Have you ever noticed that there is a serious serious contradiction between being polite and "likeable" versus selling yourself for a job. Which feels counterintuitive to me... Dont you want to be "likeable" to get a job? Is there some inherent reason that we should down play our achievements, ideas and accomplishments to be polite company?
This makes it sound like I sit around and brag about myself. Trust me, I dont. Or I try not to. I'm not always very forthcoming... I've been told that people feel like they have to drag things out of me. I'm definitely in the category of people who turn off the sound when someone starts reciting their resume. I hate conversations where you ask the other person what they find themselves doing now, and suddenly it's like they enter robotic resume recitation mode, and I think to myself, seriously I was just trying to be nice. You dont need to impress me or get a job from me, so chill. Or maybe that's a weird college student thing, I'm not sure. But I LIKE it when people like what they do. When they are proud of what they have produced or do every day. It gives me hope that I'll be able to do something I want to do with my life too.
So maybe this is wrong. Why shouldnt we celebrate the things we are excited about? Why shouldnt we enjoy our jobs and share our successes with our friends? I'm learning to reprogram my thoughts this way.
This whole tension becomes most apparent when we need to write a bio for ourselves. I was sitting there trying to write a paragraph for an hour worrying about whether or not I liked the way it sounded. Then I decided I was over thinking it. I was reciting facts. I HAD done the things I wrote down, I was stating facts. And damn it I was proud of it. I've worked hard, why not let people know? And the worries went away.
So how does this translate into every day life? I'm not sure yet. But I think we should be proud of what we have accomplished when we worked hard and earned the successes of our projects. I'll let you know what I figure out from here on out.
This makes it sound like I sit around and brag about myself. Trust me, I dont. Or I try not to. I'm not always very forthcoming... I've been told that people feel like they have to drag things out of me. I'm definitely in the category of people who turn off the sound when someone starts reciting their resume. I hate conversations where you ask the other person what they find themselves doing now, and suddenly it's like they enter robotic resume recitation mode, and I think to myself, seriously I was just trying to be nice. You dont need to impress me or get a job from me, so chill. Or maybe that's a weird college student thing, I'm not sure. But I LIKE it when people like what they do. When they are proud of what they have produced or do every day. It gives me hope that I'll be able to do something I want to do with my life too.
So maybe this is wrong. Why shouldnt we celebrate the things we are excited about? Why shouldnt we enjoy our jobs and share our successes with our friends? I'm learning to reprogram my thoughts this way.
This whole tension becomes most apparent when we need to write a bio for ourselves. I was sitting there trying to write a paragraph for an hour worrying about whether or not I liked the way it sounded. Then I decided I was over thinking it. I was reciting facts. I HAD done the things I wrote down, I was stating facts. And damn it I was proud of it. I've worked hard, why not let people know? And the worries went away.
So how does this translate into every day life? I'm not sure yet. But I think we should be proud of what we have accomplished when we worked hard and earned the successes of our projects. I'll let you know what I figure out from here on out.
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