My Curriculum Vitae

Buzz Submitted by : Javier Cámara Rica

Buzz: Tu currículum no sirve para encontrar trabajo

Spanish Buzz that talks about how to use curriculum vitae in the 21st Century - Old Ways are Gone

Javier Cámara Rica has written a good buzz about the reality of curriculum vitae in today's environment and how it should be written to adapt to work objectives and how to customize it for full effect while realizing it is now a support tool in the wider framework of a career story.

I accept his job seeker view because this is the reality today, that the nature of finding and networking has changed.  Where Javier is looking at the practical dimension of those who are looking for work and want to know how best to get their name in front of recruiters, I am re-positioning the meaning of curriculum vitae back to its origins - what the word once meant.

Today "curriculum vitae" is synonymous with the word résumé.  Whereas résumé means "a summary", we have forgotten what the origins of the word "curriculum vitae" really is :

My expression starts from the point of a human being, I express my view of curriculum vitae not from the professional view that the world of human resources has rubber stamped into our collective consciousness, but the actual latin derivation of the word "curriculum vitae" - it means PATH OF LIFE.  So it is I no longer see it as a path of work on my own learning journey, nor do I view it as a human resource document - the word "curriculum vitae" is for me its real meaning.

Today we talk in the language of marketers and not the language of a human being, so I am not against personal brand, I am against being defined by a term that is a marketing term and so it is I define my own life path as a human being and not as a marketing rep.  Nor do I wish to be defined by a human resource term and instead redefine for MYSELF that which then informs my inner perspective - that perspective which is not a call to action or a message to the world, but the one that changes how I process things in my own mind.  So it is I say to myself again and again that we have forgotten as a society what our curriculum vitae is - it is not a path of work, it is a path of life.

I do not have any disagreements with Javier's post because his perspective is sound and for people who go about their daily lives without questioning the system that defines their existence, it is practical and pragmatic advice - and it is just as good if we google translate the original Spanish text, as I did.  In that translation, there was one view which gave rise to this Paradox Wisdom - the one where Javier talked about "crisis". 

What Javier says about crisis is related to the system as it was inherited from the industrial revolution.  Javier says (in translation) "The employment and functioning of the labor market as understood since the industrial revolution is completely in crisis".  This is true, so there is no dispute to this fact.  While Javier looks at the career path, I focus on life path or my curriculum vitae (and not the resume meaning).  I point the finger of that crisis in the direction of human resources, whose ideas was born at the peak of the 20th Century industrial age.

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