🎧 More Resume Tweaks Won’t Get You Job Interviews (Do this Instead)
If you’re updating your resume for every single job and still not getting interviews…
This episode is for you! 🫶
I talk about why more tweaks, different keywords, and endless customization using resume-scoring tools usually doesn't help - it just leads to frustration and burnout.
And, of course, I share what to do instead to get more, and better, interviews.
Spoiler alert: you need to craft a clear, compelling story that makes you the obvious choice for the job. 🎯
Unclear positioning is the #1 reason I see for PM job searches that are stalling out.
Ready to land your next awesome Product role? ✨
SPRINT helps you position yourself as a top-tier Product candidate so you can land high-quality interviews consistently and confidently - without guesswork, burnout, or wasting months applying into the void.
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Jess Sherlock (00:00)
I just think we get so focused on customizing and we some score from some system that's comparing your resume to the job description is somehow a guarantee that you're going to get the interview.
Keywords are important, don't get me wrong, but if your core positioning, your core value as a candidate is unclear, then no amount of keywords is gonna make up for that.
Hey everyone, I have hopefully some great news for you today. if you are the type of person who is updating your resume for every single job application. Maybe you're even using one of those tools where you upload your resume and you like link to a job description and it gives you a score of how well your resume matches the job description. I hate those.
Please stop doing those. And here is your official permission from me to no longer do that because it's not the way. But there is this belief floating around and there's technology that exists. And just because exist doesn't mean it should exist. the belief that's floating around right now and there is endless tech to support you in doing this is that the key to getting interviews is extreme and constant customization.
change every bullet, rewrite every sentence, update your narrative, every single job description into a tool, score your resume, and keep updating your resume until it looks that one role. How exhausting. So I'm gonna give you permission today as well as some information about why that approach just does not work. And wanna encourage you to...
Take a better approach, an approach that I see work over and over and over again for folks in SPRINT. But if you're doing the job search on your own, I hope you have some takeaways here that allow you to put your energy and time towards higher ROI activities. So let me tell you a story about someone that I talked to this week. This PM had been customizing their resume for every single job. They were using one of those tools that scores your resume against every single job description. They were spending hours. They were
in between jobs, so they had the time, but that doesn't mean that they should be doing this. But in the last week alone, they had submitted 50 applications and they were roughly maintaining that pace over the course of the last few months. And I asked this person, okay, I mean, cool, cool, cool. How's it going? I'm always curious, right? Maybe I'm gonna hear someone having a better experience, but.
I said, okay, so how's it going? How many interviews have you had? Zero. literally zero. If you're taking this approach, I want you to pause just for a minute. I really want you to think about that. you are sending out that many applications, 50 applications, you are customizing them to that extent. And you believe that that is the strategy that's going to return and progress and traction.
Is it that concerning? If you're sending out that many applications, you're not getting a single interview. Something is wrong, it is fixable. And the fix that I see work is not more customization or more quantity, right? The spray and pray approach. And here's the other if your resume is changing every single time, you're
keeping your LinkedIn the same. is your LinkedIn supporting your positioning? I'm certain that the recruiters and hiring managers are going to see the disconnect. Most recruiting teams have a policy that they will go look at your LinkedIn.
So, you know, one of two things is gonna happen, I think. Either kept your LinkedIn super duper generic so that you can continue to update your resume and you might be like, Jess, that's my solution. Okay, great, but isn't it a bummer then that recruiters and hiring managers can't find you through the LinkedIn, you know, searching tools when they're searching for candidates? Or maybe you're saying, well, my LinkedIn is...
includes everything. And then every time I'm doing my resume, I'm customizing my resume, I'm actually just like chopping it down. that's cool, but your LinkedIn then isn't really super clear, right? Cause it's gonna be of a lot information. So I just, I'm not seeing, I'm not seeing the value here, right? It's like either way.
hiring managers and recruiters visiting your LinkedIn are not going to be clear on the value that you offer. They're likely going to move on and they're going to see that you're trying to be everything to everyone through these endless customizations on your resume. I also get really curious when you're updating your resume, what are you taking out? Why not have a resume that superpowers, your unique value, your accomplishments?
I just think we get so focused on customizing and we think that getting some score from some system that's comparing your resume to the job description is somehow a guarantee that you're going to get the interview. When really, it's a sales and marketing activity to say, how do I position myself as the obvious choice for this specific role? And it's not always about matching keywords. It's about speaking to the human who's going to be viewing your resume.
