
My Resume Is Total Fiction - chrisbaglieri
http://www.chrisbaglieri.com/blog/2015/1/1/my-resume-is-fiction
======
fivedogit
IMO, life is not about having a rigid "plan" and executing towards it, it's
about having a general direction, being flexible and making the most of the
opportunities that come your way.

Not only is the latter easier to navigate, you'll be happier because your
expectations are more likely to be met.

~~~
krampian
The other reason the latter is a better plan is because when executing to a
rigid plan, people tend to miss or ignore the opportunities that present
themselves.

This is like people who go to parties with the overarching goal of meeting
their future spouse. Concentrating too hard on that goal, rather than just
enjoying themselves, can make them miss great opportunities to meet new
friends who could be useful later in their personal or business lives.

~~~
dzhiurgis
If I could find a party full of female scientists - then perhaps I could enjoy
it.

~~~
tinco
If you can't even enjoy yourself on a party with regular people, I doubt a
party with female scientists would go very well for you. (as someone who has
went to parties with female scientists..)

~~~
dzhiurgis
I live abroad and peers I have access to are working class people. There
simply isn't much to talk about, just get pissed drunk/drugged.

I've recently started disconnecting them I found network of smart people to
which I can enjoy conversing with.

~~~
msutherl
This is one cause of the current global urbanization trend. Consider
relocating to a major city.

------
thom
I worked at an agency where it was common to practice CV-driven-development.
You'd decide what bullet points you wanted on your CV at the end of a project
- be they new languages, frameworks, responsibilities etc - and manipulated
the project (often disastrously) to make them true.

~~~
chubot
Gah -- now that I know the phrase "CV-driven-development", I can't unsee it!!
This happens everywhere :-/

------
thruflo
Perhaps you could try the same with your obituary. Less work bound but perhaps
a touch morbid.

~~~
sarreph
With the major caveat, of course, that you can't read your obituary when it's
'realised'.

~~~
shogun21
Unless you fake your own death! :)

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antjanus
This is awesome advice. I think among other things, it helps you focus on what
you really want out of your career and where you want to go.

I know that for some, this resume idea will work brilliantly, for others, a
blog post or just a list in a notebook will suffice :)

~~~
chrisbaglieri
Author here. Your first point is my precise thought of what a resume should
be, a personal road map.

------
oldspiceman
I've noticed a good positive correlation between income and the level of
bullshit people put on their resumes.

~~~
unreal37
But the author specifically states the resume he shares with others is the
truth, and not the same as the false resume only he sees.

~~~
k__
The BS other people put in the resumes they share with others has nothing to
do with the author.

------
knd775
This has inspired me to do something similar. I don't think I'll do it as a
resume, but I'll probably do it as a list somewhere. I know this isn't a novel
idea or anything, but I never seriously thought about setting serious goals
for myself like this. I mean, in the past I have just set vague goals like
"Become more skilled in x or y" rather than a defined list of reachable goals.

~~~
chrisbaglieri
Author here. Do it, you won't regret it. Honestly, the resume is just the
medium I chose. It's not about the medium, it's about having a direction in
mind.

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rudeboy347
I like this idea a lot; I sent it to my fiancee and she liked it too so we
will both be implementing it in some variation. Thank you! Btw, diction? On
point.

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izolate
I've had similar thoughts myself, but wouldn't have been able to articulate it
so creatively. I'm envious of that blogger's diction.

~~~
chrisbaglieri
Thanks Yosh, I really appreciate that. It's refreshing to write whole complete
sentences sometimes rather than just a bunch of assembled if statements =)

~~~
brerlapn
I thought this was a well-written piece, as well, and threw it into Pocket
along with my other "regular review" articles that I use to keep myself
motivated. I clicked through to the blog and it looks like that's your first
essay--hope you keep writing.

------
daphneokeefe
Then there's RDD, resume-driven development, wherein you choose your stack for
the new app based on what you want to add to your resume.

------
jarcane
I can understand the thinking, to some extent; it was the motivation behind my
unusual resume. I want to be a programmer, so I've been programming my resume:
[https://github.com/jarcane/resume.hsy](https://github.com/jarcane/resume.hsy)

------
carrier_lost
Pedantic, but: If you take the fictional parts of the resume and achieve them,
thereby making them nonfiction, then your resume isn't "total" (post title)
fiction, is it?

~~~
xenophonf
It's a neatly crafted bit of rhetoric intended to be didactic not pedantic. Of
course someone could just list things they want to accomplish in the coming
year, but I rather liked the notion of starting with a fictional résumé and
working toward making it true.

------
andrea_s
Impostor syndrome, meet fake it till you make it culture.

