r|resume stuff - seven stories exercise

this will not be a post about how to prep your resume. it will be a post about one approach to understanding yourself and approaching your resume - the seven stories exercise.
search the web and i'm sure you'll find stuff.

(SIDE NOTE: as part of our internship program, we make a point to help our intern(s) with resume content. at a minimum, we will make sure the content for the internship experience is representative and accurate, as well as demonstrative of r|intern's abilities and accomplishments. to do this, we approach the resume in the story exercise form.)

the seven stories exercise appears in several books and on several websites. one of the more well-known books, "what color is your parachute?" by richard bolles, contains the seven stories exercise. as noted on the author's web site (at the bottom of his link):

Practical Exercise:
Write out seven stories from any period of your life (no more than a page each) of something you did well, some problem you solved, and tell (yourself) how you did it.

Whether you believe in parachute or not, the exercise is pretty useful. (i still have my stories from 1994, when i was thinking of leaving my job. totally glad i did the exercise.)

for me - i'm a bit of kate wendleton fan. A friend of mine, Karine, told me about the Five O'Clock Club. I'm not a member, but I've given the books to some of our interns, as well as recommending to friends also looking for jobs/career change (as well as having a book or two on my shelf). while surfing, i came across this article, which has an interesting before/after resume, after applying the story exercise. so here is a link to a wendleton's downloadable .pdf ... preparing your seven stories in context of the objective of the exercise.

enjoy!