The business of 'getting in'

In 1482, Leonardo Da Vinci wrote the first ever resume and it wasn’t until almost 500 years later that this piece of paper became a staple in order for someone to get a job. If at first a resume was simply a description of one’s professional experiences, nowadays it is nothing more than data analysed by recruiters.

I still remember when I wrote my first resume. For my first job, I didn’t need one – I knew the boss. Don’t you just hate nepotism? It does however make the world go round. My first curriculum vitae was sent out containing no buzz words, only a few lines about my education (I’d finished high school 3 years before this moment and was studying accountancy in Romania) and some information about what I was doing in my current position. I can’t remember having a need for including words that can go through a recruiter’s filtering process, because back then the so called filtering process didn’t have so many loopholes. It wasn’t a case of having to explain every single moment prior to an application, it was more an issue of whether or not you had skills for said application.

I’ve sent out many resumes since then. I’ve changed and tweaked a piece of paper until it no longer feels like me. We must now tell people how we’ve boosted sales, ensured high levels of productivity or demonstrated exceptional leadership. The funny thing is… There’s only so many jobs where you can pinpoint those things. Exceptional leadership – one ought to be in somewhat of a supervising position (one way or the other). But we’re not all bosses. High levels of productivity or increased sales? When you’re at the bottom of the food chain, no one tells you if something you do every day boosts sales or attracts new customers. I wouldn’t know if I helped bring in more customers for the last bar I worked at; but I know my boss sure did make me feel like I was barely scraping the bottom of the barrel. Bygones.

The curriculum vitae is now the business of ‘getting in’. A few years ago, a small gap between experiences meant either someone who is lazy, or someone with an exceptional life story – and interviewers wanted to make the difference beyond looking at a piece of scrap paper. In 2014, anything longer than 2 months automatically makes you ineligible for any job – it’s a sign you can’t commit to an employer. Not that employers offer the same courtesy. In the era of individualisation, we’re now reduced to 2 A4 pages in which we must include all our sale-boosting, achievement-boasting experiences, somehow managing to highlight the ones we need for a particular job application (tailoring your CV, they say…). Some people don’t have the luxury of pursuing only experiences that could translate into that. And somehow, that makes them less than anybody else.

The business of ‘getting in’ is just as political and economical as many other endeavours. The pressure each industry puts on young people trying to survive/make something/get somewhere can be debilitating. But if you don’t get in, you’re left scraping the bottom of the barrel. Somehow I wonder if that’s not a better alternative after all.

*Credit where credit is due. The business of getting in, as well as the nepotism crack are referenced from the Gilmore Girls.