My Lovely Daughter is Wise Beyond Her Years and I find her advice increasingly helpful. I went to chew over a problem with her this morning and we ended up talking about the importance of valuing the skills that we have.
No, let me be more precise – she ended up telling me that I am undervaluing myself and that I have, and make use of, a far greater skill set than I am currently acknowledging. (She also told me to stop giving my time away for free on the basis that I am not a charity and we need to eat. Good point, well made).
She has just put together what she calls my Alternative CV, which brings to the fore all of the skills she sees in me that she thinks I could do with bigging up. I was blown away when I read it and when I went to thank her we got to talking about what everyone else’s CVs would look like if they took the same approach.
Often we don’t put stuff on CVs because we think it will make us look unprofessional. That means we’re missing out a whole chunk of Good Stuff about ourselves – and why would we want to do that?
So here, for your delectation, is my Alternative CV as written by My Lovely Daughter.
Catherine (Cathy) Dean
Colour In Your Thinking Coach
Employment
Mother, 1990-present Key Responsibilities
- Setting timetables and agendas
- Conflict resolution
- Managing a budget
- Active Listening
- Basic healthcare
- Basic Environmental Protection
- Diplomacy
- Creative thinking
- Project management
- Delegation of tasks
- Working with children and young people
Businesswoman, 2009- present Key Responsibilities
- Managing accounts and a budget
- Advertising, including managing online public relations campaign
- Time Management
- Resource allocation
- Self-Motivating, and Team Leading
- Presenting information and ideas
- Using new Software to improve Business performance
- Writing and maintaining daily blog, including responding to watchers
Coach, mid 2000’s-present Key Responsibilities
- Active Listening,
- Utilising many different personality-type tests to aid people to gain a greater understanding of themselves and their interactions.
- Evaluating critically and constructively interpersonal problems faced by clients
- Enabling clients to reach their own solutions
- Devising innovative new methods to help clients set and achieve their own goals
- Increasing client well-being, productivity, and quality of life dramatically.
- Maintaining strong relationships of trust and understanding
- Creating safe spaces within which clients can work
- Remaining non-judgemental, and allowing the client to set their own values
Published Writer and Watercolour Artist Key Responsibilities
- Devising innovative concepts and developing them
- Commanding language creatively, including the creation of Carollian-type nonsense, to create strong impressions in the mind of the reader.
- Successfully communicating complex and intuitive concepts through the written word
- Developing a sense of line, and colour in order to create a personal watercolour style.
- Observing object, character, and thought to create watercolour images, fiction, and also useful self-help information.
- Employing knowledge of foreign language and language structures to create comfortable and highly expressive writing and presentation style.
- Understanding colour, and utilising this understanding in other pursuits.
Achievements
- Starting own business and having a successful first year in a difficult economic climate,
- Maintaining relationships with husband, children, and friends during difficult times,
- Managing a family successfully, with minimal conflict, including bringing up two well-adjusted and successful children,
- Developing a keen sense of diplomacy and excellent conflict resolution skills,
- Synthesising knowledge accrued in all areas of life and applying them sensitively elsewhere,
- Successfully earning higher certificates in coaching,
- Persevering with the dream of being a self-employed coach, and realising that dream,
- Remaining upbeat and committed in the face of difficulty,
- Becoming, despite self-doubt, a highly skilled communicator through many media, capable of expressing and analysing ideas in a fluid and lucid manner,
- Remaining committed to the goal of helping people, and being willing to take risks to achieve that goal,
- Understanding how to give, and receive, constructive criticism,
- Remaining open to learning, while gaining an ever increasing understanding of people.
Impressive, eh?
What would you put on yours?
The Colour In Your Thinking Blog 
What an enjoyable read and a great idea!
Let’s take the stuffiness out of employing – it’s well overdue.
Ooh hello! Go on then, tell me what you’d put on yours – apart from “gives good hugs” 🙂
“Knows and is inspired by Cathy Dean” 😀
Well I’m very flattered, obviously, but surely you have other things you’re proud of?!
That’s 1 smart daughter you have there! We probably all use skills every day that we don’;t give ourselves credit for I guess. Great post
She is, indeed, smarter than the average bear. And I made her! Glad you liked the post, what skills do you have that you don’t give yourself credt for? And thanks for subscribing 🙂
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Well, I’ve certainly developed / realised a whole new bunch of skills since becoming a Dad! I should do a post about that, actually, thanks 🙂