Jennifr

C.V.

The top of my priority list at the moment is preparing my “academic” C.V. for a teaching assistant job at the University next year. At the same time, I am applying for a job as a subwarden at the halls of residence in order to lighten the financial load for when I begin my Ph. D. in October. And obviously because I get a real thrill out of looking after drunk students, first and foremost. (GRIN!)

A week of application forms and beginning my C.V. from scratch has got me thinking about what is deemed appropriate to write in the “hobbies, interests and additional information” section . You know, the bit where you are meant to add a dose of personality to yet another dull piece of paper (mainly in applications, not so much a concern on my C.V.).

I don’t think I have “traditional” hobbies - who does nowadays? If I was being honest, I would write that my hobbies are pretty much the same as my research interests: Social Media, Blogging and “pushing” web applications upon the fellow, non-techy mates and colleagues. Furthermore, if I can’t link my offline activity to online, I feel redundant. I think with twitter, I capture things for flickr, I can manage my relationships with people at a nice distance through social networking websites - Facebook for everyday use, Myspace for Ayr and bebo for old school friends, that I have no intention of seeing or indeed “stop and chatting” with. Basically, if I go somewhere, or do something, I constantly, almost automatically think what and how I can translate it onto the internet.

I wouldn’t like sky diving, for example - in fact - I hate heights - so I don’t think I put that I like roller coasters, or climbing really high hills. I get vertigo if I go up an escalator. I like films. Everyone likes films, you’d be a oddity if you didn’t like films. I sometimes ride a bike. I like bikes. I don’t have one in Leicester but I will have when I get some cash together and know what my living arrangements will be for next year. Is riding a bike about Leicester a hobby worth putting on your C.V.?

Obviously, it’s going to be a given that if I’m applying for “new media” related positions, that it is ok to wax lyrical about considering Twitter as a hobby (you have to say, it is a commitment to get right and the more you use it, the better it becomes) - but for a more generalised position, where the person who may be looking at your C.V. is less au fait with such innovations in leisure time, should I just lie and batter about loving cats and attending the odd open mic night (which I do as well, to be fair…)

I just feel that by not mentioning that I spend most my days connected in one way or another to the online world, I would be lying and missing a large, potentially useful chunk of my personality by doing so.

Saying that, according to my mate, who is a subwarden, I’m going to have to pretend I’m a practicing prespertarian Christian, who volunteers in youth projects and runs a Sunday soup kitchen - in order to get in with the person who decides who gets to warden teh kidz next year.

…

The way I see it, the sooner folk stop thinking like that, the better. But until then, I’ll write what they want to hear, select choice events (that actually happened!) from my 23.5 years in this world and do what everybody else does - write it up like a contestant from the apprentice and use stupid buzz words such as “stimulated” and “diligent”. Apart from I’m also going to blog about it, and potentially grass myself in the process - according to some graduate magazines.

If you appreciate the principle of Web 2.0 applications, and perhaps use them to search for those who apply for jobs, then you must have a certain level of understanding of the context of the information you are receiving, and most certainly wouldn’t see an entry like this being detrimental. And if that is the case, then that is who I would want to work for. Not somebody who holds a dystopian, shallow view of internet applications - such as the views friends of my parents had on my Ph. D. proposal, for example. It’s a two-way thing. Plus, I have the (un)fortunate background being from a small, Scottish town - where the only jobs you can get at my age is in a bar or a call centre - regardless of how qualified you appear to be. They don’t like it if you get to eccentric with your application form - generic is safe.

However, at the end of the day, as I am obviously inexperienced at this - and am under-qualified to offer my own advice on the subject, all I can really do is head on down to the Student Learning Centre, and get them to help me out with my predicament.

- Jay Jay