~~~
k__
The only thing between the person you want to be and the person you are is a
year.

People can change if they really want to.

~~~
pearjuice
Some things are out of your reach.

~~~
falcolas
Some things, sure. But you'll never know what those things are until you try
and acquire them and fail.

That failure hurts, but you probably made it closer than you originally
thought possible.

------
danra
"And in _its_ perfect state"

~~~
chrisbaglieri
I'm a diction nut, leaving that would have driven me to madness. I broke down
and changed it, thanks!

------
JoeAltmaier
So, again, some 100 words about nothing in particular end up stimulating 10's
of thousands of response words.

Why? Maybe its like some carte blanc, where each reader sees part of
themselves in the words, and they strike some inner chord that demands
response. Maybe great ideas can be contained in only a few lines, distilled to
some essential truth.

Maybe HNers are bored, or shallow. I don't know.

~~~
chrisbaglieri
Or maybe me, the author, just wanted to share a little piece of himself, and a
practice he finds helpful, and it resonated with a few others out there. Not
everything has to be something more than that.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Sorry! Wasn't criticizing you; of course you are not responsible for the large
response and #1 ranking. That's all on the readers.

------
artur_makly
Fake it till u make it - old skool NYC phrase.

------
bvanslyke
This is OT, and no offense, but this post and your homepage make you sound
like an exaggerated parody of a techie.

> I'm an engineer. I live in the Philadelphia area. I build things. I assemble
> teams. I scale products. I'm inspired by minimalism and order. I am a co-
> founder of my kids. I dig plaid, chucks, and loud music. I want to dent the
> universe.

I suddenly really want to re-watch the first season of Silicon Valley.

~~~
chrisbaglieri
Author here. Thanks so much for your kind and encouraging words. Happy New
Year!

~~~
huhtenberg
You should consider what he said though, because your description does read
like delusions of grandeur.

~~~
bvanslyke
Everyone in America is a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. Everyone in the
startup world is a temporarily embarrassed Steve Jobs.

~~~
Chronic30
Not everyone. Generally those who are not temporarily embarrassed become the
millionaires and Steve Jobs.

------
talles
TDD for resumes. Clever.

------
logicallee
So I disagree with this advice, because I think there is an effect that
talking about something feels as good as if you've done it. I prefer to keep
an accomplishment totally stealth - not write it down or mention it to anyone
- until it's more than done. And then understate it, casually let it out of
the bag.

This is how Apple did products in their heydey. Did Steve Jobs list all the
things the nonexistent iPhone did, and then selectively publish a version that
wasn't false?

No. He kept his fucking mouth shut and pushed ahead toward a vision.

~~~
themartorana
Well, I'm sure he gave that list to the people designing the hardware,
software, OS, marketing materials, etc...

~~~
logicallee
Actually, he didn't:

[http://thenextweb.com/apple/2014/10/05/apple-skankphone-
buil...](http://thenextweb.com/apple/2014/10/05/apple-skankphone-built-
original-iphone-release/)

"Apple had two teams working on the iPhone in complete isolation from one
another. One on the real iOS platform with fake hardware and the other on the
real hardware with fake software; AKA the ‘skankphone’."

That is the closest you can get to having no such list.

------
michaelochurch
Bait-and-switch article title.

I really hoped for some fascinating exploration of CV dishonesty and the game
theory behind it. There's a much more interesting discussion around the 90% of
the people who _don 't_ take the falsehoods out of their story, and whether
it's ultimately good or bad for society that they do so. (I can take either
side on the "Are CV lies good for the world?" debate.) This fell short of what
I was hoping for.

Ok, I'm going to go back to leading my team of Level 27 ninja-pirates and
saving the world with a 468-node Spark cluster now.

~~~
DanBC
Not sure why you got downvoted - his resume is not a lie. Some other
aspirational document, that he calls a resume (but which is never used as a
resume) is full of stuff he wants to be true.

------
pearjuice
Another thing which is total fiction is that the colors and font combination
used on OP's website have a proper contrast ratio. It's barely readable and if
it wasn't for the interesting premise of the title I wouldn't have spent
additional effort to read it.

~~~
throwawayaway
you delicate flower.

