Better Than a Refund

Every once in a million years a client is less than enamored with the resume I create for them.

It’s okay, it happens.

For those that don’t know, my resumes are my art. I am definitely putting a piece of myself into each project. It’s crazy, too, to put so much heart into something that is as transient as a postage stamp, that can disappear as easily as a reflection off the water. Resumes are obsolete in a few months, indeed less than that if they’re really good.

But sometimes they’re not really good, or at least that’s how a client may see it.

My knee-jerk reaction is to figure out why the client was wrong, to delicately craft an argument to convince them of their misperception. After all, I am The Expert.

The problem here is that by calling out my status I’m putting up a wall, making it impossible for either of us to reach each other, which is really what’s necessary if we’re going to accomplish anything – in the job search or otherwise.

So I’ve learned to shut up and listen, to put away my expert advice and not know the answers for a little while.

That’s what’s so great about good intentions: If you’ve done something in earnest, there’s no reason to get defensive. You need only get quiet.

The energy of a relationship is like an ocean wave. You get more hurt if you fight it. Best to sense where it’s going, get up to the surface so you can see clearly, and let it take you.

You can always swim out of it, but then you’re likely to miss a part of the beach you may not have seen before. And you will walk home in your old footprints with the heavy notion that you, the so-called expert, left someone out to sea.