Should we write about our Failures in Resume?

David Kovalenko

Genius is making all possible mistakes in the shortest period of time

Albert Einstein

Recently I was updating my resume for a probable opportunity and one thing crossed my mind. Should I mention about projects, which failed to deliver?

Typically, we use a resume to showcase the very best of our professional history. We use our resume to show off our skills, we pepper it with appropriate action verbs to illustrate our contributions to past employers, and we attempt to paint a picture of ourselves within it to show just how perfect we are for the position with your company.

But because our resume are meant to highlight our successes, they leave out a very important part of personal and professional growth: failure.

There is one story about Australian army, not sure if its true but very interesting all the same.

In the Australian Army when they are building an elite core team they look at your career record your track record and if you’ve never failed they don’t pick you. They don’t pick you because they say if this man experiences failure would he know how to bounce back?

This is so true, because personally too in my career, I was part of big project for a big transport company which was a complete failure. Till date I remember every small thing of that project and ensure it never ever happens again in my current assignment.

Failure provides a unique opportunity for us to learn and respond. When things go well or go right the first time, we lose the opportunity to take a new approach. We lose the chance to have a different experience or gain a new perspective.

There was an experiment done by one of the professors in university on batch of students. He gave the students some popsicle sticks and told them build the tallest structures. The students experimented and failed a lot, he noticed, built the tallest structures. He repeated the sticks experiments with other students and the results were the same. Those who experimented and failed a lot, invariably built the tallest structures. Clearly failure was an essential part of the creative process

So if failure is so important, why not mention few failures in your CV ??

Conclusion

Failure is where we learn life’s biggest lessons. It is in our failures that we experience the most growth. However, failure is also a source of embarrassment for many of us. We often take it to mean that we weren’t good enough or that we didn’t try hard enough. While that may have been true at the time, it’s not the end of the story.