Tuesday, January 30, 2007

My first ever resume

I have just finished writing my first ever proper resume - and I'm on Cloud Number Nine!! I feel so elated - as if a new focus has appeared in my life!
It all began when I applied for an Enhancement Program (EP) offered by the Faculty of Engineering - the VIP or Vacation Internship Program. The application required us to answer the usual questions - What are your skills? What are you interests? What are your hobbies? What are your extra-curricular activities? What job are you looking for? What do you plan to specialize in? and so on ... To be completely honest, this isn't the first resume I've written - it was just the first one I've written by myself - which comes from both my heart and my mind. Its just the first one which is a completely honest account of the person I truly am and my skills and my interests.
And this inspiration I derived from the website of the NUS Career counseling center - where I came across a power-point presentation which was basically a guide to writing your first ever resume - One particular line touched me the most - It said "Be completely honest about your abilities, skills and limits. It will not only help you discover yourself, but will impress upon your employer your true capabilities."
I realized how true this was! After I actually penned everything down, I suddenly realized what I had been inadvertently doing so far - what I have actually learnt over my years in school and university,what kinds of curricular activities I'm involved in and what I have learnt from them, where exactly my interests lie and what skills I possess!
At this point I can only remember a famous quote by Albert Einstein who said "Education is that which remains after you've forgotten all that you've learnt in school" Life is an educational journey - and when I wrote my resume, I realized exactly what I have learnt in life! Which experiences have taught and impressed upon me what I know of life - which direction I'm heading off to!
I won't say that it was a completely pleasant experience - because it did make me realize how much time I've spent on certain things at which point I could have been doing something else which would have given me much more returns - I suppose everyone realizes this but it takes an experience of self-introspection to give you the motivation to stop doing that and move in the direction you really want to!
So people, I've just concluded to update my resume once every 3 months and I will take the liberty to suggest that every single person out there who wants to become something in life should take time to sketch out her/his mind map!!