How is Pomona’s Career Development Office useful to its students?
My résumé should, hypothetically, be the pinnacle of my professional life. Organized into neat subsections about my previous employment endeavors and activities and skills, I have a vision of my ideal résumé pleasantly filling a page without threatening crowdedness. I imagine it with a minimalist design and a tasteful header and professional font (is there such a thing?) Unfortunately, my poor résumé boasts none of this.
One sad thing about my résumé is that it’s weirdly barren. The reason behind its blank, blank spaces is unclear, as Pomona has pumped lots of work-study opportunities into my system, which have taken me through eight jobs from the Office of Study Abroad to a social psychology lab to Bangkok. I describe these things, which in some way have shaped me, in three bland bullets, and I feel unfulfilled, but I must be mindful of my space. As for activities, these are marooned to a sad list at the bottom of the page (they get no description) and my entire life suddenly sits so emptily on the paper that I feel as though I’ve forgotten the past three years entirely!
This summer, I also hopped on the LinkedIn wagon (with reservations about its actual efficacy) and laid out my entire professional life there, as well. Once again, I feel like the same empty pockets exist without the literal emptiness. Now, my résumé has evolved from a little sheet of paper to the grand e-list and I’m connecting and I’m endorsing and I’m mystically a part of all of these circles. Somehow, this document sounds strangely disingenuous (despite being true!) Somehow, this list all about me seems very distant from me.
Anyway, I made my first résumé in high school, and since it has grown, but this slippery dissatisfaction has remained. So, finally, after these years and years, I’ve scheduled an appointment at the CDO! That’s right, in one week’s time, I’ll finally have some expert tell me how to birth this résumé-of-dreams. Maybe down the road, if I get some cool job, or if I attend some cool grad school, my résumé woes will all be a distant memory.