Your resume is arguably the most important document of your entire life, it can either open the doors of a lifetime, or keep them sealed shut and out of your reach. A good place to begin in evaluating this sentiment would be to discuss happiness; it’s definition and place in your own life. Whatever dictates happiness in your life (and it is certainly different for everyone) probably hinges on how much money you make and how you spend your time earning it. Are you selling the hours of your life at a rate that you feel your time is worth? Does your job afford you the things you wish to fill your life with?

The saying, “Money can’t buy you happiness” has been around for all of history, but so have the struggles to earn it. Why, then, do we work so hard and spend so much of our lives in the pursuit of it? The value and validity of this sentiment boils down to what you define as “happiness”. Some would say that freedom is the ultimate happiness, and working from this angle, it is arguable that freedom is the common denominator of every definition of happiness, as freedom allows you to pursue what your personal happiness is, whatever it may be. The ultimate freedom, then, is to gain more control of your life by deliberately directing the course of the biggest driving force within it, your career. If you have armed yourself to achieve freedom in your life through mobility in your career, you have aligned yourself to then pursue your happiness.

Your resume has more control over your life than almost any document you own. That is why it is crucial for your resume to be carefully planned and expertly written.