A traditional CV only includes the highlights of your career but some experts also recommend writing a ‘failure CV’ with jobs you didn’t get, awards you didn’t win and accomplishments you’ve missed out on. And there are several reasons having one is beneficial to your professional growth.
The recent spike in interest to having a ‘failure CV’ comes from Tim Herrera, a New York Times editor. In his article, he says that looking back at your mistakes helps you to learn from them and to avoid them in future. It’s also the best reminder of the long road to success you’ve had and an idea that immediately makes any achievements way more valuable, doesn’t it?
The Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University agrees: ‘Looking back at failures increases the chance that you won’t make the same mistake again’. They also treat failures as ‘a sign that you have taken on challenges that expand your skills’.
It was University of Edinburgh lecturer Melanie Stefan who pioneered the ‘failure CV’ movement back in 2010. She was even brave enough to publish it in Nature magazine! Stefan is convinced that by making her own setbacks public, she has helped many people to overcome difficulties in their own careers.
‘As scientists, we construct a narrative of success that renders our setbacks invisible both to ourselves and to others,’ she wrote. By showing that she hasn’t always succeeded with every experiment or been recruited by the best labs and Universities immediately, Melanie Stefan reminds people that it’s OK to lose sometimes as long as you know how to rise again.
Experts say, that the ‘failure CV’ is on average six times longer than the ‘classic’ version. And it might be quite depressing to write it. But it’s something we all need to do to remind ourselves that we’ve worked hard to get to where we are right now and to finally shake off the past.
As soon as you’re done with that, don’t forget to check out our tips on how to create a perfect ‘classic’ CV on Linkedin to score your dream job.