- Jobseeking is Hard
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- #63 - Resume Optimization
Hey There!
Welcome to Issue #63 of Jobseeking is Hard!
Now that the holidays are over, winter breaks/vacations have concluded and we’re settling into some scheduling normalcy. Hopefully, you’re starting to see some traction in your job search.
I’m hearing from a lot of people that a good amount of you are starting to schedule interviews and see some movement on jobs you’ve applied to.
I love that my LinkedIn feed is filled with so many new job announcements, and I anticipate that’s only going to increase in the coming weeks.
Congratulations to the 25 winners of the 3-month LinkedIn Premium trial memberships over the weekend! Hopefully they can help you network your way to the job you deserve! And to those of you who didn’t win, don’t worry! I have more to give out and plan on having a few more contests in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out in your inbox, on LinkedIn, and on Twitter for future announcements!
Interested in $200 off Coursera Plus? Scroll down to the Affiliates section for my exclusive link and get 1 year of Coursera Plus for $199 until January 14th!
Oh, I almost forgot! I’m adding a new feature to the Premium section! Last week I got an email from a Premium subscriber, and it ended with, “Your newsletter greatly helps to demystify a lot of the career nonsense that floats around LinkedIn!”
So, starting with this issue, I’m introducing “Debunking Career Clickbait,” where I discuss bad jobseeking advice I see on social media. This week, I’m discussing resume formats and whether or not they can make a difference in your response rate.
Lots to talk about this week, so let’s get to it!
STUPID INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
“What do you think about when you're alone in a car?”
Look, not everyone is Matthew McConaughey, contemplating life’s greatest mysteries when behind the wheel.
Sometimes you just want to zone out a bit, and that’s ok. And if the company is looking for candidates who think about work, I have some bad news for them:
Hands down, the dumbest and utterly mystifying interview question I have been asked was by a bank president. I was interviewing for a marketing manager role with his institution.
I sat down. He looked at me for a moment and asked without a hint of irony, comedy, or anything, “Imagine you are a spice in a spice cabinet. What spice would you be?”
For the record, any of these would be perfectly acceptable:
Now I’m curious…
Which spice would you be? |
And sometimes candidates are the ones asking the stupid questions…
I recently had a candidate ask me if I had slept with anyone at the company.
Want to share your stupid interview questions? Reply or email [email protected]
COMMUNITY CATHARSIS
I was interviewing for a recruiting role and was selected for the final round of interviewing. I was asked to bring in a family member, best friend, or spouse so the hiring team could...wait for it...INTERVIEW THEM AS WELL.
I politely declined because, as a recruiter, I would not do that to my candidates if I had gotten the role.
If you had the free time and an available friend, this could have made for an amazing trolling opportunity.
Let’s look on the bright side…at least you discovered the red flags before you accepted a job there!
If there's a jobseeking horror story *you’d* like to share, reply or email [email protected]
HR & RECRUITING JOBS!
Attention HR and Recruiting Jobseekers!
Courtesy of Mike Wood from iCIMS, here’s a job board with ~2,000 available HR and Talent roles with their customers, including remote roles! You can find the list here:
SHAMELESS PLUG
If your job search needs a little more help, Karpiak Consulting offers resume and LinkedIn services, as well as career coaching.
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As part of the newsletter, I’ve worked hard to provide the Jobseeking is Hard community with the necessary resources to bring your best selves to the job search.
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SUBSCRIBER QUESTIONS
I am now running into sites that give a checkbox option to opt out of having AI review your resume. I think we can all agree on how much we hate the ATS. However, does opting out of that stick your resume at the bottom? Yes, I want an actual human to review my resume, but I want the highest chance of it getting seen. Thanks!
Good question! To start, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. The ATS is an Applicant Tracking System…not Ultron. It’s not making unilateral interview or hiring decisions. It organizes applicants throughout the hiring process. It’s a database to store information, including resumes, candidate correspondence, and internal notes, and to document where the candidate is along the hiring journey. If you’re familiar with project management, it’s more like Notion or Asana, keeping everyone aligned (internally) during the hiring process.
