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Welcome to Issue #210 of Jobseeking is Hard!

Happy Wednesday!

When I'm reviewing someone's resume, I sometimes find myself asking why they chose to include certain information. Usually, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation, and the candidate genuinely believes it's making their resume stronger. But what someone intends to communicate and what a recruiter takes away from it aren't always the same thing.

That's what I want to talk about this week.

This week we’re talking about:

• Why explaining potential red flags on your resume can hurt your chances of getting an interview

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

• The meme of the week

And for Premium subscribers I’m:

• Debunking the worst resume advice I’ve ever heard. Ever.

• Answering a Premium subscriber’s question about suspicious recruiting emails that bounce back. I’ll explain what might be happening and how to verify an opportunity before responding.

Let’s get to it!

DON'T GIVE RECRUITERS A REASON TO SAY NO

One of the things I see pretty regularly when reviewing resumes is candidates including information they think will help their chances, when it might actually be doing the opposite.

A lot of the time, it's an explanation the candidate deliberately included because they thought it would make them look better. Maybe they were laid off, spent a few months unemployed, changed jobs more frequently than they'd like, or took a position that didn't work out.

I understand why people do it. They want to make sure the recruiter understands the circumstances before making assumptions. If you were laid off because your company eliminated an entire department, why wouldn't you explain that? If you left a job after eight months because the company completely misrepresented the opportunity, wouldn't providing that context make the short tenure look better? Maybe. But you're also giving the recruiter information they can use to reject you without ever having a conversation.

Recruiters spend a lot of time looking for reasons to narrow the candidate pool. I know that sounds harsh, but when you're reviewing hundreds of applications for a position, you have to figure out which candidates are worth moving forward. You're looking for relevant experience and evidence that someone can do the job. But you're also paying attention to things that might raise questions or concerns. Some are legitimate. Others are assumptions or biases that can absolutely tank someone's chances. And when you're making those decisions quickly, something a candidate thought was helpful context might end up working against them.

A candidate who's changed jobs six times in four years might raise questions about stability. Someone who's been out of work for an extended period may have to explain what they've been doing. A person who left a senior leadership position after only a few months might need to discuss what happened. But at the application stage, the recruiter doesn't necessarily need an explanation for every one of those things before deciding whether to interview you.

Let's say you worked somewhere for nine months before the company went through a restructuring. You were laid off along with several other employees, and there was nothing you could have done differently to prevent it.

You might decide to add something like "Position eliminated due to organizational restructuring" underneath the job title. Seems reasonable, right? You're getting ahead of the obvious question and making sure nobody assumes you were fired for poor performance. Except now you've made the circumstances of your departure part of the resume itself. Maybe the recruiter appreciates the explanation. Maybe they don't particularly care. Or maybe it draws their attention to a short tenure they otherwise wouldn't have spent much time thinking about. Maybe their bias creeps in and they think, "Well, if they were a strong performer, they wouldn't have been let go."

And this isn't limited to layoffs or employment gaps.

I've seen experienced professionals explain why they moved from a Director position into a Manager role, why they left a large company for a smaller one, or why they took a consulting position between full-time jobs. I understand the concern. They don't want someone looking at their career history and assuming they've taken a step backward. But sometimes the explanation creates more of a problem than the “issue” itself.

Maybe that Manager position came with a larger team, a bigger budget, or considerably more responsibility than the Director role. Maybe the consulting work involved advising senior executives on complex projects. Those are the things I'd rather see emphasized. They give the recruiter a reason to consider you for the next opportunity instead of asking them to reconsider a potentially negative assumption about your last one.

I've seen resumes where candidates explain all kinds of things throughout their career history. By the time you're finished reading, you've learned quite a bit about why they aren't working at their previous companies…but you're still not particularly sure why you should hire them. I question whether all that information belongs on the resume in the first place. Your resume should be helping a recruiter understand your experience and qualifications for the job they're trying to fill. Your relevance and value. Every piece of information you include should have a reason for being there. When you start adding explanations for things that might concern someone, you're also giving those concerns space (and attention) that could’ve been used to make a stronger case for your candidacy. Instead, you've created a question that may not have existed otherwise.

When I'm working on a client's resume, part of the process involves looking for information that could create unnecessary doubts. I'm not just looking at whether something is accurate or well-written. I'm thinking about how a recruiter might interpret it. Why is this information here? Does it strengthen their qualifications for the jobs they're targeting? Could it raise a red flag that doesn’t need to be raised?

Sometimes that means removing a side business that isn't relevant. Sometimes it means reducing the attention given to a short-term position.

And sometimes the information itself isn't the problem. It's how it's being presented.

This is one of the things I focus on when rewriting resumes for clients. After more than 20 years in recruiting, I've seen how hiring decisions get made and how easily a candidate's qualifications can get lost behind something that raises an unnecessary question. My job is to figure out what a recruiter needs to see, what might be a potential issue, and how to present that person's experience in a way that makes the strongest possible case for an interview.

There's also a difference between what belongs on a resume and what belongs in an interview.

Before you include something on your resume, ask yourself a question: Am I including this because it helps demonstrate why I'm qualified, or because I'm worried about what someone might assume?

Those are 2 very different reasons.

You can always explain yourself in an interview. First, you have to get one.

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!

BEST (WORST?) JOB POST

OF THE WEEK

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

requirements: time travel

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!

MEME OF THE WEEK

This meme got more reactions on my Threads than anything else I posted this week.

PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER QUESTION

“I keep getting recruiting emails for a job, but when I respond, the emails bounce back. I also looked up the person contacting me on LinkedIn, and it says they left the company months ago. Is this a scam, an automated recruiting campaign gone wrong, or something else? And what should I do if this happens with a job I'm actually interested in?”

Scroll down to the Premium Section below for my answer!

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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.

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