Being Humble Is Hurting Your Job Search

My goal with blog posts is usually to highlight certain aspects of the interview process. However, as I sit here this morning with my cup of coffee reviewing a close friend’s resume, I can’t help but wonder why everyone always seems to undersell themselves on paper?

A humble resume might seem like a great idea for a lot of reasons: You don't want to brag, you don't want to be cocky or even worse, arrogant. But the truth is, being humble isn't helpful and will actually hurt you in your job search. 

This particular individual has an incredible online presence, weekly viral LinkedIn posts, numerous requests for podcast interviews, etc and not once on paper was any of this highlighted. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, you probably think, “Well, how does this relate to my day to day job?” As I look at it, your personal branding is an incredible asset and one that should be highlighted whenever possible. Companies want people that are passionate, excited, and will get out of their comfort zone to drive engagement. If you have that sort of presence, wouldn’t it be beneficial to highlight this to your prospective employer? Wouldn’t it be in the best interest of your potential employer to know this, so that they can help utilize it to drive business?

I went on a bit of a tangent there based on my most recent experience, but I was talking with someone else this past weekend and noticed a similar experience… underselling and undervaluing their experience on paper. When we took the opportunity to talk about her previous roles it kept coming back to “Oh, so you were also doing project management”, “So not only were you selling the product, but you were also creating marketing content that the marketing team should be building out for you, but you were also helping sourcing these products?” “You understand that while your job title is specifically related to this, you were also doing 4 other jobs that are extremely valuable to your company?”

They say, "don't judge a book by it’s cover," but we all do it. Honestly, it’s why I set up a 30 minute discovery call prior to helping build out a client’s resume. Everyone puts their direct job and metrics related to that specific function on paper. However, when you connect and speak with an outside party, you always end up drawing out additional functions and successes that should be highlighted. 

You work hard for your money, but there’s one thing that can ruin a career faster than any recession: a useless resume.