Not all ATS use AI to evaluate applicants. In fact, most don’t. And even the ones that DO utilize AI in the resume review process don’t reject candidates…they stack them or organize them in terms of “relevance.” They can be given a score based on whatever biases, er, criteria the recruiter sets. Again, most job applications DO NOT have or utilize this feature.
Why?
1) Fear of lawsuits. Bias in AI is real, and states are enacting laws to help protect applicants, such as NY’s law requiring usage disclosure and annual bias audits.
2) AI is incapable of understanding nuance. It processes data and recognizes patterns; besides matching keywords, it can’t fully understand the breadth of your background or translatable skillsets.
“However, does opting out of that stick your resume at the bottom?” Nope. It just means you don’t consent for AI to review your resume. It won’t impact your candidacy, and you certainly won’t be rejected for it.
“I want an actual human to review my resume…” They always have that capability. No matter what happens during the application process, no matter what questions you answer, or how AI evaluates your resume, your resume will still be attached to your candidate file, and the recruiter will always have access to it.
Good luck!
**Premium Subscribers! Below in the Premium section I’ll expand more on #2 and tell you why most AI-generated resumes I’ve seen are ineffective from a recruiting POV, and how you can stand out in the application pile!**
Have a question you want answered? Please reply to this email or email [email protected] for a chance to have me answer it in a future issue. If I still need to answer *your* question, don't worry. It's still in the inbox...no need to resubmit!
This week, I'm:
Telling you why most AI-generated resumes and cover letters I’ve seen are ineffective from a recruiting POV.
Answering a premium subscriber's question about highlighting relevance on resumes: Are there best practices regarding the number of bullet points needed to show relevance? And does the number of bullet points depend on how far back the experience was?
Debunking a post I saw regarding the use of a resume template!
AFFILIATES
NOTE: As an affiliate to these services, we may receive compensation if you purchase products or services through the links provided.
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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.
Hey all! Thanks for being a premium member! I hope you find the additional info helpful as you navigate your job search.
Recently I saw a post online from someone giving resume advice. They didn’t have hiring experience. They didn’t have recruiting experience. Their qualifications? They worked for a well-known company. That’s it. They got hired once by a company you’ve heard of. So, they were giving resume advice based on the resume that got them hired.
I know it sounds impressive to add “ex-[whatever company you want to brag about]” to your qualifications, but that’s not a qualification…that’s a place of employment.
The media loves to quote ex-employees for their clickbait articles (if I see one more ex-Google recruiter article, I’m going to voluntarily complete a Workday application…that’s how bad it is.), but take this kind of advice with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to resume advice.
If someone says, “This resume format can get you interviews,” just know that either 1) they’re knowingly lying or 2) they don’t know what they don’t know. My vote is for #2. If their resume got them an interview, that’s awesome! But it doesn’t mean it’s repeatable for others. It’s entirely dependent on one’s experience, the job they’re applying for, and how well they highlight their relevance and value. This has almost nothing to do with a template or format.
Ignore almost any advice that equates format with application success. Why? Because that’s not how recruiting works.
So the next time some ex-employee tells you how to format your resume because that’s how they got their job, remember- that’s an individualized experience, not a best practice. Congrats, you worked for a well-known company! Do you know who else has worked for that company? 1,000s of people!
The best way to catch a recruiter’s attention? Base your resume on the job posting, not a resume template.
Do you know who has good resume advice? Recruiters and hiring managers…people who evaluate 100s of resumes, not just use one to apply.
Why most AI-generated resumes I’ve seen are ineffective from a recruiting POV:
Some of the resumes I review as a recruiter and career coach are generated by AI…and aren’t good.
You read it all the time in comments on social media: “With AI, it’s easy to tweak my resume!” and “Cover letters don’t bother me anymore because AI generates them for me.” But the weird thing is, people commenting on this are usually still #opentowork…, so while it might be easier to tweak your resume or cover letter with AI, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s effective.
