The job market is exceptionally tight right now. As you can see from a LinkedIn poll that I’ve recently posted, many people are applying, applying, applying but not interviewing. This is a change from previous years when application-to-interview ratios were 3-4 times higher than they are now (at least for people who click on my polls!). 

When people apply to a lot of jobs but don’t get interviews, I often hear them say they need to revise their resume. In the past, this made sense — we could assume that there was a clear correlation between the alignment of someone’s resume and whether they’re asked to interview. And sometimes this is still true — a lack of interviews might mean someone’s resume isn’t effective (typically because it communicates their current tasks without aligning them with the types of jobs they’re applying to). 

But in this tight job market, a lower application-to-interview ratio might just mean that companies are overwhelmed with applicants or that the applicant pool you’re competing with has very similar skills as you do. These factors make it very difficult for companies to decide who to interview or even who to hire — imagine having to decide between to two very qualified individuals who would both fit well with your organization and contribute in unique ways. The clincher in this case will likely not be related to the candidates’ strengths (or lack thereof) — it will come down to which candidate most aligns with the company’s business needs and plans for the next year or two. 

In today’s newsletter, I want to talk about a few things related to resumes: first, how to audit your resume to evaluate whether it’s a reason you’re not getting interviews, and, two, to share advice on how to create a strong resume that you can confidently send out. 

While I’ve written earlier about how to tailor resumes you’ve already created, I realize that I haven’t actually done a “how to write your resume” newsletter post before! This newsletter post is intended to help you create a fantastic core resume — and one that’s flexible enough to be quickly tailored. 

But it’s also intended to help you decide if revising and tailoring your resume is the best use of your time — you may find that in this crowded job market, your current resume already works well. You may also decide that you need a strong resume that you don’t have to tailor (except for exceptional jobs) because you need to quickly send it out to these jobs that close quickly.

In this post:

• The Current State of the Job Market
• First Steps in Resume Writing: Finding Career Clarity
• Auditing Your Resume
• The Core Piece of Every Resume
• Resumes When You’re Moving Within Your Industry
• Resumes for Career Pivoters

The Remainder of this article is for Paid Subscribers. You can subscribe here and access the newsletter archive as well as find jobs at ~500 remote edtech/ed adjacent companies.