I just updated my resume because, hey, you never know when you might need it. I wish resumes could be more straight forward – like, I just want to know what I should put on it – and less redundant.

When you apply for a job at most schools, they have a whole online process where you have to put in all the information that’s already on your resume into the online form as well. I don’t know if it’s to screen candidates out or what, but it’s really frustrating. Maybe don’t ask for a resume if you are going to ask for all the information that is on it separately, anyway. Then, there are always a bunch of short essay questions that you get to answer ahead of time, which are clearly screening tools and are super time-consuming. Lots of school districts also employ a timed test system where you have to answer a bunch of multiple choice questions with answers that are not nuanced at all and none of the answers are clearly what you would do. It seems like such an impersonal and flawed way to determine which candidates to interview.

It’s also hard to fit everything onto one page or even two pages. I’ve been teaching since 2000 and coaching since before then. I have training and leadership roles and awards and honors and all sorts of things I want to include. I have a really full and wide-ranging career to encompass in two pages. It’s not easy.

Sometimes I wonder about jobs in the corporate or non-profit world: do they ask you to fill out redundant forms when you apply? How would I change my resume for a corporate job? What would it look like?

It might be fun to try sometime, even just as a writing exercise.