Equanimity

I remember the first class of Career Fundamentals, I walked in expecting the cost-benefit ratio of the course to be heavily skewed towards the “benefit” end of the scale. I think many of us were surprised at the amount of work we were eventually required to do (considering it was our only year-long course, worth a grand total of ONE credit), but I am glad that I took away a lot from the course: meeting & learning from the TAs, getting to hear from Philippe, and gaining the practical experience with resumes, cover letters and interviews.

Through going through the exercises of resume writing, cover letter writing, and interviewing, I learned a few things about myself:

• Though I am a perfectionist, I am not perfect
• I have gained a lot of practical work experience (aka soft skills) but had difficulty placing metrics on actual results of my work – perhaps more because of the nature of the roles in which I have worked
• I have a tendency to elaborate on context and neglect acknowledging results

I think one of the most valuable things that Comm 299 brought to my attention was the process of breaking down a cover letter and resume into parts. Specifically: C.A.R. statements (cover letter), and accomplishment statements & adjectives/nouns/skills/values in profile statements (resume). Breaking down each section systemically into parts and being able to colour-code things and see the components that way really appealed to my visual/organized learning style, and it is definitely a transferable skill I will retain and use in the future.

Although I am sometimes doubtful about how touted the rigid resume structure we followed was (meaning, I know it matches Harvard’s standards, but it would not necessarily set us apart in a job application – many of the eastern B-Schools also use it), I think it was very valuable to be taught to limit ourselves to the one-page format, as I had previously had a 3-page resume from high school (shock! gasp! the horror!). I look forward to using the skills I gained in writing resumes/cover letters and conducting interviews in future job applications; I have also made it a goal this summer to set up several information interviews with some people I look up to. To success!