The value of forgetting about your resume
Benjamin Levine
Issue date: 9/17/09 Section: Op/Ed
John F. Kennedy once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Community service has always been stressed in this country. It is still alive, but it is stressed for a far different and less honest reason.
When applying for a job or for admission to a college, community service is a great addition to an application. However, it seems that having done community service has become less about serving the community and more about building a strong resume. This is good for society on the one hand, the community is more beautiful or less fortunate people are getting help. But, the reasoning behind doing community service leads to a worse society in the long run.
The whole process of doing things because it will look good on a resume leads to a less healthy society. Think of how worse off our country would be if Hemingway had been a waiter rather than going to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War or if Kurt Cobain had worked in the mail room of an office rather than forming Nirvana.
Every day we are reminded of the need to have a strong resume. There are flyers around campus advertising a tutoring program for children in Allentown. My first thought was: "That would feel great to help kids having trouble in school." But, almost simultaneously I thought: "That would look good on my resume." Sure enough, on the bottom of the page it said: "Looks great on a resume!"
It seems that so many of our experiences are not judged by the knowledge, fun, or understanding of our world that comes with the experience, but by the effect it will have on our career or the direct or indirect monetary compensation we will receive.
More and more of us are falling into the comfort of the assembly line we have been pushed through since elementary school. You go to elementary school, then middle school, then high school. In high school you find a summer job to earn some extra cash and build up your resume. Then, you go on to college; this is when our resume is first tested. During college we are told that it is very important to find a summer internship doing something that you will without a doubt be doing after graduation.
When applying for a job or for admission to a college, community service is a great addition to an application. However, it seems that having done community service has become less about serving the community and more about building a strong resume. This is good for society on the one hand, the community is more beautiful or less fortunate people are getting help. But, the reasoning behind doing community service leads to a worse society in the long run.
The whole process of doing things because it will look good on a resume leads to a less healthy society. Think of how worse off our country would be if Hemingway had been a waiter rather than going to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War or if Kurt Cobain had worked in the mail room of an office rather than forming Nirvana.
Every day we are reminded of the need to have a strong resume. There are flyers around campus advertising a tutoring program for children in Allentown. My first thought was: "That would feel great to help kids having trouble in school." But, almost simultaneously I thought: "That would look good on my resume." Sure enough, on the bottom of the page it said: "Looks great on a resume!"
It seems that so many of our experiences are not judged by the knowledge, fun, or understanding of our world that comes with the experience, but by the effect it will have on our career or the direct or indirect monetary compensation we will receive.
More and more of us are falling into the comfort of the assembly line we have been pushed through since elementary school. You go to elementary school, then middle school, then high school. In high school you find a summer job to earn some extra cash and build up your resume. Then, you go on to college; this is when our resume is first tested. During college we are told that it is very important to find a summer internship doing something that you will without a doubt be doing after graduation.