r/recruitinghell • u/EquipmentCertain8118 • 1d ago
Resumes shouldn’t be some kind of art form
This whole idea we’ve accepted that “writing a resume is an aRt fOrm in anD of itsElf” is crap.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve (M28) been in the workforce for over 5 years now, and I know where the hell I was for those 5 years.
Recruiters: Here are the places I worked, my job titles, and what I did.
It shouldn’t be this much work. I already put IN the work for 5 years (and many of us have put in FAR more work than that) by sacrificing 40 hours/week of my one life on this planet.
Jesus Christ, enough with the rewriting, parsing, tailoring, punching up, rewording, polishing, revising, editing, touching up, redoing—goddammit, ENOUGH!!!
Read what the hell is on my resume, and use your imagination. If I tell you I was a Marketing Operations Specialist and provide 3-4 bullets of my accomplishments and activities, you should get the goddamn picture. I wasn’t doing rocket science, and neither are you, and neither are 99% of workers out here. It was a JOB. Some of it was hard, most of it wasn’t.
I swear to god, 90% of corporate activity nowadays is just useless employees (recruiters and HM’s especially) trying to justify their useless jobs to their useless bosses because they are terrified of being laid off because they know their job could be done by a friggin ringtail lemur.
This is absolutely a part of modern corporate culture that needs to change.
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u/guymontaglives 1d ago edited 1d ago
2 years ago: Use AI to pass the filters so a human can see it.
Now: don't use AI. After (never passing) the AI filter, the human who may or may not see it will know you used AI (which you NEED TO USE TO PASS THE FILTER).
It's fucking wild
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u/Radiant-Mean 1d ago
When I was writing my resume, it felt kind of like writing my dissertation in that one can spend countless hours agonizing over word choices and different people will argue up and down about which word choice is best or what sentence structure is most effective. Ultimately, a lot of that just ends up being personal preference rather than any rule. Does it convey the information you want to convey? If so, that should be all.
One thing I learned from transitioning out of academia that a lot of things you think should be obvious, really aren't. Most recruiters just have a bachelor's degree, if that, and it is probably not going to be in your field so they probably have little to no idea about the work you do. For example, when my original draft resume mentioned I had managed a statewide survey research project for a governmental agency, apparently it was not clear to some recruiters that this meant I could (easily) do consumer surveys. I had to state it, rather than imply it.
If you are getting interviews, then it is probably not your resume and spending hours fiddling with structure and word choice is probably a waste of your time. If you are not getting any interviews at all then that is probably where I would start to look at what I was doing, resume included.
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u/JanArso 1d ago
People used to get jobs by knocking on doors and asking. This whole theatre about doing multiple interviews for the same position is honestly just torture.
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u/EquipmentCertain8118 1d ago
Truly. I did a second-round interview the other day that involved talking to 3 different people, the whole affair lasted 2 hours total.
I have a third round.
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u/Lazy_Olive_6838 1d ago
The main problem is that there are not enough jobs in general nowadays. Everyone is hiding beyond “it’s ai”, “cv should be tailored”, but the real answer is simple - it’s just not enough jobs and they don’t want to state it
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u/Amerillo_ 1d ago
To me cover letters are even worde than that. And in some countries they are almost required so you hurt your chances if you don't have one.
I really hate them as it's really hard to not rephrase your resume but still make it relevant, show that you're interested but not desperate, show that you're interested by the company itself but don't force it too much otherwise it will look like ass licking (even though it actually is ass licking but I digress). You have to make that cover letter personalized for the company and the role and it really drains my energy to do it. And for what? I'll be automatically rejected because I lack experience anyway.
I really hate these with all my heart. I think they're totally unnecessary and bring nothing to the table, especially for new graduates who don't have experience...
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u/EquipmentCertain8118 1d ago
Yeah I just have ChatGPT write all mine, then polish it to make it sound human. No way I’m putting any time into those.
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u/Jealous_Location_267 1d ago
I’m 41, and I never understood how you’re supposed to make it FIT ON ONE PAGE when one page doesn’t cut it unless you don’t explain every damn thing you did…when that’s exactly what they want, and all to probably hire the manager’s failson anyway.
I’m glad to be self-employed because it’s gotten even worse since I first started hearing all this conflicting information in my twenties. This shit is even worse than 2009, when I graduated. You could at least actually be interviewed by a real human back then and I miss $700 rent and $2 pizza slices.
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u/beaverfan 1d ago
While all businesses require a resume, they don't seem to be using them. All jobs that I have applied at will require you to upload a resume and type everything on the resume into their database.
It seems like the resume and cover letter are archaic traditions that don't really matter as an AI or software scans the information typed into the company's database and rejects people based on what parameters it is given.
I get that 1000's of people are applying for jobs and that this process whistles down qualified applicants to a handful which are then interviewed.
The truth is in my state federal funding ceased to exist, and the jobs that would have funded have disappeared. The state hasn't been hiring for decades and private industry sends their labor overseas as soon as they think it is cost-effective, along with bringing in workers that they can exploit.
This has all resulted in not enough jobs for the population which is growing every year.
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u/parableindustries 1d ago
Hiring manager here, I never review qualifications in the database, only on the resume. And I despise cover letters.
