How’s Your Handwriting?

How’s your handwriting?

Nowadays you rarely get asked with that question, what with the advance of the digital age where everything’s done electronically. But even though such a question is rarely, if not never, asked in let’s say a job interview, your handwriting identifies you like a fingerprint and oftentimes helps a lot in your job. Well, at least for me.

Holding the position of Executive Secretary for the last seven years
(my longest job experience), I realized that my handwriting played a major part in my career path. I’ve always been known and sometimes admired for my cursive writing which I would always explain was a result of completing our Paulinian handwriting book back in grade school (I’m an alumna of St. Paul Makati and St. Paul Pasig, both Catholic schools) or risk not getting your clearance for the following school year. I decided then that it was easier to adapt the style as my normal handwriting than painstakingly finishing the book before the school year ended. That decision eventually paid off when I was elected as Class secretary from Grade 4 up to Senior High and more so when I started working.

My first two jobs were both in sales and both lasted barely a year but my next two jobs as Executive Assistant at a retail company then as Executive Secretary at the Consulate of Estonia lasted a total of ten years, both of which I believe were influenced by my handwriting. At the retail company, the management started to notice my creativity through my handwriting and promoted me four times to various positions in my three years there, from administrative to HR to marketing. I mean, more relevant skills like voracious learner and results-oriented were probably considered by my boss for the promotions but I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten noticed so early in my stint at the company if it wasn’t for my handwriting.

At the Consulate, I most certainly wouldn’t have lasted seven years if I hadn’t developed a good relationship with my boss’ wife who, rumor has it, was the reason the previous secretary left. Mrs. Pena noticed my handwriting on the gift card of my first Christmas present to her and Dr. Pena and that was the start of my great and lasting mentor-like relationship with her. She was Catholic schooled too and also has a beautiful cursive penmanship which I believe is Theresian (St. Therese’s College). From then on she’d ask me to write some of her personal greeting cards from gift tags to Mass cards.

It was always such a fun task for me. Just last year before Christmas, one of Mrs. Pena’s sons living in the States and about to get married asked if I knew a calligraphist who could do his wedding invitations and when I found out it was just a dozen envelopes, I offered to write it for him at no cost which he was very appreciative of. 

sample of wedding invitation envelope

Before New Year, the son came to Manila for the holidays and passed by the office to pick up the invitations. He handed me an envelope with money and I wanted to return it to him, saying that the envelope writing was for free but he wouldn’t hear of it and insisted that I consider the money as a Christmas gift. So I thanked him and later that day when I opened the envelope, I was shocked that it had P5,000 (roughly $120)! Wow, that much for 10 envelopes that only took me less than an hour to finish? A few days later, the son sent me an e-mail to thank me again and revealed that his daughter who was also getting married the following year, liked my handwriting so much she begged her dad to let me do her invitations but the dad thought that it would be too much for me to handwrite 150 invitations so he said just to find a local printer in the States. If he only knew, I’d been doing this for free as a favor to relatives for more than twenty years! Last 2009, I handwrote the envelopes of my sister’s wedding invitations and it was for a total of 250 pieces!

So you see, your handwriting goes a long, long way to your success whether it’s for school or for a job. It could become your trademark or business card and with your unique strokes, people would notice you or better yet never forget you. It could also be your pot of gold like it is for me with the promotions, the good business relations and even a budding business venture. It’s never too late to work on it. It’s just like a beauty makeover but with less fuss and more rewards in many ways. It took me some time --- actually, my entire grade school years --- and thereafter daily practice to make this style my normal handwriting. Throughout the years, I’ve been asked by dozens of people to teach them how to write beautifully in longhand and now I formulated a lesson on how you could also write beautifully in easy-to-follow steps without having to go through grade school and complete your clearance for the next school year J

If you want me to show you how right now, just click here.

Like every learnable skill in life, improving your handwriting just takes a little time, a few techniques and a lot of practice.

So let go of that mouse, stop typing and take out your pen and paper!