Friday, April 03, 2015

Turning My CV Into a Resume

Asked recently to provide my resume to our organization's files for new board members to learn more about our staff, I reluctantly submitted my ten page curriculum vita because I didn't have a traditional resume. My CV has worked for a career in teaching, but as I continue in the world of education nonprofit, the situation demands a more traditional resume. For the past several weeks I've been thinking and working to create a resume. I read What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles, visited multiple websites, and spent hours over a few weekends distilling my professional career experience and skills into a shorter three pages (still not the ideal 1-2 pages, I know).

I found it difficult to admit that all my conference presentations and teacher publications don't mean anything in my new world. Seriously, I love public speaking, facilitating learning sessions, teaching, sitting on panels, writing curricular documents, and serving on review boards for various topics, and these things apparently don't really matter in my new world. Sadness. At least at first. When I got over myself about this though, I realized that an organization might not care about my academic persona as much as they care about what I can do for the organization. So, I tried to highlight specific skills such as grant management, supervisory experience, and strategic planning instead.

Likely, with one complete draft, I've only just begun this resume writing process, and since I'm not searching for a new job (I love the one I have), my new resume is not specific for a particular job search. If you're curious though or if resume writing is your speciality, and you'd like to provide me some feedback, you can see my ten page CV here and my new three page resume here. (I left my street address off both documents for privacy purposes, but I do know that and my telephone number should be added if I ever submit this for a job search.)

What do you think? Do you have a CV or a resume? Have you ever tried to turn a CV into a resume? Please share your thoughts so I can continue learning.