Be cool.

I have finally found out why I seem to be so unemployable these days.

Its not a lack of experience. Its not a lack of skills. Nor is it that my degree is in an essentially useless subject.

It is, quite simply, that I am not cool enough. Unbelievable though it may seem*, it is 100% true.

The geezer at the recruitment agency I'm with called me up today to tell me about an interesting ish 6 month admin job at a quite sought-after local media company. He gave me all the details of how perfect it was for me etc etc, and finished by telling me that my CV might need a bit of fiddling with as "although I am not by any means saying your CV is rubbish**, it just needs to, erm, show off your personality a bit more. You know, put a bit more in the interests section about liking going out and stuff - its quite a young company, I think you'll fit right in, you just need to bring your personality out a bit more on your CV."

So after this somewhat embarassing conversation, I then proceeded to faff about with my CV for almost an hour, trying my darndest to somehow appear cool without sounding lame for trying too hard.

However, seeing as I was making a concerted effort to meet the unexpectedly high demands of cool that are apparently required in today's world of work, I think it ultimately came off a bit try-hard. As I began to near the hour mark, I felt ashamed of trying so hard and so just submitted my CV as it was. And I felt very lame indeed.

Still, its not all bad. It sounds like my recruitment geez seems to genuinely believe I'm cool underneath my nerdy History graduate exterior, and that its only my sensibly written CV holding me back.

So I'm cool, just not on paper.


*Unbelievable that is, in terms of BOTH discriminatory laws AND of course my high levels of coolness.

**We all know he was saying exactly that.