Note: This article was inspired by Ben Langner, the VP of HR at Wilson. You should follow him.
There are a bunch of things I’ve done in my life that have absolutely no business being on my resume.
I worked at the concession stand at a movie theater.
I was the worst employee at the Gap in my hometown.
And I was even a gift wrapper during the holidays when I didn’t know how to do gift wrapping and didn’t even have the patience to learn it.
I’ve had jobs I completely sucked at.
I started businesses that went nowhere.
I’ve been fired.
I’ve made decisions that, when I look back on them, really make me question whether my brain was actually fully developed at the time.
None of those things are particularly impressive.
But I started to realize something.
Some of the least impressive things I’ve done in my life may be responsible for some of the things that I’m actually the best at today.
Which is kind of f***ed up when you think about it.
Because we spend our entire careers doing just the opposite of that.
The LinkedIn Version of Your Life
We look backward on our life and we decide which experiences count.
Were you a CEO? Yeah, that counts.
Did you sell a company? That definitely counts.
Did you work with some giant brand that everyone recognizes? Yeah. Put that shit in bold on your resume.
But did you work as the popcorn guy behind the counter in a movie theater?
Maybe that doesn’t go there.
As I thought about this, I actually noticed that I do this all the time, and very blatantly.
I tell people that I’ve started 3 companies and each was acquired by a large public conglomerate. What I don’t say is that there was a fourth company. And that fourth company was doing well. Until it went out of business and I had to fire 35 people in one day.
I think we treat our lives like LinkedIn profiles. We keep the impressive stuff and kind of omit everything else from the conversation.
But that’s a mistake.
Because sometimes the stuff you omit is exactly where your advantage comes from.
Ben Langner’s Post
I came across a post recently on LinkedIn from Ben Langner, who is a VP of HR at Wilson. He wrote: “That job you leave off your resume might be why you’re so damn good at HR.”
I read that and thought, holy shit, Ben’s right.
And that’s what led to this little rant here. Because I think the idea goes way beyond HR.
There are probably things you’re unusually good at today because of experiences in your past that you’ve completely disregarded. You just haven’t connected the dots yet.
So let’s do it right now together.
