Underemployed: References and my new Resume

I have emailed my new resume to the folks who have kindly agreed to be my references. It's receiving mixed reactions. It is three pages and involves rather more text than one expects on a resume, on the one hand; on the other the achievement statements sound quite impressive. One of my references has suggested calling it a CV, and making a more succinct "resume" version that can be tailored to each application / job prospect. Which is an interesting thought. I've made it a pdf, since the formatting changes in ugly ways between my computer and my references' computers (discovered the hard way, of course). I don't know what the consultant will have to say about pdf, but it really solves the "my Word doesn't like your Word" problem, so I hope he approves, because I'm inclined to stick with it.

One of my assignments this week is to write down what I liked and what I disliked about the organization, position, and management of each of my previous jobs. So far I've found this a great deal more difficult than I thought I would. My likes and dislikes about all of these things have been, up until now, quite vague and un-articulated. Pinning the specifics down and expressing them clearly is not coming easily. I think of something, write it down, think... "no, that's not really it" and then delete. I'm also finding that my likes and dislikes are contradictory: on the one hand I liked the autonomy of one position, on the other hand I would have preferred more collaboration. Needless to say, I haven't gotten very far in the completion of this assignment.

Once done, though, it should supply me with good ideas about what I need to find out about a workplace before assuming I will love the job - questions to ask at the interview, things to research ahead, etc.

This is also the idea behind one of the other assignments for this week, which is to basically articulate and rate what I would like in my next job: how far would I be willing to move, how much of a commute would be okay, how regular, irregular or flexible a schedule would appealing to me, etc. etc. including where I am and am not willing to compromise, and how much importance each factor holds. As far in the future as a new job looks, these will all be good things to have thought of ahead of time.