As you go through this article, it's important for you to realize that all the skills and expertise you've developed through school, home, and community activities have relevance and value in the work world. That's why some important tools have been included in this article to help you examine your background. By the time you finish, you will know what abilities and experience you have to offer to potential employers that will convince them that you should be interviewed.
You can use your notebook again or a file folder for your Personal Biography, which will be a useful permanent record of your experience. You may want to include your school transcripts, old resumes, letters of recommendation, and other pertinent materials in a special Experience File. You should also begin to collect work samples, names and addresses of former employers, references, prior job descriptions, and other items that reflect your life, experience, and skills.
As you work through this article and develop your Personal Biography, write down as much information as possible about yourself. This record is your personal inventory, so be sure to include everything, no matter how obvious a given aspect of your history may seem. Complete each item without being con-strained by what you think you ought to write. Consider everything you have done at home, in the community, at school, and in other experiences, including paying jobs or unpaid (volunteer) work. The phrasing of your entries is not terribly important at this point. You're still in the exploratory stages and will get to the actual resume wording later.
In compiling your Personal Biography, you may find it useful to talk to your friends, family, and former business associates. They can often help you remember important information that you might otherwise overlook.
Personal Biography
1. Education
Begin with your education. On a fresh sheet of paper in your notebook, list the following:
High School
- Name and address of your high school
- Year you graduated
- Name and address of your college
- Year you graduated (or the number of credits you completed, if you didn't graduate)
- Type of degree earned
- College major
- College minor
- Name and address of graduate or professional school
- Year you graduated
- Type of degree earned
- Major
- Minor
- Describe
- During your education, which subjects did you like best? Why?
- Which subjects did you like least? Why?
- Were your grades best in your major? If no, explain.
- Have you taken (or are you now taking) any extension, adult education, or other courses? If so, what are they, and why did you become interested in them?
- Would you now be interested in further training or specialized courses to help you in your career? Any comments?
- Describe your extracurricular activities while in school, and underline the ones that still interest you.
- What three achievements in school made you most proud?
- Did you hold any jobs during your school years? During summers between school years? If so, list each position and your duties.
2. Hobbies/Pastimes/Interests
Your Personal Biography should also include all those things that you do simply for fun. In step two you will examine your leisure activities your hobbies, pastimes, and interests.
Begin with a fresh sheet of paper (or a new page in your notebook). List everything, past and present, even activities that may seem unimportant to your career. And go beyond the general category. For example, instead of just saying "movies," be more specific, adding "read about movie history," "make home movies," etc. If sailing is your interest, be specific: "competed in amateur races," "maintained sailboat," etc.
In this category it is particularly important to be open in your thinking. Include all personal interests that are important to you. Don't omit a particular interest because you feel it would be of no value to an employer. Remember, this Personal Biography is being prepared without specific regard to what will later be used in your resume.
After each interest, note the number of years you have been involved with it and how good you are at it your level of competence. For example, are you a beginner at skiing, or extremely proficient? Do you sew a little, or design your own wardrobe?
Once you've listed all your interests, take a few minutes to think about this question. Do you see any work applications for any of your hobbies or interests (with or without further training)? Many times hobbies are clues to what you are really good at and interested in and to the kind of job you should consider. One woman whose hobby was photography found a job working on educational filmstrips. If you see any possible job applications in your list of interests, write them down as part of your Personal Biography.
Now let's try an experiment. Go back and look again at what you have written under hobbies and pastimes. Imagine that one or two of these hobbies belong to someone else. Invent a possible work application for each one, and list them with the others. (This step might help you to be more objective about your experiences.)
3. Membership in Organizations Past and Present
The groups that you've joined also are clues to your job potential. List all the organizations to which you belong or have belonged. Include civic, political, cultural, feminist, professional, and social groups of every kind: esoteric, intellectual, exercise, community, etc. And briefly note the degree of your involvement in each activity. Why is it important to you? What have you learned from it?
4. Skills
The skills you have acquired over the years are an essential part of your Personal Biography. List any specific skills you have developed as a result of formal or informal training or experience. For example, driving, writing, speaking, furniture refinishing, photography, as well as financial planning, programming, or any other skill you have developed in your working or nonworking life. We've listed some skills for your convenience, but be sure to add to your list any others that you think of.