So to go further on this like constant customization, I want to talk a little bit about, you know, some other reasons why it's a problem. And first and foremost, what's most obvious to me is that it's not helping you build a sharper story. All you're doing is building, you know, dozens or hundreds of different mismatched customized versions of yourself. And more often than not, people are getting really burnt out.
and you're not actually able to apply to that many jobs because each individual application is taking you so long. And here's the thing, like I'm not here to say that the customization you're doing is absolutely not going to get you an interview. That is not my point. My point is that I think the payoff, the ROI, if you will, of spending 30 minutes to an hour customizing and rewriting your resume every single time is generally not going to return
as high of value or as high of ROI as other higher value activities like having a clear value proposition in your resume and applying to jobs or conducting outreach related to why you are such a strong candidate. Right? Take that effort of what you were going to customize in your resume and put it towards sending a personalized, thoughtful message, authentic message, not a ChatGPT message.
to the hiring manager or recruiter on LinkedIn when you apply. Focus that energy on trying to connect with someone who might be able to get you a referral into the role because you are such a strong fit, Keywords are important, don't get me wrong, but if your core positioning, your core value as a candidate is unclear, then no amount of keywords is gonna make up for that.
So if you've ever talked to me about your job search, one of the things I always ask in my alignment calls with people when they first reach out curious about the SPRINT program is I'll say, okay, you've been job searching, how's it been going? Give me your data. And, you know, unfortunately, some percentage of the time folks haven't been tracking it. They'll say, I've just been applying to so many jobs, I stopped tracking. It's really difficult for me to help diagnose what might be going wrong. if you've got some data, then we can actually start to look at your job search activities a bit like you might look at a sales funnel.
A sales funnel is going to have a top of funnel where you're getting your initial leads. You're going to then nurture those leads through some sort of process of more comfortable with you as the solution to their problem. And then at the end, they're going to make a buying decision. And the job search process is very similar. When you're sending out applications, you're essentially trying to get leads. Every interview request that you get is a signal, it's a lead of interest. And your interview process is essentially
you through that funnel as a candidate, right? And then getting an offer is the very bottom of the funnel akin to making a sale. So use a simple analogy like how I help folks diagnose what might be going wrong in their sales funnel. So let's just say you run, I don't know, a website that sells cookies and you come to me as you're like, Jess, you've got a decently successful business. You know, I'm not getting any sales. What advice would you have for me?
Here are some the things I'm gonna ask you. gonna first of all say, are your cookies any good? Right? I don't know, I'm not super into like the gluten-free vegan, da da da. Like I want some good butter, I want some good chocolate, right? But I think like the quality of your cookies is going to be a component of your success, but it's not the only thing. Cause I might also ask you, well, do people know about you? How are you marketing your website?
are you getting your traffic from? Are you even getting any traffic to your website? Because at the end of the day, even if your cookie is the most delicious cookie in the whole world, you're never going to be able to sell it if you're talking to the wrong people or your product isn't any good, right? If you're, if you tell me you're marketing solely on dieting websites, you're probably not making any sales, probably not getting any leads.
If the cookies are bland, you're certainly not making any sales or maybe you're making an initial sale, but you're not getting repeat purchases because people don't love the cookie that they got the first time around. They don't tell anybody about it. So anyways, all of those factors are very similar in your job search. If you are trying to sell yourself, meaning you are applying to jobs, you are putting yourself out there on LinkedIn and you're not getting any bites, the problem might not actually be the amount of effort you're putting in.
It might be that you are telling the wrong story, that your story isn't valuable enough, that you're telling it to the wrong people, or it could be both, right? And again, it's like no amount of is gonna fix that if that's the core issue. So I love checking in with folks on alignment calls and finding out how the search is going an understanding of where folks are falling flat or where things are getting stuck in the funnel.
can usually be quick diagnosis of the core problem. So if, for example, you're not getting a single interview request, that's a signal to me that either you're not putting in enough effort, because we do need to get a certain amount of volume to start to, you know, if you tell me I've been applying to like one job a week for the last six months, I'm like, well, dude, that's just...
enough volume to rule out the fact that those job descriptions are old or you didn't apply immediately or they already filled it and they just haven't taken it down yet. So I'm looking at like, okay, if we're getting initial, intro calls, screener calls, then you're not moving ahead, like, all right, there was something about your pitch in your resume that caught their eye, but then there was something off in the screener call. Often at that stage, it's going to be
something simple like salary mismatch or maybe the core skills that they do require aren't there. So maybe in your attempt to customize you over-promised what you can actually do and they saw that, right? You got into the screener call, but once they talked to you, they realized you're kind of over-promised. Or it could be something straightforward like your location, right? If you're not willing to go into the office or you're in a state they can't hire in and they didn't realize it, but...
But usually it's like there was some sort of over promise that got you into the first round and didn't allow you to move past the recruiter screen. If you're making it past recruiter screens and then you're not getting past hiring managers, that's when skill gaps and more specific product experience is going to usually be the cause. So it might be chemistry maybe, but I would say the grand majority of the time, if you have a conversation with a hiring manager and they don't move you forward,
It's they did not understand your product experience and skills as being what they needed. That doesn't mean you don't have it, right? Notice I said they didn't see it as what they needed. it's entirely possible that in your, you know, whatever nervousness or ⁓ for whatever reason, you didn't clearly articulate the value you were gonna bring to the table. And so the hiring manager didn't feel comfortable moving you forward. They didn't feel like you could actually do the job.
