Questions

IDK why you erased the details you initially provided in addition to the question: they made it a lot easier to answer.

I don't remember all of them, but you moved to the US from France to give it a shot as a writer?

So you will always run into two kinds of people, no matter what you're doing:

1 > people who DON'T LIKE what you're doing

and

2 > people who DO LIKE what you're doing.

Your job...your resume's job...is to filter out the first type and appeal to the second.

Right now you have some head trash about your time trying to make things work in America. You have a negative, fearful point of view about the experience. Yet other people may well be impressed by that same experience: that you took a risk, that you committed to it for a long time, and that you interacted with a different culture.

Instead of viewing this experience and section on your resume as "failure", start seeing it as "adventurous success"! You did something millions, maybe even billions, of people around the world are too scared to try. Having changed countries myself, I know exactly how challenging it is (No bank account? No history with anyone or any company? No safety net of friends to rely on? Nice!). And Type 2 employers will be equally impressed.

Notice how nearly all of the emotional contorting you're doing is generated by and carried out within you. Has any employer actually stated your American experience is a negative? I bet not. It's all in your head. So change your point of view on the experience.

Most people think the resume's purpose is to get you the job. No. The resume's job is to get you the interview. Make the employer interested enough to want to meet you. That's it. The resume is a marketing piece for the product, "YOU."

So get your headline up for the resume section...the big point you want to filter for and have Type 2 employers take away from reading. This is how you stand out, which is one of the necessary things your resume must do to be successful. Then list some bullet points underneath about key elements of that experience...the things you bring back to employers that other people who safely stayed home in France never got and will never have.

Start seeing this experience as an asset instead of a liability.


Answered 7 years ago

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