Unemployment Chronicles, Day 16: Doubts

A word or two about my previous post on anticipation.  First, my instructor in outplacement class validated my feelings about the job search:  their approach is to lay plenty of groundwork first, then start contacting people, so I guess I'm OK.

Second, despite the deliberateness of this approach, I am doing something each day, and the focus on networking results in little bursts of activity sometimes.  In the last couple of days I have responded to several notes from friends, emailed my resume to two potential employers, received advice on my resume, gotten a job tip from a former co-worker, and set up a meeting with a potential employer for Friday.  I find myself obsessively checking Facebook, gmail, and my blog to see if anyone is responding to my various communications.

And so, doubts you say?  Well, about the class yesterday, to be continued today.  I'll summarize by saying it is a bit like some diet plans.  Just eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, count your calories, have three ounces of lean protein, avoid chips-sodas-red meat-fats-processed carbs-salt, drink eight glasses of water, keep your fat content to less than 20% of your calories, strenuous exercise 1.5 hours every day, etc., etc., and voila!  You'll lose the weight and keep it off!

Just the resume is starting to really irritate and depress me.  They want success stories, not job tasks.  I have some -- plenty that I can talk about, fewer that fit well in a resume.  But I have trouble really portraying all the things I have done in terms of success stories with clear results.  I managed a budget process.  The result?   A completed budget process.  I managed five accounting professionals.  The result?  Five managed professionals.  I maintained a financial control environment.  Resulting in a maintained control environment.  After all that I have done on my resume, I feel like I need to start over.  After 25 years in accounting, more accomplishments than I can remember, I don't know what to say about myself.

Two encounters with the outplacement folks, and I have doubts.