Perceived Value
Recently, I separated from work I'd done for most of my corporate career. The places and resources intended to help people re-connect should be helpful but not always. In fact, some of my experiences relating to that have opened my eyes.
Today for example, I joined a seminar for people (most middle-aged +) returning to the workplace. Trouble was, the millennial leader of the seminar, smartly decked out with a crisp, designer bow tie, never connected with anyone. I'm sure he was well-intentioned with his inspiring talk and series of videos, but it was about as canned and commoditized as the message - you’re not good enough. Better seek out checklists and assessments, recommendations on more seminars to attend and groups to join. Is this the image of those here to help? Or are we settling for a helpless image of ourselves?
Next, a delightful young woman discussed best practices for resume writing. Not surprisingly her advice was to focus on keeping it short with bullet points and limit job history to the past 10 years. "You know, to kind of hide your age." Should wisdom and experience gained throughout a challenging and insightful career be this easily dismissed, or worse, because I'm a woman? Not all job histories can or should be reduced to a variety of multimedia pieces full of glitz and glam with flashy, interactive graphics but then, neither can I.
The message was clear. You must Twitter-ize yourself, keeping everything to 140 characters, full of catchy sound bites, key words and not too much substance. Disguise your true self with smoke and mirrors. Thanks, have a nice day, next. The whole experience was degrading and impersonal. Luckily my experience has taught me to recognize value over fast-fix, shallow hype.
As we maneuver in this new world filled with growing amounts of uncertainty, artificial intelligence and seeker-mentality intent on replacing workers for additional cost-savings, it seems like we can either prepare our authentic image now or, become a statistic falling quietly by the wayside. Maybe it’s time to choose yourself.