The #1 problem with resumes

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🛑 Resume’s biggest red flag

• What a recruiter sees

• Why this works against you

• So what’s the solution?

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Resume’s biggest red flag

🔵 Why it’s impossible to stand out with just your resume.

A few days ago on a windy afternoon, I had a coffee chat with Jordan - the recruiter who got me my 1st internship.

We did a quick catch-up, and while I didn’t mean for it to, the conversation naturally shifted towards job searching.

But hey, I’m not complaining, because Jordan dropped some gems of her wisdom as a past recruiter.

The information was so good, that I couldn’t keep it all to myself, so today, I’ll tell you what I learned.

I learned what really happens to your resume after you hit “submit” on a job application.

Here’s how a resume pops up for a recruiter and why it doesn’t work in your favor…

What a recruiter sees

What happens after you submit your resume? How does it get to the recruiter’s eyes? Does the recruiter get a notification?

Well, according to Jordan, no.

Turns out, your resume gets sorted in alphabetical order.

That’s it.

No fancy filter that highlights top resumes, or any other sort of grading category. Just a long list of names from A - Z in the form of clickable hyperlinks.

Why this works against you

Let’s paint the picture

If a job is only hiring 1 person but 500 people apply, how does a recruiter like Jordan find time to go through each one’s resume?

The answer is that she can’t.

According to Jordan, she’ll probably go through less than 200 of those resumes at most!

So off the bat, this gives people whose names start with the letter A an unfair advantage.

But let’s say Jordan wants to make it more fair and instead of starting at A, she scrolls to somewhere random in the list.

Well, now the chances of your resume being seen are entirely up to luck, not much better.

As you can see, there’s virtually no way you can stand out from your resume alone because of how ATS formats everything.

So what’s the solution?

50 years ago, resumes guaranteed you a job, today, they’re just the bare minimum.

So how do we differentiate ourselves if resumes are no longer the answer? According to Jordan, the answer is networking. Having face-to-face discussions with recruiters is the key.

Take me and Jordan for example. I met her by sending a cold email and then having 2 coffee chats.

And because I took the time to network with her, by the end of the 2nd chat, she told me this:

Remember how Jordan said ATS displays resumes as names?

When recruiters look at resumes, they can go directly to the names they recognize.

These names will belong to the young professionals who networked with them.

Names like mine, and like yours if you do the same thing.

All it takes is 1 or 2 emails, a couple of coffee chats, and you’ll beat even the perfect resume.

Your next steps:

This week, I challenge you to send 3 cold emails to professionals working in your ideal field or company.

They don’t have to be recruiters. Reach out to interns, managers, and even VPs!

See you next Tuesday 🤝

-Michael Ly

P.S. miss last week’s email? Read Do certifications help you get jobs? 

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