There are five areas where teachers go astray when they teach resume writing.
The first one is that they forget adults don’t write very much. Especially deeply about their accomplishments.
When I took poetry workshops there was a warm-up. A short exercise where we all moved the pencil across paper.
Then the teacher would read a poem or two. We’d talked about it. And then we might try to use the same device that was used in the poem.
My teacher would say,
Write about a color
Write about how the light enters this room
Write about how your little toe felt when you woke up this morning
And we would write.
But in resume writing classes teachers will lecture all day, show samples and never ask the students to write. The ones that do ask people to write say, “now write down what you did in your last job.”
And most people are just going to write a list.
It is unusual for the average adult to come to a resume writing class with an established personal writing practice. I’ve been teaching resume writing for nearly 10 years and I’ve met 3 people with an existing writing practice when we met. So, a part of teaching resume writing is helping people to write again.
IN A GREAT RESUME CLASS
In a great resume class, you’ll get prompts and some time to write a few stories. Then you’ll listen to some inspiration and write some more. You’ll share stories with others and it won’t be until a few hours later that you look up and say, “have I been writing all day?” And you feel light and like you can do it. Because you can.
That’s where we want people to go with their resumes. To feel something besides dread of getting it wrong.
There is always time for strategy and edits later. But in the beginning, the biggest mistake is to expect non-writers to write without inspiring them first.
RESUME TEACHER TRAINING IS NOW OPEN
I am open to train 15 people how to teach resume writing in person or online.
I know many of you have been waiting six months for this open and I’m happy to finally be able to lead you through this process. Thanks for your patience.
My business changed when I started teaching classes. I teach resume writing at the University of Winnipeg and online. I also do one-off workshops for corporations and not-for-profits. The revenue from teaching resume writing (which always seems to have demand) made it so I could lighten my coaching load and never worry about money. Right now I have enough coming in to not take any clients until March 2020. You can imagine how freeing that is.
If you’d like to feel more secure about the resume classes you’re teaching, get into the training.
The course runs August 12 – September 20.
