Jun
13
Resumes and Card Games
June 13, 2005 | Comments Off
I believe that we should all try to be financially independent. I define Financial Independence as being able to live at your current level forever without needing a salary. To achieve that goal you need revenue generating assets. But, unless you where born in a rich family, to acquire those revenue generating assets you will need a salary. The better (greater) the salary is, the better your chances of achieving Financial Independence are.
That is why I believe that friends should help friend get better jobs. And I do not mean doing illegal or unethical things to get them hired. I mean helping them:
- Educate themselves.
- Learn how to express themselves.
- Help them make contacts.
- Help them learn how to sell themselves (their professional services) better.
This last one is the one that I decided to focus when I invited a group of friends for a card game.
From time to time I do help my friends build up the job search documents and ideas – heping them maximize the value perceived by prospective employers. I help them practice for job interviews. I even strategize with them on how to best approach the job market. And I should feel proud of myself that the last two persons I have helped found a satisfying job in less than month and a half.
However, I wanted to take the idea of peer help to the next level. I wanted my friends to help my friends. The problem: helping someone look for a job is boring for most people. I decided to make a social experiment: Bait them with something fun.
I invited eight friends to a playing card game (very popular type these days) at a certain time. I specifically asked them to arrive at a certain time with copies of their own resumes. The invitation e-mail specifically mentioned that we would spend one hour and a half doing peer reviews of all of our resumes, and later two hours of playing card games (the very popular kind).
To my surprise, seven out of eight arrived relatively on time (the eight didn’t had transportation). All of them focused on red-marking and reviewing their peer’s resumes. They took longer than scheduled to work on the resumes, and we just played for an hour, just to finish the night without stress – and not burned out.
Most of the suggestions where very useful. I must say that the resume I had before the event and the one I have now presents me in a better way.
My conclusion on this social experiment was:
- People like to help people.
- People like to learn from their peers.
- People want to work on their own careers and their financial well-being, but never find (make) time to do so.
- If you call people to do the things that they make time for, they will easily work on those things they should have worked.
- It is a great networking event: you learn about what other people do at work and think about how they can help you at yours — be it trying to get them hired at your company. You also think about where they may fit on other friend’s companies.
I should try a second version of this social experiment to work on one of the other items I mentioned we need during a job hunt.
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