, family and personal trauma. I was the sole bread winner and had three kids to provide for. Immediately after I regularly woke up with night terrors about losing our home. At the same time I was being investigated by the police and social services. Two months into this nightmare I applied for a job that I was well qualified for, but psychologically was totally unprepared for. I had no computer at the time so had to do the application form on line in a public library. Somehow beyond belief I got invited for interview and even more bizarrely was subsequently offered the job. I can honestly say that throughout the process I was in a total haze, having daily breakdowns , and have no idea how I managed to land a job, or hang on to it. Within the first three months of starting I had to leave my home, was put on multiple medication and took an overdose. But I still kept going into work, driven by a fear of leading my family into destitution. My employer has no idea about any of it. Fours years later and life at work and generally is much improved. But I'm amazed nobody at work noticed anything unusual about me.

I guess it shows just how strong we can be in survival mode. And how little attention some employers pay to their employees!!

 

[The Albatross]

Yeah I suck at resumes and as a result am under employed. But, hey... I'm working... it's just something I still have to bust through/deal with.

 

[rainy_daze]

Reason for leaving last job: I was being sexually harassed by two employees, I took myself off all my medication with no advice from a doctor, I cried on the bus to and from work, I would lock myself in the toilet just to get a break from the employees and to sit down because my back was sore, and I was being bullied by a woman who was almost ten years older than me, and she made my life hell.

Reason for leaving last job: It was unsuitable.

:laugh: If only honesty really was the best policy when applying for jobs.

Really, application forms and doing my CV has thrown me, but I'm lucky that I have people I can ask advice for help with not going overboard with personal details. [Some] Employers don't want a great deal of honesty, they just want you to "sell yourself", as if you are an object/commodity.

I get so frustrated at how useless other people are I am at risk of going postal.

:roflmao:. That is funny even if it is true.

do we find it harder to write and update our CVs/resumes than the normal people in this world

^ I think you're onto something. The answer is, quite possibly. At interviews it is hard to remember they're not asking for your real-life survival strategies, but asking for examples from previous working or professional environments. It is tricky for sure.

I probably fall into the developmental and complex categories

Snap.

Good thread @Anarchy , and all the responses, it has the thinking wheels turning in my head.

 

[Over the rainbow]

Well I want to say congrats on your new job, but you said you didn't want that.
Wow this is such a good topic for me.
Reading this opened my eyes to my own recent trials with making a new resume.
I hated every second of it! It is something I had to do but I didn't want to think of my past.
I put no heart, and no care into that task, I was feeling like quite the loser.
Thank you for your post.

 

[Anarchy]

Tomorrow It'll be 2 weeks since I got my notice of redundancy.

Same shit, I just do not want to update that CV/resume

Even manana* conveys a greater sense of commitment than I feel at present.


___________________
* I don't know how to get the squigly Spanish accent thing above the n on a tablet

 

[Ronin]

@Anarchy, what about not thinking of work for a day? That goddamn CV doesn't exist, you need to keep existing, & last I knew that manana isn't meaning to be a promise of tomorrow; it's a 'we'll get there, eventually, doing it when I can'. <insert sympathizing emoticon that also wants to kick your ex-employer in the ass and more than anything else wants you to be alive tomorrow>

*possibly misreading your message, the wish behind stays.

 

[Anarchy]

Hugs and thanks @Cashew
I'm OK,
One thing I don't seem to do is suicidal. I'm probably too avoidant for it. ;-)

@

 

[Ronin]

Good to hear, Anarchy. :tup: Glad to hear back from you.