Dear Diary,
I’ve been thinking about what makes us who we are.
Time gets weird when you’re floating between gigs - taking meetings, applying for roles, showing up - while also dealing with those loooong stretches where The Fear creeps in.
“Will I ever get back in the game?”
It’s dramatic, I know.
It’s only been a couple months.
I’ve made real progress.
But still, when I’m applying online and getting auto-rejected day after day, I’ve caught myself thinking:
“What am I even doing?”
The experience is there.
Recruiters have called my resume a “shoo-in.”
ATS-friendly. Neatly formatted. Well-written.
Still… nothing.
And so, if we’re going to do right by ourselves, we might need to stop identifying so closely with vacant job titles.
LinkedIn might not be the place for this.
But then again… where is?
It’s tough because when you are working, it takes up everything.
And when you’re not, there’s that awkward question:
“So… what do you do?”
Honestly?
Amateur hedge trimmer.
Proud cat dad.
Cancer survivor.
In an effort to humanize the cover letter roughs I've had AI churning out, I fed those facts in.
The result?
“As a proud Cat Dad, the unique fusion of engineering expertise and creative storytelling that your organization champions speaks to my cancer surviving strengths and hedge trimming aspirations.”
Clearly, my prompts need work.
but Chat hasn’t cracked the code yet on how to truly define me in that opening sentence.
And maybe they shouldn’t.
Again, maybe that is the wrong forum.
Still, we’ve got to make a living.
The nature of work is changing.
If it hasn’t hit your market yet, it will.
We are going to have be more elastic in how we define ourselves - and so are the robots that assess our applications - or we are going to snap.
Since I can’t tell ATS systems to chill out (though a class action against Workday is a good start!), this is my gentle reminder to all of you to bend and not break in these brittle times.
Ease up on yourself.
Diversify your identity.
Start an herb garden.
When going up against the monolith that is a changing paradigm in labor be nimble and kind to yourself in your approach.
May all your cats have dads and all your hedges be trimmed.
And not for nothing but get that colonoscopy.
It could save your life.
