Cogito Algorithm Sum — We are more than our resumes

Drawing by Saul Steinberg

This is the 2nd post in a series based on a survey posted on my LinkedIn.

“Passion Mapping” and “Inventive thinking” have edged out the other choices in the survey posted a couple of days ago. So I’ll pick up on that thread. (Please keep voting!)

I’ll start with this thought re: job searching: Algorithms are poor at reading what we are in the process of becoming. And we are all in the process of becoming something else.

To address widespread dissatisfaction in the workplace, we need to shift our job matching criteria from people as task-performing entities to people recognized for their intrinsic motivations and curiosity.

The first thing I have undergrads in my “Creative Application Studio” class at Columbia University do is sketch up visual artifacts that represent who they are and where they are going. Drawing has a way of reconnecting us with our most imaginative, childlike selves. And I believe that these moments, that sparkle in my student’s memories, say more about where they are going than anything that will ever be scraped from their resumes.

Early Defining Moment sketches

Let me zoom in on one example…

Raeedah’s simple “early defining moment” drawing speaks volumes about who she is.

Her experience map, representing her journey from home to school, captured the sense of concern and claustrophobia she sometimes feels navigating urban environments. But also the joy she takes in using images, symbols, and words to capture the journey.

Raeedah Wahid, Experience Map, “Creative Application Studio,” 2019

And her bisociation drawings (drawings that enable inventive thinking through serendipitous connection) show her thinking through solutions at the intersection of visual journalism and spatial awareness.

Raeedah Wahid, Bisociation, “Creative Application Studio,” 2019

One day my students will have to stand before co-workers, investors, or business partners and be the person who can bring something remarkable into the world. These sketches help them lead with something that perhaps, they have always owned. And they communicate something that job matching algorithms may never understand.

I’ll share more about this shift from quantitative to qualitative measures in future posts.

For now it’s a joy to see Raeedah’s path since 2019 so perfectly aligned with her vision.