Resumes & Characters & Games
I’m sitting here, really enjoying chopping up and smoothing over my resume and it just dawned on me: I actually really do enjoy working on this document. I’ve not had to do it often, but after some thought I realize now why I enjoy it so much.
Building a resume is very similar to developing a character for a story or a game. Very, very similar to building a character for a tabletop pen-and-paper RPG. Obviously, you aren’t (or shouldn’t be) fabricating aspects of yourself, but my mind wanders and finds many correlations.
Screenwriters and ‘professional storytellers’ often use character-defining exercises like writing back stories for their characters to help flesh them out and seem more real. They define the character’s idiosyncrasies, like what their favorite color or food is, what their parents names are, where they were born. Some/most of this information never sees the light of day, so to speak, but it helps the author see through the eyes of the character and help make more realistic decisions.
Character sheets for games serve many purposes. One of them is to allow the player to show the ‘game master’ what they want to do or be. If put points into strength, I want to be strong. What super powers I choose in this game dictates the tools I have at my disposal. It also serves as a record; once you establish the character, begin playing, and aquire experience and ‘grow,’ the sheet helps keep track of that growth and progress.
When working on a resume, it’s important to fine-tune it so that it represent the aspects of your ‘character’ that you think are relevant for the job you are trying to get. While I am very proud of my tenure as a professional baseball mascot, that may not help my chances landing a sweet job as a mercenary. You put your best, most relevant foot forward.
As I sit here and work on my resume, I can’t help but think, “Ok, I wonder what a stranger looking at this will think of me?” which is probably a good thing to think. In many cases, I have to hold back. I have a lot I would love to share and think to be totally appropiate, but I can’t fit it on a page or two. I understand that ultimately that’s what the interview is for, but still it makes me antsy.
For as formal, and sometimes archaic a process that the resume represents, it’s lucidly clear to me why it’s a ritual that’s stayed fairly simple since … however long resumes have been around for…