Part of my student involvement activities on the UBC campus is resume & career advising to undergraduate students. When I first started, I was lucky enough to be paired with one of the most experienced advisers for shadowing. My training included sessions where my supervisor advises the incoming student while I observe and add pointers occasionally. Gradually, I would take over the entire session while my supervisor observes and adds his expertise if needed or if the student has a situation that is outside my parameters.

In my third training session, a student walked in for advising. Upon first impressions, he seemed very stressed and things aren’t going too well for him. He introduced himself to me and my supervisor: a graduate engineer who is looking for a job. His resume was quite impressive, it had great work experience and academic achievements. As the session went on, he expressed his frustration at the current job market multiple times, and how he has applied to many positions that he was perfectly qualified for but never received and interview. He was not an undergraduate student (not my specialty) so my supervisor guided the ship on that one. The session went by as expected, and the resume looked even better at the end. Finally, the student asked “if you were working in the x company, would you hire me based on this resume?”. I started listening carefully to my supervisor as he chose his words to answer the question while trying to remain neutral as much as possible. Although we help students by improving their chances with resume recognition, we can not infer if someone will get hired or not.

Upon wrapping up, without any warnings, the student started crying intensely. He packed his stuff up (with quite an impressive speed), and ran out of the door. My supervisor ran after him to take care of the situation and make sure that the student is well. After my supervisor and the student left, I started to reflect on the situation and why it happened. To me it seemed that my supervisor has said nothing degrading or offensive, he was very polite and careful with every word. I realized how much emotion people associate with exposing their life ( in a resume) to someone. Although our job is to give advice and help, some may view it as a form of evaluation, which is why we get the common question: “is my resume good enough?” and as a coach, I have to consider that every word I say. In the end of the day, people should leave feeling better about their resumes, not the other way around.