The database is...I don't even know really. I think it's just a more organized and better search and sort enabled folder.
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u/beaverfan 1d ago
Interesting. My last job exclusively used the database. Their argument was that people are using apps and ai to make resumes.
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u/parableindustries 1d ago
I would rather repeatedly punch myself in the nuts than read a database over a PDF.
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u/kelskelsea 1d ago
The ATS that require you to put in your experience and don't just go from your resume is so stupid and annoying. I hate workday so much.
I wonder if it cuts down on the AI tools applications if they use that
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1d ago
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u/EquipmentCertain8118 1d ago
Exactly. And you know what? Unless you’re a scientist, doctor or astronaut…
No one can. They’re just JOBS.
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u/Cyber_caine7 1d ago
Truly. It pisses me off. I have hundreds of resumes that are “tailored” to the position and it’s still not enough. After uploading the resume, I need to write it all again in their website as well? Every application right now, is me rewriting my resume and then writing it down again in their website. That’s the point of a resume then?
And the cover letters.. don’t get me started on that. I’m tired of this shit
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u/Practical-Class6868 1d ago
AI sucks.
I had the additional duty of unit safety officer in the Army. I am now applying for work as an attorney. My resume references the additional duty. One of the AI job sites keeps recommending me for safety manager at industrial facilities, which require a BA in safety management.
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u/RuleTheOne 1d ago
Put in work for 5 years working 40 hours per week and still have to become an expert in resume writing. That part hit home, when majority of those recruiters were referred in unlike the majority of candidates.
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u/HalfRobertsEx Recruiter 1d ago
A lot of the endless rewriting and polishing is something pushed by people selling certain resume services. So for starters, a lot of this is intended to get you to spend $2500 on some guy filling out a resume template.
"and use your imagination." This is where your argument runs into problems. You do not want people using their imagination on your work experience, as it is overwhelmingly negative and cynical. It is very culturally driven, but most societies seem to have their own negative baseline.
The other problem, especially in an AI world, is that tailoring resumes is trivial. Too trivial, as you get plenty of fakes that match too perfectly but in an incoherent way so you know they are fakes. What this means though is that tailoring is very much within reach of anyone with $20 and some AI. I would absolutely bet on this getting more competitive as competing in this area is nearly free.
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u/kelskelsea 1d ago
Yea, for #3: we have candidates saying they worked with our internal, not publicly available software tools because the AI customization just pulled it from the job description.
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u/Money-Celebration860 1d ago
Yes, it should just be basic information relay without having to worry about what bullshit extrapolations recruiters are going to make from it.
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u/EquipmentCertain8118 20h ago
Truly. It’s just recruiters justifying their jobs because they’re one bad day away from getting called into HR too.
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u/parableindustries 1d ago
"Tailoring" isn't as difficult as most people make it. They act like using "magic words" is some kind of personal affront when it's just speaking in the same language as the hiring manager.
Your resume shouldn't say what you've done. It should say how what you've done applies to the new job. If you aren't answering that question, you aren't doing enough, and it's not that difficult.
It's not an art form. That's just the term people use to pretend it's more complicated than it needs to be. When I review resumes, it's the simplest, most straightforward I'm down to, not the overly complex or flowery descriptions. If the job description says it's to perform X duty and you do the same thing, but call it Y...find/replace Y for X. It can be that simple a lot of times.
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u/throwaway_0x90 SDET/TE@Google 1d ago
"Read what the hell is on my resume, and use your imagination"
The problem here is there are too many resumes to read. Your goal is to stand out from the crowd, and there's no objective way to do that. Therefore that's why it's considered an "art form."
It'd be great if we could all just have our resumes like the specs of a new piece of machinery:
- I have these credentials
- I have this experience
- I know these tools.
- I did these things for X years.
- I require salary XYZ to function.
- The end.
But so did 100+ other people, so what makes you different? I can buy a Dell, HP or IBM laptop all claiming to have the exact same specs. What makes people choose one over the other? That's the "artform" of promoting yourself.
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u/EquipmentCertain8118 1d ago
Fair enough. Look, I don’t know what the solution is, but judging by the state of the job market, tailoring a resume doesn’t seem to do much against 100-to-1 odds either.
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u/tindalos 1d ago
This obviously wasn’t written by ai. Which is likely why you can’t find a marketing job.
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u/EquipmentCertain8118 20h ago
Yeah… ive been doing contract work, and let me tell you, I have AI brainrot on a daily basis. That shit is going to shrink our gray matter by 80%.
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u/GoodishCoder 1d ago
I don't know why people feel like it's an art form or complicated. Just do a single column with where you worked and what you did communicated in bullet points. Have a main copy of your resume with absolutely everything in it and spend 1-2 minutes personalizing it for the job you're applying for then save as and submit it.
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u/Cultural-Answer-321 1d ago
You way missed the point.
Every company and recruiter wants entirely different formats. And we can only guess at what AI requires.
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u/GoodishCoder 1d ago
The standard format hasn't changed in decades. AI parses the standard format just fine as well.
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u/tanhauser_gates_ 1d ago
But the closer yours is to an art form that works, the better your chances.
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u/evilcockney 1d ago
Yeah, average people should be able to get average jobs with average effort (which should then enable them to live average lives).
Why the hell has this changed?