[100VP] 2. Vivian
On resumes, food, and New York City
I met Vivian Yung through Lunchclub, the curated networking tool that gave me the inspiration for this blog. Vivian was a corporate and investment banker in NYC and we had a lovely conversation on a range of topics, so here’s some lessons I learned from her vantage point.
- A lucid and concise resume is much more effective than overly complex and inflated jargon
Being able to distill complex information into simple terms is an underrated skill. We’re often inclined to use company- or role-specific lingo when describing our accomplishments, but big words can be detrimental when someone has no context. My reticence to post online extends to seeking feedback on my resume from others due to that same illogical fear of judgement. One of my favorite mantras that I’ve adopted in the past few months is “growth and comfort do not coexist”, and through these words I’ve become more and more willing to put myself out there. This time though, all credit to Vivian for offering to help take a look at my resume, which was such a kind offer and sorely needed.
2. Food is a love language
We talked about fitness and health, and how we’ve been coping through quarantine. We’ve both been doing some form of intermittent fasting for a while now, in part by accident due to our work schedules and in part to create some semblance of self-control, but every time we visit our families, that discipline flies right out the window. I might be trying to fast until noon, but if my mom or dad peels and cuts an apple for me at 9:30AM, I’m obviously going to eat it. Yes, that apple might open up my appetite and turn my 8 hours of eating into a regular 12, but the unspoken love that apple holds is worth it. There’s also the entirely separate and worrying issue of women not having healthy relationships with food, but that’s for another time, maybe…
3. NYC is a special place
We quickly realized that we live within 5 blocks of each other in the city, and I feel like I’m reminded about how small the word is every other week. COVID has given us a golden opportunity to enjoy New York without the all the glamour, but the line between work and leisure has also been blurred beyond recognition. For me, it’s getting up at 7am every morning for a walk around Central Park before work, but not having any other opportunity to leave my 5th floor walkup beyond taking out the trash. For Vivian, it’s getting a pair of roller skates but prioritizing work until it gets too dark to practice. I remember feeling robbed of my NYC experience when the pandemic descended just 8 months after moving here. I had wanted to eat a BEC every day to be a real New Yorker (thanks Reddit) and now have a wonderfully embarrassing memory of trying and failing to order at the bodega on my block. But I digress. I’m thankful to be living in such a special place, and I love being reminded of how wonderful NYC is.
