While on my jobsearch (resume)

While on my jobsearch (resume)

18 March, 2008 in Views & Thoughts

On his daily blog, marketing guru Seth Godin tells us about his thoughts on resumes. It basically breaks down to him saying that a resume is only a reason not to hire, never to hire, so why would anyone bother. He comes to this after receiving applications from students from Ivy League universities for his summer internship. He wonders why people expect to get a remarkable position by submitting something generic (their resume).

Ofcourse Seth has a point, and a good one at that, but I would like to add my thoughts on the subject.

It seems to me that Seth is just talking about one specific type of application or job, one that requires creativity. If you are looking for a great secretary or more up the ladder, a good accountant, why would you expect these people to even want to be remarkable in the way that Seth describes. Most people feel just fine by sending in their resume, because its a safe and secure way of determining if you’re right for the job. Harder would be to send in a remarkable application and not be admitted because someone was more remarkable. You can see the problem we’re at now. Only the real ’strebers’ would feel confident enough to send that in.

What worries me is that you might miss out on someone that could be the right person for a job just because he doesn’t meet your or Seth’s expectation. A resume levels the application field, bring your A-game to the interview.

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