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Hey There!

Welcome to Issue #187 of Jobseeking is Hard!

Today's issue is brought to you by the Zenith Agency! If you're a free subscriber and value our content, it costs $0 to support us by clicking the ad and checking out the service. Show our sponsor some love for supporting Jobseeking is Hard! Thanks!

Happy Wednesday!

One of the more difficult parts of the job search is that candidates and hiring teams are often evaluating experience through completely different lenses. Jobseekers naturally think about the experiences that shaped them professionally, the environments that taught them resilience, and the progression that explains how they became good at what they do. Hiring teams are usually focused on something much narrower: whether the person looks like a safe, relevant fit for the role they need filled right now.

That disconnect creates a lot of resume problems.

This week, I want to talk about why resumes often become too focused on professional backstory instead of present-day relevance.

I’ll also share how one Resume Rewrite client realized they were simply too close to their own career story to see which parts of their background hiring teams actually cared about during the application stage.

And thanks to everyone who took advantage of last week’s Premium Subscriber sale! Welcome aboard!

As a special thank you, this week all Premium Subscribers are entitled to a promo code for 15% off any Karpiak Consulting service. You’ll find the code below in the Premium section!

This week we’re talking about:

• Why hiring teams prioritize current fit over career history

• How one Resume Rewrite client realized they were too close to their own career story to see what hiring teams actually cared about

• The best (worst?) job posting of the week

And for Premium subscribers I’m:

• Debunking ridiculous recruiter advice about candidates using call-screening tools

• Answering a Premium subscriber’s question about how long they should keep targeting roles at their previous compensation level before adjusting expectations. I’ll explain how to evaluate market conditions realistically, when strategic flexibility makes sense, and why bridge jobs are sometimes the smarter long-term decision.

Let’s get to it!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FORMATIVE EXPERIENCE AND RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

One of the more difficult parts of resume writing is that candidates and hiring teams usually care about very different things. Candidates naturally look at their careers chronologically and emotionally. They think about the jobs that shaped them, the difficult environments that taught them resilience, the experiences that built their judgment, and the progression that explains how they became good at what they do now. From their perspective, those experiences feel essential to understanding the full picture of who they are professionally.

Hiring teams usually aren’t evaluating resumes that way.

At the application stage, companies are rarely trying to understand your professional evolution or leadership journey. They’re trying to determine whether you look like a safe, relevant solution to the problem they currently need solved. That changes what information becomes useful during screening.

This disconnect shows up constantly with resumes that try to preserve the full arc of someone’s career. Earlier roles often feel important because they were formative. They may explain where someone learned customer management, leadership, operational discipline, stakeholder communication, or conflict resolution. Those experiences absolutely matter to the candidate because they helped shape how they work.

But resumes aren’t biographies. They’re screening tools operating inside a hiring process built around speed and risk reduction. The recruiter reviewing the application usually isn’t trying to reconstruct your professional identity. They’re trying to quickly answer a much simpler question: “Does this person look like a strong match for this role?”

That distinction matters more than people realize. A resume that spends too much time explaining older experience, unrelated industries, early-career work, or a broad cross-functional background can unintentionally shift attention away from current positioning. Instead of reinforcing present-day relevance, the document starts requiring more recruiting brain power. Now the reader starts wondering whether the candidate is strong enough, whether they’re too broad, whether they’re still “current” in the targeted function, or whether the role actually aligns with their background at all. Meanwhile, the more directly aligned candidate often avoids those questions entirely because the story stays tightly connected to the opening.

That’s one of the more frustrating issues: some of the experiences that genuinely made someone effective professionally are not always the experiences that help them survive initial screening. For example, a difficult role early in someone’s career may have taught emotional resilience and adaptability. A hiring manager might genuinely value those experiences once they’re actually talking to the candidate because they reveal how someone operates in difficult situations. But application-stage hiring systems are not very good at evaluating nuanced professional development. They tend to reward recognizable alignment and easy categorization instead. This is why interviews and resumes serve completely different purposes. Interviews allow for storytelling, personality, and deeper interpretation. That’s where someone can explain how earlier experiences shaped their leadership style or how difficult environments improved their decision-making. Those stories often become compelling once someone is already in the conversation.

