accomplishment?

After stewing over my résumé for about a month, I broke down and ordered up a professional service to do the writing. I got the form last week. It is proving to be as daunting a completion as the résumé was. It also makes me believe the past two decades of experience may be for naught. It all comes down to one thing :: provable accomplishment.

I have always been proud of what I did at my [soon to be former] employer. I felt what I did helped the company grow to the point it had a year ago, when takeover talks allegedly began. It was not until I started writing my résumé that I realized that, for the most part, I have not properly accounted for my accomplishment to myself. I knew what my accomplishments were at the time, and had a fair concept of what their value was. Those concepts were abstract, and relative to those for whom I accomplished what I did. This leads into three problems.

Firstly is the ‘whom’ part. For the most part, the takeover resulted in the departure of most of those for whom I accomplished. I have no one truly to stand within the company and confirm what I did, much less that it added value, or continues to add value, to the company. The reality is that much of that was cast aside with the rest of the company. I understand. That is the nature of business. It leaves me in a heap of quandary, though. Everyone that mattered is now ‘on the outside’. Even there, it has not been all settled. I have reached-out to all the main players on LinkedIn for a recommendation, and got only two. As valuable that those two are, and as appreciative as I am for getting them, I was, and still am, quite disappointed in the ones I did not get. One, in particular, hurts. Secondly is the ‘what’ part. I have done plenty over my time. Little of the early stuff was documented. Most of the stuff may be considered ‘trade secret’. I have worked at one company in the past two decades; I have no idea what may be of value to another employer, how to state it in such a way that can be visible to a potential employer, or even if any of my accomplishments are transferrable. Thirdly is the value part. How do I put a value on something when the only metric I have it the old employer? How can I state value without running afoul of ‘trade secret’? How do I put a value on soft skills, some of which I have had a time managing, much less mastering?

What is worse about this experience is how much I now realize what I have not accomplished. Never mind the lack of a university degree. I have no business of professional memberships. And, no, I do not count PEG, the Progress E-mail Group, as one. Nor LinkedIn. Nor Toolbox for IT. They may qualify, but not to me. I mean something that says, ‘I belong. I deserve to belong.’ I have no certification either in Sx.E or Progress RDBMS or 4GL. No certification that I understand wholesale distribution or technology’s vital role therein. Maybe I depended too much on my employer to recommend, much less finance, such things. My employer was a small company, that often ran tight IT budgets. Now, I look back and wonder if it will return to bite me.

I have some accomplishments on the worksheet. I wonder how many more of them I can present, or how many more I need to get hired. I question now, not ‘what did I accomplish?,’ but, ‘did I accomplish anything I can claim now?’ I do not like that question.