I’ve been job hunting, and I can’t tell you how much fun it isn’t. One of the worst parts is writing what is politely termed the “Professional Title and Summary,” a few words that define my worth in the marketplace. It’s certainly not an unreasonable request. As a business owner myself, I absolutely needed a quick summation of what you could do to improve my bottom line. I imagine it’s not so bad if you’ve graduated in accounting or human resources, or have ten years as an administrative assistant, then you have something to stamp on the line. If you happened to graduate in something like English, and took a non-traditional career path, you kind of wonder if titles and summaries can actually be true.

In practice my Professional Title and Summary changes from resume to resume, to satisfy the metrics laid out in the job description. If I were to tell the real story my Professional Summary would look something like this:

I graduated in fashion design and mastered in English; taught English at BYU; taught English as a second language to executives in Brazil; became a mother; a top 500 seller on Ebay; took care of kids; co-founded a board game publishing company; taught my kids to read and reason; wrote a book; grew the business worldwide; taught my kids summer school; wrote and edited product packaging and materials; supplemented my kids’ education with every tool I could acquire; lived, did business, and raised children in China; and underwent a divorce, holding the fort while I was dealing with breast cancer because everything I’d built had been blown into the stratosphere.

That sentence is not fit for a resume for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that most of the marketplace bits had to happen while my kids were napping, at school, or in bed because they were first priority. But you can’t put Mother on a resume, it makes you look bad. Read More