What experience do you have?

As a polymath with multivarious interests, I find it incredible the limiting, blinkered mindset employed by companies, agencies and HR personnel.

Imagine: the only opportunity you have been offered is in painting widgets blue. If you are lucky, you might find a company with sufficient flexibility to offer you a position painting widgets turquoise, or perhaps even painting wodgits deep navy.

A few years ago, I thought that one way to get a move on was to apply for positions with a little more responsibility than I had at the time. I thought that one way to demonstrate that I was serious about moving on up in the world was to do a distance learning course in business management. One of two responses occurred. Either the firms thought there was too much emphasis on study and self-development (read: you could get too expensive/become a threat to our own jobs), or else the more common response was along the lines of not having experience “at that level”. So would someone explain, with good logic, how a person is supposed to move on up?

The problem with a curriculum vitae or resume is that it only lists out the positions that others have deigned to offer you. If a person has been terribly underestimated, it can be very difficult to break out of the mould. The second employer offers a position based upon what the youngster did in his/her first job, and so on.

One time I tried re-writing my CV in a more “functional” format, i.e. describing my actual SKILLS with the companies simply listed at the end. The agencies hated it and insisted that I re-write it explaining what I did at each company. The main problem with that was that I had frequently needed to take whatever job I was offered at the time, and nothing hinted towards a clear career path (to which this particular CV format is obviously geared). Furthermore, the transferable skills that I particularly wanted to sell were mostly acquired in voluntary capacities. Sadly, I have run into a peremptory and recalcitrant attitude when it comes to convincing the people who matter that I have many more capabilities than my job history shows.

One solution, it seems, is to retrain – hence the management course I mentioned previously. However, universities and colleges are just as bad! Because of a lack of educational success in early life (see my article on Gifted Underachievers), I had to jump through ridiculous hoops just to get into the higher education system. It is really difficult to get admitted to courses that are on my “level”, because admissions clerks want to check boxes. It now seems that there is little point in doing the same to get onto a science degree, as my enquiries show that there is little or no funding in my area of interest (except for medical personnel who may be able to convince the Grant Board that the research can help people born with their head growing out of their underarms!).

I edited my Linked-In profile today. Some might say that certain sections are somewhat strongly worded. Do you know what? I refuse to beat about the bush any longer, and I’m going to say it the way I really feel. I am already 40, and if I’m going to make a name for myself and contribute something useful before I depart this Earth, then I need someone who can recognise the abilities that I have, and help nurture me into a position commensurate with them.