The Reflective Resume: Professional Stories as a Source of Identity and Meaning

The most important question to ask on the job is not, “What am I getting?” The most important question to ask on the job is, “What am I becoming?”

Jim Rohn

References

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Crafting Stories from Career Experiences

A third of our lives is spent doing paid work. Assuming a 35-hour work week, you can expect to spend roughly 90,000 hours working up until the age of 80 [1]. Day-to-day work occupies more of our time than personal care, housework, seeing friends, or leisure [2]. Over a lifetime, our work experiences shape our identity, becoming a story of how we used our talents in our professional roles, and perhaps, carve a sense of meaning from all that we do [3]. Our careers become stories of identity, personal growth, and meaning [4]. It is a story of skill and significance; of employment and engagement with the purpose of our lives.

The idea of careers being a story is part of narrative psychology – a perspective in the psychological sciences that explores how people craft their lived experiences through stories and storytelling [5]. The idea that careers are story-like is the central theme of career construction theory. This theory “explains the interpretive and interpersonal processes through which individuals impose meaning and direction on their vocational behaviour” [6]. These deeply personal stories shape personal understandings of who we are, our sense of agency, and the personal significance of the work we do [7]. Career counselling conversations adopting a narrative approach can effectively enhance client self-reflection and agency [8]. In a career construction interview, the counsellor may ask the client to describe themselves in relation to their work, how they coped with challenges throughout their career, and inspirational role models. The counsellor then helps the client form a coherent story of the what, how, and why of the client’s career – these then become the building blocks for helping the client form a career action plan [9].

Whether you are just starting your career or have been working for several years now, you have a story to tell. Take a look at your resume. You have written part of that story. What stories and personally-meaningful experiences have so far shaped your career and your identity?

Seeing Character Strengths in Your Vocational Personality: What Positive Qualities Define Your Career Journey?

Our work personalities consist of our abilities, needs, and interests, but it is not limited to the accumulation of experiences or learned abilities. Accumulating evidence in positive psychology shows that our character strengths – inherent goodness of our personalities – are also important in promoting positive work outcomes. Applying one’s best qualities to one’s work leads to greater pleasure, engagement, and meaning [10]. Such positive work outcomes also lead one to see work not just as a job, but rather, a calling [11]. Did you often find yourself relying on your social intelligence in dealing with clients? Are you someone who finds it easy to manage collective, team efforts – you have the strength of teamwork? As you review your resume, consider:

• What strengths did I use in this particular role, job, or project?

• What strengths helped me achieve positive outcomes in this role, job, or project?

Realizing Agency in Career Adaptability: How Did You Navigate Challenges throughout Your Career Story?

Career stories don’t usually follow a linear progression. Stories of success are often accompanied by accounts of adversity, challenges, and struggles. That change in your career after the pandemic – what did that say about your adaptability and resilience? Your career story is an account of your adaptability – the ‘how’ of your professional journey. It is the part of your story that highlights your ability to cope with and change the course of your career where needed. During moments of adversity and setbacks, you may have even found ways to reinvent yourself. Such stories reflect optimism, hopefulness, and agency. Career adaptability reveals tales of our proactive tendencies in the face of challenges [12]. It can also be a story of courage [13], like when you took that ‘leap of faith’ when deciding to start a new business. These changes to your career story can, with reflection and appreciation, allow us to derive meaning from change [14]. Consider the following reflection prompts on your resume:

• How did I navigate this transition in my career?

• How did I summon optimism, agency, and courage during this change in my career?

Finding Significance in Life Themes: Why Does Your Career Story Tell a Tale of Meaning and Significance?

Being able to see yourself as contributing to a greater good and an essential part of meaningful work. Revisit your past, and you might feel a sense of nostalgia – woven into your previous roles are accounts of prior accomplishments. Experiencing nostalgia from previous work lowers turnover intentions and increases perceptions of meaningful work [15]. What did that first job as a research assistant teach you? How did that internship experience shape you into the person you are today? Careers, if they are to be meaningful, also require us to ask an important question: “Why do this work?” No two individuals will answer this question in the same way – each career story is unique to the storyteller. One’s “why” may change with one’s life experiences, but knowing that why can help our stories make sense. An important way to find one’s why is to seek coherence in one’s career story – a story that is comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful. Do the threads in your career story line up clearly enough to tell a connected story? [16]. Even if your career hits a bump in the road, even if you did experience a setback or change, could you write the story in a way where even that detour makes sense in the broader arc of your journey? [17]. As you reflect on your resume, consider:

• Why do I continue to do this work, despite setbacks, challenges, and struggles along the way?

• Why have I persisted in the face of these difficulties? What am I intrinsically wanting to attain from my work?

Our unassuming resume is more than a track record of our professional achievements and accolades. This month, revisit your resume and see it as a story. Reflect on the meaning that emerges. Our professional journey can, and often is, an important part of our evolving identity. As a closing question, as you ponder on the stories and accounts that emerge from your resume, you might also ask, “Would I continue to do what I am doing, even if I am not paid for it?” If you find yourself answering yes, you might have, without being consciously aware of it, already written a story of your calling.

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