ANDRE BEGIN

Back in my career years it seemed that keeping my CV polished and up-to-date was part of my regular routine.

From time to time, announcements of new assignment opportunities were circulated, sometimes with short windows for the application process. With the ability to produce an updated CV at a moment’s notice, I was ready for any such eventuality.

In making it a point to keep my document evergreen and adding new experience, new skills and completed training as they happened, I was never stressing and scrambling to recall the latest additions. It also gave me a current starting point, allowing me to use my time to edit my CV to highlight the experience most relevant for the position to which I was applying.

When I retired, I kept copies of a few different versions, showing the evolution of my résumé over the years, should I ever contemplate a return to the office environment. However, little did I know that in retirement I’d be starting fresh and building a brand new résumé from the ground up.

In completing my taxes and writing the words “freelance writer” for the first time as my occupation, I found it important to start keeping track of the different writing assignments that I enjoyed over the years, leading to this much awaited point in life.

At first, I started keeping track of those accomplishments in my head because I didn’t think that they were that numerous. But it didn’t take long to realize that at a granular level, the depth and breadth of my experience was growing quickly even though I still considered myself on the starting blocks. In a short spurt of time, brimming with inspiration and initiative, I went through many milestones and important firsts that broke ground on pursuing my calling.

As time went on, the accomplishments were adding up to the point that some started slipping my mind. In fearing the potential loss of valuable nuggets of experience I started jotting them down with the intention of developing a writing résumé should the need ever arise.

Moreover, from the books I’ve read and interviews I’ve seen with industry representatives, I am under the impression that a CV of accomplishments is indeed an important piece of the puzzle. To complement it, apparently the publishing industry is also interested in seeing data about social media connections through whom I could announce and promote new products or events.

For that reason, all of these incremental little pieces of information need to be in one place for when lightning strikes and I decide to make a bold move in approaching the publishing world or screenwriting world.

And so began my venture in meticulously capturing all of the bullet points to create the beginning of a new CV that I will be updating every time I complete a course, workshop or milestone in writing.

That that being the case, I never imagined that in retirement, I would still have to be keeping track of this degree of detail about a second career.

But in the grand scheme of things, it makes complete sense to have that information ready and in my back pocket as I seek to advance and expand into other areas of writing.

I’m just happy that I figured this out now just a couple of years into my venture of writing rather than ten years down the road and then having to go scavenging through my hard drive and old emails to retrace my steps through the entirety of my writing career.

At the end of the day, the time investment in keeping an up-to-date CV is an investment in me, my aspirations and my dreams.

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André