Now, past the hiring manager screen, if you're getting to things like take-home assignments, case interviews, and you're not making it through there, then that's going to be usually a function of team chemistry and vibes and likeability plus skills. So again, how well did you show you can do the work? so anyways, I hope you can see that it may feel like this big black box mystery as you're looking at your job search, but I've seen enough folks go through this process that there's actually some predictability.
And the most common thing that I see when folks are stuck in those upper parts of the job search funnel, if you will, is nine times out of 10, it's gonna come back to an unclear job search strategy, unclear positioning, or like I said, over promising, right? In your attempt to customize your resume, you're actually, unfortunately, like getting to the interview, but then they're kind of disappointed when they actually talk to you, which isn't a great place to be.
Okay, so let's talk about what actually works. So here's what actually works, is a clear, a strong strategy. what we wanna do is not try to be everything to everyone, but instead we want to actually come up with a pitch and package, a story that reflects your actual strengths, your actual superpowers, your actual experience, right? And the real value that you are going to bring to the table.
And the fear that comes up usually when I start saying, your entire experience set, but here's what I recommend we really focus your story in on, usually this immediate fear reaction where people are like, but I can do so much more. Yeah, I know you can. I know you can. I have no doubt that you can do more. by including everything that you can do,
we are distracting away from the things that only you can do. In focusing your story, we're actually creating a stronger story. We're going to better attract the people who are going to find value in the skills and experience that you do bring to the table. example I often give is year, I at some point get at least one or two requests from...
user experience designers, product designers, or even engineers who will say, you know, I'm not a product manager, but couldn't you coach me? Can you help me with my job search? And here's the thing, I probably could. I probably could. a lot of similarities. There's a lot of things that are going to be similar or transferable from the product management job search to an engineer who's job searching. There's certainly going to be differences though. And I could, but I'm choosing not to target
helping engineers and designers, because that's just not what I'm great at. What I'm great at is working with product managers through their job search. And by focusing on that, it does limit the people I can work with, right? It limits my, I guess, total addressable market because I'm choosing to focus on product managers. what it's allowing me to do is have a much higher value proposition for the people who do want to work with me. So when you're a PM looking at the fact that I help only PMs,
I look like a much stronger experienced coach, right? So that's the dynamic I want you to create when hiring managers and recruiters are looking at your resume or having conversations with you. I don't want them to hear all the things that you can do, have done, could do. I want them to hear, what are you awesome at? And that's gonna create perhaps less applications.
but it's gonna create higher quality interviews and ultimately interviews that lead to offers. So once you know what your core value is, your resume actually becomes pretty stable. Your LinkedIn becomes pretty stable. Yeah, you might tweak it here and there, but it's tweaking it for small word adjustments or realizing, ooh, this one company might really appreciate this other accomplishment that I had that's like hyper specific to their problem space. Great.
Right? I love that for you. Let's make a small tweak. But I want to get you out of this business of customizing your resume 100 % for every single job application. So ideally, we want your resume to be stable, your LinkedIn to be stable, your messaging, your pitch to be stable. And that's when the applications and interviews are going to start to convert and you're going to start to see traction down through your job search funnel towards more interviews and ultimately more offers.
doing this, you're going to position yourself as that obvious choice, as that top tier candidate. And you're going to do it without burnout. You're going to do it without rewriting your resume a hundred times. Without, I mean, without having a folder full of resumes for every single job you've applied to. It's just, you know, a clear value proposition with a clear system and then support by your side so that you can land those high quality interviews and feel good about telling your story.
because you've had practice telling the same story. All right, so if you listened to this and it's resonating and you're like, my God, it's me, she's talking about me, I'm stuck in the customization trap, it's okay, take a breath. this is definitely the message that is the loudest when you look on LinkedIn or anywhere else. Like this is the message that folks really want you to think is the approach. But I hope this convinced you that there is a better way.
You do not need hundreds of versions of your resume. You need one core version that is clear, that is strong, that is competitive, and that puts your unique value proposition front and center. And then we get that in front of the right companies, the right teams, so that they see you as the obvious choice.
So if you would like help with this, if you feel like you like the idea, but you have no idea how to get there, that is totally fine.
That is what SPRINT is for. can learn more about the SPRINT program and set up time for us to chat. You can just go to jesssherlock.com/SPRINT You can set up a quick call. I'd be happy to chat with you and see if SPRINT might good fit for where you're at. wouldn't it be awesome to go into the new year with a clear resume that you don't have to change that starts to get you better and faster traction towards
I would love to support you with that. reach out, schedule some time for us to LinkedIn. always, I'm cheering for you and I hope you really take this message to heart. I'll see you next time on AFTER THE CERT.
