After spending more than a decade recruiting for companies like Google, TikTok, Uber and The New York Times, I’ve noticed a shift in which jobseekers get hired — and which ones don’t.
Previously, applicants needed only to demonstrate their enthusiasm and sell their potential to land a role; companies used to devote time and resources to employee development. Now as budgets have tightened, they want someone who can do the job on day one.
The problem is, many job seekers haven’t changed how they apply for jobs. In their resumes and cover letters, they still portray themselves as eager learners ready to grow, and hiring managers look right past them.
Here’s my best advice for how to break through in this fraught job market:
Prioritize proof rather than potential on your resume
Every hiring manager has a specific issue they need solved quickly. The most effective resumes provide evidence you can fix what’s broken. When you read a job posting, parse it for the problem the role exists to solve, not the list of duties attached to it. Then do these three steps.
Explain what improved at your previous company because of you. This is not the time to vaguely summarize your career. Clearly, confidently and without jargon, lay out what you were responsible for. What changed for the better? If a task used to take 12 days but after you took over it was resolved in three, that’s the kind of detail you want to include on your resume.
Give a reference point for every number. “Grew revenue 40%” tells me nothing on its own. Forty percent of what? On which product, from what starting point, against what target? A figure without context is invisible. Every number needs to say what it measured and why hitting that goal was hard.
Cut the empty descriptors. Your resume has six seconds to prove you can do the work. Every resume claims that the candidate is a detail-oriented, collaborative team player. Which is why hiring managers look right past them. That’s not a quantifiable skill or even a good indication of your personality, so take it out. “Strong communicator” is empty. “Led weekly stakeholder reviews across engineering, legal, and product for eighteen months” tells me you can work seamlessly with multiple teams, and demonstrates how you would do this job.
Keep your cover letter brief and actionable
The most common cover letter mistake is treating it like a defense, and explaining why you’d be great at a job you haven’t done. If your resume doesn’t already show you can do the work, no cover letter will fix that.
Keep it to two or three short paragraphs. Name the specific job you’re applying for and how you found it. Then name the problem the role exists to solve, based on what the posting or the company has said publicly. Then give one or two examples from your past work where you’ve solved a version of that problem. That’s it.
The letter is meant to be even more evidence, not a pitch. If the reader finishes it and knows exactly which past project you’d draw on to do this job, it’s working.
Stop looking for a company that will grow you
The other piece of outdated advice is to find an employer who will invest in your development. If you’re entry level, that still exists, but you have to know where to look. The tell is dedicated infrastructure: a university or campus recruiter on the team, a named internship or rotational program, a real cohort of new grads.
If an “entry-level” role is being handled by a general industry recruiter with no development program behind it, they’re not hiring you to grow. They’re hiring you cheap.
However, if you are mid-career, there are a few other factors to consider. Companies want experience and knowledge, not potential. You’re being hired to fill a specific gap. Looking for an employer that will grow you into a role you can’t yet do is looking for a market that’s largely disappeared.
The exception is your current company. Internal mobility still runs on potential, because your employer has real data on you. If you want to grow into something new, the fastest path is often a move inside, not out.
But that only works when there’s a real path. In a hiring freeze or on a stalled team, the honest question isn’t whether you should stay. The question you need to ask is: ”Am I becoming more hireable in my current role?”
If you’re treading water and calling it patience, you’re not being loyal. You’re depreciating.The freeze doesn’t pause your resume’s age. Your skills are either compounding or decaying, and no one on the outside is going to care that you were waiting for the freeze to lift.
But if your manager is still giving you hard work and the problems you’re solving would matter to another employer, stay and cultivate those skills for the future.
Farah Sharghiis an HR and technical recruiter, career coach, public speaker and content creator. She has worked as a talent acquisition specialist for Google, Lyft, Uber, TikTok and The New York Times.She posts about job hunting, interview prep, and salary negotiations onYouTube,InstagramandTikTok.
Want to get ahead at work? Then you need to learn how to make effective small talk. In CNBC’s new online course, How To Talk To People At Work, expert instructors share practical strategies to help you use everyday conversations to gain visibility, build meaningful relationships and accelerate your career growth. Sign up today!
About The Author
