That’s obvious: It’s time to stop overthinking your resume
When you’re hungry, you always have options. You can break out Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French
Cooking” and try whipping up some boeuf bourguignon or you can make a quick grilled cheese sandwich. While the former may appeal to your refined taste buds, the latter might be just as satisfying, and a lot easier to make. That’s the state of the job search today. While technology is great, job seekers are often convinced that they’ll need to take a series of intricate steps to find the right position, continually updating their network, constantly tweaking their resumes, and always looking for the next big thing. Turns out the process may be simpler than that.
“We’re getting to the point where we’ve begun overthinking the obvious,” says Janet Rounder, a Miami-based career coach and former HR specialist for AT&T. “Don’t misunderstand me — things like LinkedIn and digital resumes are now the norm — but that doesn’t
mean that everything in your job search has to be cutting edge. You’re looking for a job, not trying to get to Mars.”
Rounder believes that the resume is still the foundation of any job search. “If you want to spend time or money on one aspect of your toolbox that can help you get a job, it should be the resume,” she says. “And when we talk about obvious mistakes, the resume is usually the best example.”
If you’ve been in a certain industry for a while, Rounder suggests that you stop bending to every trend and trust your instincts. “Put yourself in the HR person’s position or the manager’s position and list exactly what you’d want to see in a resume,” Rounder says. “Keywords are important but so are the little, overlooked things that would appeal to a future employer.”
Rounder says resumes from developers and programmers usually provide the best examples of incomplete summaries of experience. “You can list every program you use, every app you created and that might appeal to the tech person in the hiring circle, but what about the project
manager who needs to put together a strong team? That’s the person you need to address,” says Rounder. “You did well at your previous jobs because you worked well with others and didn’t shy away from interacting with peers in
other departments. Obvious, right? But is that on your resume? If you think about your job and what makes you successful, you’ll find the missing pieces.”