The Adventures of a 35yo (Alcohol) Virgin

Samuel Smith’s Organic Cider

There are a few things I get kinda excited/nerdy about: superhero movies, office supplies, developing cool inventions, creating non-profit programs and fundraising ideas and helping people with their resumes.

As to the resume thing, I don’t know why. Even in my very first professional job, I was working with late teens and early 20somethings and part of my role as manager or supervisor was to help them with resumes or career advice and it’s always been something that I found pleasure in.

So anytime anyone says “hey, would you be willing to look at my resume and give me any feedback?” I get this weird twinge of excitement. I know, it sounds weird. I just assume it’s like those people who love gardening, or tech, or chocolate or porn. It gets me pumped. Gets me hot.

I like to see how people present themselves, think about their best attributes, organize their thoughts. And I like to be helpful in that adventure. Sometimes I find that people are so template-based in building their resumes that they virtually show no personality. Or they’re trying too hard, multi-fonts, too many colors, dozens of bullets, every job ever worked listed.

Oh, you’re 32 and you’re listing your high school summer landscaping job? To highlight your early background in self management and hardworking spirit? I see.

Hey, why are you mentioning you are “proficient in computer skills”. You’re 28. You should be fluent. “Proficient” looks like a downgrade, at best.

You were Junior Class President in High School? Awesome. As a 40 year old looking for work in IT that’s really important to highlight.  I admit, it looks pretty damn fancy next to the bullet highlighting your work in college as Secretary of the Campus Recycling Committee 91-92. But yeah. No.

Ok, they’re not all that bad. But you get the point. So recently a co-worker exploring new career options asked me to help him with an update and to refresh his resume—completely out of the blue. Like he could smell the interest on me.

Maybe he could. Hope it smells sweet, like chocolate or porn.

So he sent it to me and told me I could “to go to town” if I wanted. (my absolute favorite allowance…) And so I did. New format, added a color, updated his font, paired things down, moved things around, highlighted his strongest attributes. Told a story. Painted a picture.

He had great experience, good bones. I just toned up the body, added a little fashion, offered some narrative—at most. I try to put people on paper.

He loved it. Thank god. You never know. People sometimes want help, but don’t always like help. They like to learn, but hate to be taught. They want some refinement, but hate to be edited. I’m personally not any better, but I think that’s what sometimes makes me a decent educator/editor/presenter—because I sometimes come from that place of guarded request.

But yeah, he loved it. Was really appreciative and liked the method to my madness, thankfully. So much so he bought me a bottle of his favorite hard Cider to thank me, a large bottle of Samuel Smith’s Organic Cider.  Thanking me with booze? Ok, that’ll work. I do this for free, normally. The opportunity is payment enough.  But a chance to try a new drink on the fly? Awesome.

Crisp, slightly musky, sharply, tartly apple and blandly spiced, the organic cider was refreshing but was missing something. It has this nice golden apple flavor and was only sweet enough to taste delicious, without pushing for sugary. It almost had this homemade quality.

I don’t know. I felt like the Woodchuck Amber Cider—admittedly my only other cider—was more lush, had more depth, was more… appletastic? Sure, we’ll go with that.

Smith’s Organic Cider was tangy and pleasant, but slightly subtle and flat. Oh sure, it was bubbly but not rich. Appley, but tasted a few too many steps away from the tree, if that makes sense. I could blindly suggest the organic nature is what turned the volume down, but I’ve had enough experience with organic produce to know that’s not the answer.

I think if you like apple, but a subtle, dryer, calming drink, this is the Cider for you. The alcohol flavor was almost non-existent.  It was diet RC Cola to Pepsi. Yeah, that’s the best way to explain it. Still perfectly cola, but not COLA.

But I digress.

Anyway, it was a great gift and a drink I may have never found on my own. So win-win, if I do say so myself. Plus, its becoming really helpful to be able to compare types of drinks to each other. I’m slacking on my cider intake, to say the least!

So thanks to my buddy at work and I wish him the best of luck in his future career search with a new resume leading the way. I’m glad I could be part of his Adventure just as he contributed to mine.

Cheers, Ben

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