Just Google Me. Or Not.

The other day on Facebook a friend of mine who is pretty well-known in Presbyterian and other reformed faith circles mentioned that he'd been asked for a resume.  A resume?  Really?  Of course his first reaction was "Why can't they just Google me?"

Sounds legit to me.

In this day and age writing a resume sounds as outmoded as saying "in this day and age."  When most of us think nothing of picking up our smart phone or pad or turning on our laptop to get the information we need in the moment, waiting for a resume seems cumbersome and well, not as proactive as going on line.

Another thing I wondered about was the self-promoting nature of a resume.  Do prospective employers really credit applicants with the accomplishments they relate via paper, or is a resume a map to use during an interview?  After all, stacks of resumes on hiring managers' desks reportedly end up in shredders all across the country if you believe the stories. But I suppose if the applicant and interviewer each have the same piece of paper as a starting place they might have a better chance of finding common direction.

But something bubbled in the back of my mind over this for the past few days and, today, when faced with the necessity of writing that mad cousin of the resume, the dreaded ARTIST STATEMENT, it broke forth into daylight.  To have to write about oneself, one's work history, one's accomplishments, or one's outlook on the creative process, is a journey into self-discovery as much as it is self-revelation.

In the process of gazing deeply into that mirror, sometimes the buzzwords and bullshit fall away and we get to examine our visage more clearly.  Maybe that has value to people who would read our resume or artist statements...maybe how we understand ourselves and show ourselves to the reader is what's really being sought.  Maybe the snippets of our past which can be seen on Google need to be viewed in the light of our own lamps in our own hands.

When we reveal, the substance and process of that revelation have value.  It is different value than the substance of what little we might obtain by mere discovery, but value nonetheless. 

So if you want to know more, just Google me.  Or not.