I’ve heard it several times. “I don’t get it. I’m using AI to tweak my resume based on each job posting, and I’m still not getting interviews.”
And after reviewing their resume or cover letter, I can immediately recognize why.
Recruiting is more than keyword matching.
Ensuring your resume highlights the relevant skills in the job posting is only half the battle. Ask any recruiter or hiring manager, and they’ll tell you the same thing…they want to know how well you did your job. Not just what your experience was but the result/impact of your work. And AI can’t do that for you. AI doesn’t know your specific expertise. AI doesn’t know what goals you accomplished, projects you’ve managed, or successes you’ve had. AI only knows what you tell it.
The output is only as good as the input, and when you input your resume, that’s all it has to go on. If your resume isn’t good to begin with, all you are doing is making sure it has the exact keywords as the job posting. And with AI, EVERYONE’S resume will have the exact keywords for the job posting.
So what will set you apart? The context of what you’ve done…the information NOT on the job posting that you’ve performed and accomplished.
I was reviewing the Premium section of Issue #62 - Refresh Your Resume, where you answered a premium subscriber's question about the challenges of fitting work experience on a 2-page resume.
You mentioned that "The key is relevancy. Don't leave off information that the reader (typically the recruiter or hiring manager) will find relevant."
This leads to my question: Is there a maximum number of bullet points that should accompany each job title? What's that standard? Is there a standard? I've heard for roles held under 2 years, not to exceed 2 or 3 bullet points. And for roles held for 5 or more years, not to exceed 5 bullet points. How can I show relevancy with such limitations?
Thanks so much! Your newsletter greatly helps to demystify a lot of the career nonsense that floats around LinkedIn!
I appreciate the kind words! And congrats on inspiring a new section of the newsletter where I demystify some of the bad, confusing, and just plain wrong career advice I see on social media :)
Regarding your specific questions, there are no rules. I can tell you industry best practices and my educated suggestions, but it'll still come down to your specific situation.
"Is there a maximum number of bullet points that should accompany each job title? What's that standard? Is there a standard?" My general rule is to include at least the top 50% of the job posting.
When you see a job posting (and the job description lists what the position entails) and the required/preferred experience/skills, those things are listed in order of importance to the company. So you want to mirror as much as you can in your resume. If you can't mirror at least 60-70% of the total job posting, taking the time to tweak your resume and apply would have a low success rate and you're better off spending your time in other ways on your job search.
But your focus should be matching 90-100% of the top half of the job posting. That could be 5 bullet points. It could be 7 or even 9. But the idea is you want to match the most important ones. So focus on % of bullet points, not #.
"I've heard for roles held under 2 years, not to exceed 2 or 3 bullet points." I've occasionally heard similar advice…and it's terrible advice. The worst kind of advice is arbitrary advice. Think about it. If you're applying to a job that directly matches a job you currently have/recently had, but have had it less than 2 years, you shouldn't match more than 2 or 3 of the bullet points in the job posting, even if you have the experience? Talk about self-eliminating!
"And for roles held for 5 or more years, not to exceed 5 bullet points. How can I show relevancy with such limitations?" As a recruiter, I can't imagine seeing a candidate's resume with only 5 bullet points at a job they've been at for over 5 years. To me, that screams "ineffective." Good resumes are a combination of 1) what you did (experience) and 2) how well you did it (the impact of your experience). Can you do that in 5 bullet points? Maybe, but I haven't seen it.
Base your resume's content on the job postings you're applying for, not arbitrary rules. If you hear/read/watch career advice that doesn't include nuance, it's bad advice.
I hope that helps! Good luck!
That's it for now, and send in those questions! Don't forget to put "Premium" in the subject line so I can stay organized!
Do you have any thoughts or suggestions for the premium membership? Let me know! The premium tier is a work in progress, and I want to create something of real value for subscribers.
Have a good one!