The resume’s job is earlier and narrower. Its purpose is not to communicate every experience that shaped someone professionally, but to make the reader feel confident enough to continue the process. Experience should stay on a resume because it reinforces present-day relevance, not simply because it feels personally important to the candidate’s professional story.

I get it…minimizing those experiences can feel like minimizing part of yourself. But that’s not what's important at the application stage. the candidates who move forward are usually the ones whose resumes make that relevance feel immediate, obvious, and easy to trust.

Have a topic you want me to cover in an upcoming issue? Reply or email [email protected] and tell me what you want to know!

SHAMELESS PLUG

If your job search needs a little more help, Karpiak Consulting offers resume and LinkedIn services, as well as job search strategy coaching.

Who knows…maybe you’ll realize your own experience makes a lot more sense on paper than you thought 🤷‍♂️

So how did I help this Resume Rewrite client improve their positioning?

Perspective.

One of the more difficult parts of resume writing is that candidates are often too close to their own careers. They know the full story in their heads, which experiences shaped them professionally, which environments were the hardest, and which parts of their background feel most meaningful personally. The problem is that hiring teams are not evaluating resumes through that same lens.

This client had strong operational leadership experience, but the original resume was trying to preserve too much of the career journey instead of focusing attention on the parts of the background most relevant to the target roles. The experience itself wasn’t the issue. The issue was narrative clarity, prioritization, and making the operational scope easier to recognize quickly.

The rewrite focused on positioning the client around operational leadership, process improvement, and ownership instead of simply documenting the chronological progression of the career. Earlier experience that helped shape the client professionally still mattered, but the resume needed to prioritize present-day relevance over full historical context.

After receiving the rewrite, the client said something that honestly captures this issue perfectly:

That’s exactly the challenge with resume writing. Most people aren’t weak candidates. They’re just too close to their own experience to evaluate it the same way a hiring team does.

If you’re struggling to position your experience clearly in this market and don’t know which parts of your background hiring teams actually care about, our services can help. 

Curious what the process has been like for other clients? Check out our testimonials here!

BEST (WORST?) JOB POST

OF THE WEEK

Here’s the job post that got the most people talking on my Instagram this week!

nothing says “fast-paced” more than rejecting candidates before they apply

If you come across an irritating job posting, email it to the newsletter or DM me on Instagram and I’ll add it to the list to post!

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PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER QUESTION

“How long should I keep applying to roles in my current salary range before I start lowering my expectations?”

Check out the Premium Section below for my answer! Not a Premium Subscriber? Upgrade here: www.JobseekingIsHard.com/upgrade

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• Subscriber-Only Discounts: Get exclusive promo codes for Karpiak Consulting services, available only to Premium subscribers. Whether you're updating your resume, need a LinkedIn profile review, or want expert help tailoring your applications, these occasional discounts make expert support more accessible.

• Extra Tips & Advice: Gain exclusive insights, strategies, and advice from a recruiter with over 20 years of experience in the field. Discover what hiring managers truly value and how to stand out at every step of your job search.

• Access to Previous Issues: Explore a library of knowledge with all 100+ past issues of the newsletter. Each edition is packed with proven strategies, practical advice, and real-world jobseeking stories to give you an edge in today’s competitive job market. From resume tips to handling tough interview questions, you’ll find answers to every challenge.

• Exclusive Q&A: Have questions about your job search? Premium subscribers can ask Adam directly! Questions will be featured in upcoming issues, with detailed answers tailored to real-world scenarios, ensuring you get the guidance you need.

• Bonus Content: As part of your Premium subscription, you’ll receive 20 additional job search tips delivered to your inbox over the next 20 days. This includes advice on avoiding common mistakes and maximizing your job search strategy to land interviews faster.

Jobseekers, have a great rest of your week, and good luck with those applications!

-Adam

PS!! If you're enjoying the newsletter, let people know! Forward it, post it on social, tag me, whatever...the bigger the discussion, the better! The idea is to help as many people as possible!

About Adam- Recognized as a leading voice on hiring and workplace trends, Adam has been recruiting and providing career advice since 2003, developing high-trust relationships based on honesty with companies and jobseekers. A highly sought-after speaker, he has appeared in numerous outlets, including Bloomberg News, Business Insider, LinkedIn, and CNNMoney. You can find out more about Adam's resume and coaching services here.

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