Resumes: What Does it Really Tell Us?

In the last year of my unemployment, I realized that my resume never fully reflected the work that I have been doing.  Granted I have not been employed in the conventional sense of the word but I have been working.  As a matter of fact, I have probably worked harder in the last year than I have in the last several because I have had to juggle 3 positions instead of one.  Let me explain.

First, I got laid off from a job that although I enjoyed it, until I was laid off I never realized how stressed out I was.  Marketing for the skilled nursing market was competitive and at the end, cut throat.  At the end of my run we were all fighting for a few patients and many people were getting laid off so they were opting to stay home and take care of family members instead of putting them into a nursing facility.  So my new job became looking for a job.  That is a full time job in itself.

Second, while looking for work in the first few months, my time was taken up solely by that.  After a bit, there was not as much time required as my sources were drying up and so I began to dedicate more time to my volunteer work with NAMI Waterbury.  That started to become the focus of my life.  I attended Chamber of Commerce meetings to promote NAMI Waterbury, I went out to do presentations on NAMI, I taught classes, ran support groups and so forth.  Along with this I was still looking for work.  In the meantime, someone asked me for help on the Salvation Army in Waterbury so I volunteered for that.  Again, my time was now taken up looking for work, volunteering for NAMI and volunteering for the Salvation Army. 

Third, while all this was happening a friend of mine approached me to tell me she was starting a technology company that would revolutionize the way we communicate.  She wanted to know if I wanted to be part of it.  Why not!  So I began to help with some of the marketing materials, some of the data base development, business development, software testing, sales, design team work and so on.  All this is done pretty much gratis as the company is pre-revenue.  This company is working very hard on making the correct connections and will be a very important one in how the world communicates in the future.  I will be a part of that group if all goes as planned which is great.

Now what I did not think of as I was still out looking for a "job" is that all of what I have done over the past year, paid or not, has been experience.  I did add the NAMI experience to my resume but I never added the other experience because I did not think of it as important because it was not "paid".  Is that how we value ourselves?  Are we just prostitutes to the world of companies and businesses? Do we have no shame?  Maybe we should be arrested as well as the ladies who walk the streets at nights if that is the way we value employees.

The work I did over the last year was more valuable than most of the work I have done in the many years I have had a "job".  That reason is I was able to do things that my superiors at other jobs never gave me the chance to do.  I was always held back for one reason or another.  There was always someone ahead of me or someone more important that had to be in place.  But now I was the person in charge that could make decisions or at the very least could follow along to find out how things were done.

I have now seen a business start from the beginning.  An idea became a company and is growing into a living thing.   I have looked for sales people, technology people and I have gone out on sales calls.  I have lived leaner than I have lived since I was in my early 20s.  I am stronger now than I ever have been although poorer than I have been as well. 

Employers look at my resume and see a gap of work history of one year but they are sadly mistaken.  I have worked the last year, just not in the conventional sense of the word.  Not in the paid sense.  Those of you who did not hire me or interview me because you saw that gap, your loss!!  I am the best there is.  To the company who let me go, you really lost because I am a loyal employee.  To NAMI, the Salvation Army and SentryBlue, I am glad I have been able to give you my time because you appreciated every little bit I could give you and I will continue to give you whatever I can.  It has been worth more than money and that is the biggest lesson that I have learned from this whole experience.  Giving is definitely better than receiving, that is a lesson the whole world needs to learn!