Babysitting & Other Origins of Core Competency

It’s funny, the list of things that don’t make the cut, for a professional resume. I understand the value of brevity & representing the most RELEVANT experience, BUT...

What is so irrelevant about the origins of skills gained in service industry experience, or 👶 babysitting, for example? There’s an ocean of unrepresented experience in the professional workforce, despite its illumination of abstract, invaluable character traits & personal values that are difficult to parse out in the interview process.

I enjoy the knowledge that colleagues have had relatable early/intermittent work experience, such as waiting tables, working in retail, or a call center job–to use one of my husband’s examples. It tells me: they’ve met challenges of the “front lines” in customer service, and that they know something about patience, empathy & tact. It illuminates something about the contributions or work ethic they bring to a team when “in the weeds” of day-to-day tasks. 

💭 Imagine, if my resume included my earliest experiences in babysitting at the age of ~15… It might seem silly, but consider what we might glean in learnings about someone, with the knowledge of this prior experience: 

• MATURITY & AMBITION: The early pursuit of employment before I was of legal working age (16 in my residential state at the time) was an early indication of the vigor, diligence, #EntrepreneurialSpirit, and follow-through that I brought to the workforce a few years later
  

• TIME MGMT. & NEGOTIATION: Someone who is still in high school can be assumed to have homework assignments and, probably, their own social schedule to maintain, too, making #TimeManagement a must. Babysitters must be able to #Negotiate the value of their time by the hour, in addition to #Scheduling availability. What if more than one family requests services on the same Friday night, for example?
  

• MANAGING CHALLENGING PERSONALITIES: We’ve all met toddlers, right? Surely there’s a Dilbert cartoon to gracefully insert here, and spare myself a foot-in-the-mouth as I attempt to create an allegorical reference to common stigmas for some executive personalities…Need I say more? I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead on this one 😊
  

• #PRIORITIZATION: While keeping everyone fed, happy, and entertained may be the top goal for a babysitter when parents are away for an evening, the baseline for success is simpler. A good sitter understands that the #CoreCompetency, above all else, is keeping everyone ALIVE. That means keeping an eagle eye view at all times, much like a #ProjectManager would, on the foundational risks & ongoing status quo. It means not getting hyper-fixated on one kiddo’s knee scrape 🩹 while losing track of the toddler who might set the house on fire 🚒 across the room...You get the idea.

Thanks for joining a thought experiment, patient reader. I’m curious what skills you’ve been working on, for WAY longer than you’ve been representing them on your resume. And where did you pick them up? 🤔