5.19.2009
A to...W
I've been spending a lot of time looking at and revising my resume over the past few months (the learning full-time thing didn't work out; more on that another time), and then someone asked me for some good resume verbs. So I went through my resume and deleted everything but the verbs. I was shocked to discover that I've done 49 different things in a professional or, in a few cases, volunteer capacity over the past ten years:
- Administrated
- Advocated
- Answered
- Assisted
- Attended
- Built
- Clarified
- Collaborated
- Compiled
- Copy-edited
- Created
- Delivered
- Designed
- Directed
- Disseminated
- Edited
- Evaluated
- Expanded
- Facilitated
- Formatted
- Initiated
- Led
- Located
- Maintained
- Managed
- Moderated
- Organized
- Planned
- Prepared
- Processed
- Provided
- Recommended
- Researched
- Responded
- Reviewed
- Rewrote
- Served
- Set up
- Sought
- Streamlined
- Suggested
- Summarized
- Taught
- Trained
- Updated
- Uploaded
- Visited
- Worked
- Wrote [written]
When I went back to looked to see what I had actually done, without removing duplicates, it seemed to be a more accurate reflection of my professional experience and strengths:
- administrated program
- advocated on behalf of students
- answered correspondence
- answered inquiries
- assisted semi-finalists
- assisted with activities
- attended professional meetings
- built webpages
- collaborated with graphic designers
- copy-edited book
- copy-edited e-mail newsletter
- created a new filing system
- created and maintained office-wide calendar
- created resource binders
- delivered introductory remarks
- designed concert program
- designed, created, and updated web page
- directed webmaster
- disseminated information
- edited and made suggestions for grant proposals
- edited multi-chapter memoirs
- extensively edited individual parts of book
- facilitated changes
- formatted and copy-edited 280-page book
- honed course descriptions
- initiated and managed redesign of webpage
- led faculty meeting
- led feedback discussion groups
- led recruitment and retention efforts
- located missing references
- made recommendations to the board
- maintained and expanded webpage
- maintained contact
- moderated listserve
- organized and formatted footnotes
- organized conference calls
- organized panels, individual lectures, and a benefit concert
- planned programming
- planned Shabbat dinners and other extracurricular programs
- planned two seminars
- prepared press releases
- processed student applications
- provided support and advice
- researched foundations
- responded to semi-annual reports
- reviewed and evaluated dossiers
- rewrote material on website
- served as liason
- served on the board
- set up and moderated three listserves
- sought new instructors
- streamlined and clarified guidelines
- taught Biblical and Rabbinic texts
- trained new staff member
- uploaded information
- visited weekly and formed deep and ongoing friendships
- worked closely with web designer
- worked with faculty members
- worked with graphic designer, copy-editor, and printer
- wrote comprehensive evaluation reports
- wrote essays
- wrote grant proposals
- wrote successful grant proposal
- wrote, edited, and copy-edited text
- wrote, edited, and organized summaries
Some of these are things that I would quite happily do again (for money), some are things I would (and do) do for free, while others are things to which I would be loathe to devote significant time unless the money was really good or it was a cause to which I was passionately devoted. I really did have fun with a lot of this work, though, which is handy to remember once in awhile.
The things that are not on this list are the things that I would really like to avoid in the future:
- being passive-aggressive
- being stuck cleaning up after events while colleagues go home to their spouses
- being yelled at by irate students for anything, ever
- canceling classes due to under-enrollment
- disputes with colleagues
- getting yelled at for neglecting to look up a package's location before it was even supposed to arrive (I mean, really, why does it matter if it was last seen in Pittsburgh or Lexington, Kentucky if it isn't due to arrive until tomorrow?)
- having to correct basic spelling and grammatical mistakes in colleagues' work and then being yelled at for being too "picky" while doing this (basic verb-noun agreement, appropriate use of apostrophes, placement of quotation marks, use of commas to offset clauses--no rocket science, people, but it still matters)
- looking up zipcodes at usps.com
- not being thanked for hard work
- photocopying anything, ever
- picking up dry-cleaning for a boss
- resolving payment disputes
- retyping anything for anyone, ever
- scanning thousands of records in Excel, looking for duplicates
- showing colleagues, repeatedly, how to create folders in Windows, attach documents to e-mails, add columns in Excel, and other basic computer tasks that anyone working in an office should just know, regardless of their age
- showing up late (I want to get better at this. See #1, above.)
- stuffing envelopes
- white-outing little black specks off of documents that have been photocopied too many times
I'm sure that there is a lot more, but it's probably not so safe for the Interweb.
Labels: words
# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 5/19/2009 08:15:00 AM
