What they don’t tell you about hiring — how to save time and land your dream job tomorrow…

What You’ve Been Told Is a Lie

No doubt you’ve been told there is a set of “rules” to follow and a specific way to write your resume. Maybe you’ve even been convinced by now that you need someone who is a “Professional Resume Writer” and that you need to pay them to make it “ATS compliant” (ATS = Applicant Tracking System).

They’re lying to you to make easy money from your desire for a great job in Tech, one of the highest-paying fields currently.

I’ll tell you for free that my resume isn’t all that ATS compliant.

It doesn’t contain nearly all the buzzwords I’m qualified and experienced enough to have on it.

I had the same resume from my first job at 15 for just over a decade, just slowly adding to the sections. I use the same resume and cover letter to apply for almost every job I apply to, and they have only been redone (less than a year ago) by a Career Coach once in my life. That was by Drew Corbin (who is an expert Career Coach if you need advice), who was able to make them beyond an improvement, to say the least.

When it comes to resumes, there’s also no limit to the number of pages they can be; that’s also a myth.

In my experience, there’s one big truth about resumes that’s not mentioned: they shouldn’t be a list of your job descriptions. In fact, if your resume is just a list of bullet points from the jobs you have worked, it is probably getting tossed.

What your resume needs is personality. Hiring managers aren’t looking for a grey box to sit in the office. Every company has its own culture, and they want to know if you will fit because your resume’s job is to get you in the door or on the phone.

That’s over half the battle: getting an interview. If you can get an interview, your chances of getting the job go up magnitudes.

How to handle an interview is another topic. It’s enough to be its article for almost any job, but even the general principles and strategies fit an entire article, so I won’t get into that here.

Before I move on, I have another word to say about the application process and comparing it to your resume: the odds of you having every single qualification for a job you want are extraordinarily slim. One might even say that if you have them all, you’re applying for the wrong job. You want a job that will teach you and help you grow, not make you the same person when you leave as when you arrived.

When it comes to a job’s qualifications list vs your list of mastered skills, I’ve learned something from my own experiences that I know others will disagree with. It’s not as black and white as it appears when looking at jobs I’m interested in and the skills and experiences they require.

What I always focus on understanding about a job I’m interested in is what you can learn before starting or while doing the job and what you can’t.

Knowing that limit is crucial and can be the difference between career growth and embarrassment and being let go.

The Depressing Truths About Hiring

No one talks about this: the hiring process is not a fair game. Sometimes, the reason you didn’t get hired has nothing to do with your abilities, resume, or interview; it’s nothing you could have changed. You didn’t get the job because someone doing the hiring or their boss has a friend in the same industry who needs a job.

You’re not in a fair competition. Humans, by nature, are corrupt, and thus, so is the hiring practice. So don’t feel bad if you don’t get the job. Sometimes, not getting a job is not equal to failing. You can learn from the process and get your name out there.

I’ve had interviews that didn’t land me a job, but I later got interviews with directors at companies like Cisco, Microsoft, and Google because of those original interviews. The key point is that just because you didn’t get the job, don’t lose your composure or respect for those you’re dealing with.

I hope you found this content informative and that it encourages you to request information about specific types of malware or cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Please let me know if you have any questions or requests for something else you want to learn about.

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe!

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— Devon Griffith A.K.A. rootPHAGE / 我爱数据