Get a Job

I enjoyed this post by Seth Godin:

Why bother having a resume
In the last few days, I've heard from top students at Cornell and other universities about my internship.

It must have been posted in some office or on a site, because each of the applications is just a resume. No real cover letter, no attempt at self marketing. Sort of, "here are the facts about me, please put me in the pile."

This is controversial, but here goes: I think if you're remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn't have a resume at all.

Not just for my little internship, but in general. Great people shouldn't have a resume.

Here's why: A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, "oh, they're missing this or they're missing that," and boom, you're out.

Having a resume begs for you to go into that big machine that looks for relevant keywords, and begs for you to get a job as a cog in a giant machine. Just more fodder for the corporate behemoth. That might be fine for average folks looking for an average job, but is that what you deserve?

If you don't have a resume, what do you have?

How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
Or a reputation that precedes you?
Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?

Some say, "well, that's fine, but I don't have those."

Yeah, that's my point. If you don't have those, why do you think you are remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don't have those, you've been brainwashed into acting like you're sort of ordinary.

Great jobs, world class jobs, jobs people kill for... those jobs don't get filled by people emailing in resumes. Ever.

Finding a great job, or finding a great person for a job you are offering is tough. In terms of finding someone awesome, you have to be able to make a snap decision based on very little information. In terms of finding a great job, you (to use our current train of thought) have to prostitute yourself.

Very few people know what we are capable of. Very few people have the `correct impression' of us. We all know people who we know think we are very different from who we think we are. Eventually you just have to accept that not everyone can know you.

But I like Seth's idea that remarkable people don't actually do it that way... remarkable people just do their thing, and people notice... eventually.

It takes a lot of guts though.