I recently had the chance to review 30 resumes from job applicants from top business schools. The level of accomplishment in this group is just astounding. Best grades, best jobs, speak multiple languages, have done things like volunteering in Nepal before hopping to a top job at Bain or McKinsey or co-founding an Argentine startup or, yes, working at Goldman Sachs. And all of them have hobbies like “member of the Olympic archery team” or “have climbed three of the Seven Summits.”
What amazed me, beyond how wildly accomplished this group was, was that one out of the 30 had an online presence of any significance. One.
One person whose body of work was readily available to see and explore. One person whose mind and thought process and passions were easy to investigate. One person who had more than a LinkedIn or About.me page. One person who had a readily-available portfolio of work that gives real insight into who she is.
If this top .0001 percent in terms of accomplishment is missing this opportunity, that means big opportunity for you. You have a huge opportunity to stand out even among (especially among?) this crowd.
That happens by putting yourself out there and showing the world your best thinking, your best ideas, your best work, in a public place that they can find and explore. Or, more likely (since you’re just getting started), you’ll start by showing the world the work you can do today, with the knowledge that when you keep on doing it, in a few months or a few years down the road, it will be great work.
What better way could there be to stand out from the crowd?
Better yet, you’ll be amazed at how you learn and grow through the process of pushing your own thinking in this way.
