If Your Résumé Disappeared Tomorrow, Who Would You Be?

I recently saw a TikTok that was discussing how AI is already showing bias when it comes to the job search. Over the past six months, actually over the past year, I have been taking stock of the things that I have done, the things that I have enjoyed, the things that I want to explore, and the experiences that I have. It extended from me failing the PMP exam after successfully passing the aPHR exam. Now this accomplishment and failure is also happening while I'm in a working professional MBA program. I still have my responsibilities at home and I still have my responsibilities at work.

But one day, after talking with a friend, I asked myself: if my résumé was gone tomorrow, what would I still be?

When I say that, I'm truly thinking outside the titles, outside the labels. And I have struggled immensely for the 387 days on what and who I will still be. I think that's the one thing that I feel I failed my students with. I've never asked them if it all goes away tomorrow, who would you be. When you remove the labels and all you have is the present, it really does make you think about who you are.

I know there's some people out there, this is you, what you speak over yourself eventually becomes true. But I think the context of what you're saying, and the nuance of it all, matters more than the actual words. For instance, people would tell me to stop calling myself an introvert. But I seriously am an introvert, to the point where I require double the amount of time to recharge than I actually anticipate. I think about trips I've been on and places I've experienced and I realize that I needed an additional 2 to 4 business days to feel steady. But the context and the nuance behind me being an introvert is not a bad thing.

So again, I ask, if your résumé was gone tomorrow, what would you be?

Sometimes I give funny answers like "I would be a rock." And if you think about why I would want to be a rock, you unintentionally make it deep. But being human, you think about the delusional life that you would want to say that you have lived. And I'm using delusional in a positive context. It is the life full of audacity. It is the life where you might not know anybody living it, but you know it's meant for you.

Sometimes you gotta put a little bit more hustle behind the heart, and I truly think that that is the season that I am in. Because people who know, know that I have some pretty lofty goals and I'm not coming up off of them. So in understanding that, I know that the hustle behind my heart has to be different than previous versions of me.