You have a great resume!

As I've moved forward in my career, and interviewed a lot of places, I've heard this one a number of times: "You have a very impressive resume!"

I have to say I've never really known exactly how to respond to this.  When I was younger and confident, I often would think or maybe even say "Well I've been fortunate enough to have some amazing opportunities, and love working on new challenging things.  I've stumbled upon some of them, and sought out others."  Other times, I'd just say Thank You.

And it's true... when I was in high school, I stumbled on FIRST Robotics (it showed up at my school with two engineers playing a VCR tape of a competition on an old clunky TV in the cafeteria).  But then I founded my own team (twice).

Through FIRST, I knew of a local UTC company.  When I couldnt find an internship with them, I stumbled on the opportunity to intern at their sister division working on Space Station/Suit, etc... how cool??

My first job... I decided to interview at nearly every company hiring electrical engineers (30+ on campus), the first I didnt want to work at, but it would be good practice.  Nearly 40 interviews later, I took a job with that first place I didnt want to work at (even after having the choice of 3 companies!)

My second job I hunted (wanted to get into the Boston area), and although I didnt know what I was going to be working on (classified) it ended up being really awesome technology... Third I got poached, and then I got laid off for the first time.  That was my first real experience of not feeling wanted.

As I frantically applied to jobs thinking I needed applications in to get unemployment.  I stumbled on one at Bose for an aviation/military headset program manager job.  I hastily sent my resume off somewhere around midnight, forgetting to format it to the job.  I hadnt held the official title of PM nor had any experience with headsets, beyond plugging them into Harris radios.  After a few other interviews, it turned out that stumble lead me to an awesome job with an awesome boss... I got to work with the NFL and got great exposure to consumer electronics.

But again, I had chosen a company that was growing too fast... and after early retirement packages and several other layoffs, I got cut in a round of engineering layoffs and found myself re-polishing my resume.

Maybe 5 or 6 times now during this most recent job hunt I've heard "You have a really impressive resume".  But in the back of my mind I think "yeah, but not impressive enough for my last two companies to keep me".  Though I will admit that is way way back in my mind, as generally I can get myself fired up enough for an interview that I really do believe in myself and I do believe that I really could do any job I'm applying for.  But that little bit of doubt is now deeply rooted in my subconscience, and admittedly may drive some of my decisions.  I want a place that is stable, but I will also want to make sure that I can make enough of an impact to not just be "the new girl" and be able to be laid off again.  Part of me knows it may not have been that avoidable, I worked incredibly hard at both jobs, I think the only thing I might have been able to do differently is make myself more known directly to upper management.  In both places I tried to let my work speak for itself, perhaps I need to do a bit more than that.

But yes... I guess I do have a strong resume.  No, I'm not sure I will ever really know how to respond to that statement.  I guess the textbooks or online sites would suggest saying "why yes, I worked hard to grow in each of my roles and sought out opportunities that would help me do so", and while that is true, it always sounds a bit contrived to me, and I like to be more real, and the real me is often more humble.  The teams of people, my bosses and the opportunities I've stumbled on have all helped shape me.  I am not content to sit still, and I know if I work hard enough at anything, I can succeed, but I'm not sure I'm ever good at bragging about it.