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!!

4 comments:

The Avenger !!! said...

umm interesting mind if i look at it ? i would sure love to read it and comment :)

cmg to business, any luck with internship? or where are u interning currently?

Bala said...

Wow; that is an interesting perspective. If I may suggest, you also need to at regular intervals check the progress made in the direction chosen by you and see whether the posts (interim goals) which you had planned to cross are behind you. You need to course correct at the appropriate time, as the third dimension of time is always moving ahead in a single direction and there is no way you can retract or retrace it!

All the best ppl. I would recommend this blog to the few I know.

Archun said...

haha! really interesting that you should talk about time...I've been wanting to blog one particularly on that topic for a while now, but am really lazy..
anyways, that's a really good suggestion. But at this point I am really excited by so many things - I've not decided on a particular course for my career. Though yes, I can apply it to short term goals and this will definitely help me realize my long-term dreams more efficiently!
Thanks for commenting as usual!!

Anonymous said...

This blog too was sooooo pleasant...as like ur other blogs ofc :) which r always spiced with that enthu, passion and info packed up with beautiful language! Your experience of your first ever resume was totally inspiring especially for someone like me at this juncture...wow..ur resume must have roked!:) Don't ever stop, keep going, there's so much of 'you' you will keep on discovering...:D