That one guy at the shop who told me my resume was junk

I was at a career fair in Tampa last spring and this older manager from a construction company just stopped me mid-sentence. He pointed at my resume and said 'this is all fluff, where are the numbers that prove you can do stuff?' It made me rethink how I describe my whole job history. Anyone else had a stranger give you better advice than any career counselor?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith_rodriguez19d ago

Oh man, "where are the numbers that prove you can do stuff" hit me right in the chest. I had a random guy at a coffee shop in Orlando look at my resume while we were waiting for our orders and he said the exact same thing about fluff. He straight up told me nobody cares that I "assisted with projects" unless I say something like "cut paperwork time by 20 percent." I rewrote my whole resume that weekend and actually started getting callbacks. Dude was right, career counselors just smile and nod but strangers will tell you the real truth.

butler.finley19d ago

My buddy Jim spent six months as a career counselor in Tampa and he told me the exact opposite story. He said most of the people who came in with numbers on their resumes were exaggerating or flat out lying, so hiring managers started ignoring those numbers anyway. I think there's something to be said for showing you understand the work itself, not just the results. If you cut paperwork time by 20 percent, how do I know you didn't just skip steps or push work onto someone else? Don't you think context and honesty matter more than a flashy number?

fox.derek17d ago

That's just how everything works now, numbers get faked until nobody trusts them anymore.