For each skill, try to rate your degree of competence: are you excellent, very good, good, or still a novice? Then note where and when and how this skill was demonstrated. Don't confine yourself to on-the-job situations. You may repeat any of your hobbies or educational experiences here. Who says you can't enjoy work? You can set up your notebook page to look like this.
Skill Degree of Competence Comments
(List) Excellent Very Good
Talking
Writing
Selling
Teaching
Supervising
Editing
Motivating
Listening
Languages (specify)
Painting
Performing
Composing
Creative Writing
Designing
Dancing
Acting
Sewing
Decorating
Inventing
Landscaping
Cooking
Studying
Researching
Conceptualizing with numbers
Conceptualizing with ideas
Analyzing
Synthesizing
Problem solving
Decision making
Managing
Negotiating
Typing
Carpentry
Mechanical
Drafting
Driving
Gardening
Repairing
As you went through this exercise you probably thought of other skills that you have. Take some time and list them too.
5. Jobs
The final step in compiling your Personal Biography is to describe your work experience. It's essential that you include all your jobs, paid and unpaid, long-term or temporary.
You might find it helpful to put the following headings at the top of your page:
Chronology Contributions
Year Organization Title Salary Most significant
Activity contributions to
Employer
Now, make a full entry for each job or unpaid work experience. Begin with the most recent year you worked and list backward, year by year, to a maximum of ten years. If your job experience in recent years has been brief or nonexistent, include some of your earlier paid or unpaid work.
Write down the organization, title, and salary for each year worked, even though some of the years might be identical or very similar. And be sure to include all jobs (full- or part-time) even if they do not represent your current field of interest. If you were a housewife for some or all of these years and did not have outside work, see if you can translate this experience into work-related terms. If you are a recent or near graduate, be sure to indicate all your summer jobs and any part-time work you had during your school years, even though you have already listed them in this Personal Biography.
Then describe the most significant contributions you made in your work for each year. What did you accomplish? What did you learn? What did the organization as a whole accomplish? (Remember, your participation contributed to this accomplishment.) Include things that you may have done as part of a team. You may want to spend some extra time on this step and perhaps to refer to old job descriptions, recommendations, or samples of your work.
Now reread what you've written and, in 50 words or less, summarize what you feel are your most important contributions. Pretend that you are writing a Situation Wanted newspaper advertisement for yourself, an ad that a potential employer would read. Here's a sample:
Specialist in landscape design and garden development seeks full-time position. Have five years' experience in designing for broad acreage, rockeries, roof gardens, in domestic and commercial settings. Established and maintained local clinic, prepared instructional materials, and created innovative maintenance programs.
In your notebook, write your own Situation Wanted ad. You might want to refer back to earlier steps in your Personal Biography for additional insights. Now go back and read your advertisement again. Does it present you in a positive way? Women are often reluctant to project themselves in a strong, assertive manner that emphasizes their special abilities. They're sometimes afraid of being considered too aggressive. That kind of feeling could get in your way, so remember that in the job market it is no longer appropriate and doesn't make sense to be overly modest about your skills. Take another look now at your background and see if you can sell yourself still more effectively. Try another Situation Wanted ad.
It may have been a long time since you've looked at your skills and experiences so objectively. Hope you have now discovered or been reminded of some important strengths. You may now be in a better position to market yourself, because you have identified your capabilities and can see the full range of what you have to offer employers.
Continue to look at your experiences in terms of their value to a potential employer. Don't be afraid to examine the relevance of your background for positions in areas that are usually dominated by men. As a woman you may have had jobs with plenty of responsibility but not much rank or recognition. Take a close look at these experiences so you can identify aspects of the work or involvement that could be translated beneficially into your current job targets.
And remember to document your abilities. Collect and file your college transcripts, work samples, letters of recommendation, names and addresses of references, or anything else related to your prior experience that is relevant to your job campaign. Keep them with or in your notebook.
If you haven't done so already, write away for those records you may need, call the people who would be willing to write references for you, and make copies of important work samples. Keep adding information to your Personal Biography and file as you progress through this manual and conduct your job search.
