What lawyers or law students aren't continually on the alert for new insight about effective resumes? That is, those which get the attention of employers and trigger an interview.
After all, like most other entities in business, the moving parts of the search for jobs and assignments keep changing.
Therefore, if you are readers of The New York Times you are bound to click open the opinion piece by A-J Aronstein headlined: "I Have Read Thousands of Resumes, And I Have Some Advice." That seems like a must-read, right? As a coach, you bet, I made zeroing in my business.
Aronstein is the Dean of Barnard College's Career Center. So, the assumption is likely that he knows what he's talking about.
However, those clicking it on might conclude this: He may indeed know plenty about resumes. But he doesn't seem to be using the premier real estate space provided to him by The New York Times to share the kind of "insider information" which could transform a mediocre or downright outdated resume into a winner.
Too much of Aronstein's focus is on the history of the resume. Leonardo da Vinci is attributed as the inventor. Much is said about him.
So?
It was change-agent editor and savior of publications such as The New Yorker - Tina Brown - who supposedly told an author: Less past, more present in the article. That was years ago. Today in an era in which COVID has accelerated paradigm shifts that is even more the expectation of constituencies ranging from target markets to lovers. Part of the current popularity of Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism are the tools they provide to pivot the mind into the now.
Okay, scattered through the Aronstein essay are bits and pieces of guidance. But ambitious strivers worth their salt already have those already down cold. That is, use bullet points and strong verbs. Yes, those pursuing resumes tend to give each one about six seconds.
Most of the rest of the verbiage is not only disappointing but annoying in tone and content. Here is an excerpt:
"Résumés do violence to language. They are poetry, inverted. You must dry the joy from the bones of words; drain the human sauce; leave a labored husk printed on eggshell."
And, yet again, job hunters and gig workers have their hopes dashed about uncovering advice that's genuinely helpful. Hunting for work is, even in the emerging recovery, stressful. Therefore, a version of a "bait and switch" is downright unforgivable. Maybe the headline even constitutes a form of "false labeling." Little of what Aronstein dishes up is "advice." Instead it's his verbal journey through territory he finds fascinating on a macro level.
There you are a member of the JD Class of 2021 or an associate who didn't make partner. Despite the strong market in some niches of the legal sector, you still don't have a job. "Poetry, inverted" is not helpful.
What hunters for work - any and all kinds - need is this: Smart straight-from-the-shoulder guidance on what sells this week. And the concrete course-correction essential to repositioning and repackaging yourself to send this message: This is what I can do for you, better, faster and more affordably than all the other applicants.
Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)