Joho the Blog
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July 09, 2006
AKMA writes that Margaret suggests that resumes and their evil academic twins, the cv, ought to begin with blurbs from friends and colleagues. Jeneane thinks it's a Big Idea. I think it's a natural, too, if only because it's so corruptible. How are you going to say no to a friend even if you don't feel comfortable endorsing her? All the awkward asymmetries of social relationships will come into play, from "I adore you as a friend, but I'm not sure I can say anything really helpful about you as a tree surgeon" to "You actually think I like you???" Anything as uncomfortable as this is sure to take off. And then won't it inevitably spawn a set of people who are looked to for their honesty and incorruptible natures? So, yes, at long last we end up with people who review people for a living. "Roger Ebert gives my life a big thumbs up! 'A thrill ride,' says Jeffrey Lyons. 'Be sure not to miss the surprise ending!'" Note to self: Must develop a microformat for Life Reviews(tm). [Tags: blurbs marketing reviews] Posted
by D. Weinberger at July 9, 2006 04:22 PM
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Comments
Done a bit differently, this is actually a pretty old idea espoused by career counselors. You can include bits from laudatory emails, performance reviews, evaluations of seminars, etc. Your resume might say, "President of company commended me for 'an unprecedented turnaround....'" or "seminar participants routinely give me high marks, one noting that it was 'the first workshop to...'"
Posted by: celeste @studio 501c blog | July 9, 2006 10:42 PM
Having just assisted my supervisor (slightly) for her promotion review to full professor (which was successful!), and nominated her for a Distinguished Teacher Award from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (a not-insignificant project), I get the feeling that assembling endorsements and testimonials as part of a "package" is starting to feel just a wee bit de rigeur. However, as Celeste notes, testimonials are sufficiently compelling and are still relatively rare as a resume/cv form to garner attention, but only until they become commonplace.
Still, in the academic world, such references/referees are commonplace and expected for almost every competition.
Posted by: Mark Federman | July 10, 2006 12:01 AM
You have one (a microformat, that is), imo. I remember seeing, printing out, and placing on my desk (it's still there) a *format* you devised that had paint brush strokes and a time line, showing that you had been a philosophy student and prof, a marketer, an author, etc.
I thought it was clever and "real", as opposed to the standard cv format.
Posted by: Jon Husband | July 10, 2006 11:00 AM
LinkedIn.com has been doing this for some time, calling it Endorsements.
Posted by: Mark | July 10, 2006 01:12 PM