I was looking around at some other blogs this morning and decided to mark one with Stumble Upon. A page came up and asked me what my interests were and this is what I checked:

Bizarre/oddities
Conspiracies
Gardening
Food/Wine
Liberties/Rights
Library Resources
Photography
Interior Design
Literature
Humor
Buddhism
Paranormal
Writing
Travel
Vegetarian

Now I’m not a Buddhist or a vegetarian but I do enjoy reading about these subjects. But what struck me was how easy I could be summed up. I have been struggling with my resume my entire adult life. I’m really good at trumpeting other people’s skills but not my own. So therefore, I think my resume sucks and that is why I haven’t been offered any kind of real job that I’m interested in, in a long time! But am I really interested in a real job? I guess that depends on how you define “real job.” My conservative friends define it as getting up at 6:00a.m., guzzling down a cup of Joe, dressing to the nines with makeup and trendy office clothes, slipping on some hazardous heals, trendy accessories to go with the trendy clothes and of course the perfect designer non-leather handbag. Then off to work in your gas guzzling SUV which you park in a covered parking garage and zip up an elevator to your holding cell in the sky.

Oh sorry, I may have gotten a little carried away there. But remember, I’m the girl who walked away from all that and am now living in a little slanted wooden cottage on top of a vegetable farm overlooking the Caribbean. I don’t mean to gloat(well maybe a little),but take your pick. To each his own right?

Back to the subject of the above list.

Not that the above interests have anything whatsoever to do with skills and achievements I would list on a resume. But no, the above list is kind of a life resume. Wouldn’t it really be better for a perspective employer to know who you really are instead of what looks good on paper? Sadly, I guess not.

Having come from a Human Resource background myself, I know that a recruiter could care less about your life work, human skills, hobbies or interests. When it comes right down to it, these interests reflect a lot about who you are, what motivates you, what you are passionate about, and what resonates within you.

I had a boss once, who I’ll call Amarosa because of the incredible similarities in personality of that beastly woman on Donald Trump’s show, and she was very analytical and numbers driven. I am obviously not THAT. I am very creative and cry when I have to look at numbers too long. Ask my Dad.

Anyway Amarosa hired me because she saw the creativity in me immediately when we interviewed. She even later showed me her interview notes where she wrote in large letters diagonally across the page “VERY CREATIVE!” But yet we practically went to blows on occasion when I didn’t produce the statistical reports she wanted in the way she wanted. I even hired a consultant to come in to the department and do one of those behavioral assessments on each team member to show her that she was a BLUE Analytical type and I was a sunny Yellow Creative type and we needed to respect that about each other. In other words, do not expect this happy creative yellow to be able to conquer the statistics and numbers like a Blue person such as herself could do. It will take me three times longer and the results will not be anywhere near as precision perfect as the Blue person’s would be.

Needless to say I went running out of there with my hair on fire! And in retrospect I say Thank God!

So you folks who are hiring need to listen up. Just because someone has credentials, associations and degrees that look marvelous on paper, look a little bit deeper. Perhaps part of the screening process SHOULD include interests. It will tell you a lot about a person that may not necessarily come up. If anything, it will certainly spark some interesting dialogue. And for those of you beating your brains out in a job you hate, maybe you should study your list of interests and if your line of work isn’t on there, get out! Get out now while you still have enough sanity left to do it. It may be a struggle, mine certainly has been, but I sure have a hell of a lot more fun. Isn’t that what life’s all about anyway?

P.S. I don’t know why I clicked on Paranormal and Conspiracy – I thought it might be fun to see what kind of blogs it would send me to.