#10: 5 deadly job search myths

The job search is exhausting.

Jumping from academia can feel scary and uncertain.

And let’s be real — it’s not an easy process. And you don’t feel in control of the outcomes.

That means misinformation can spread easily, taking advantage of our anxiety and the generally opaque hiring process.

We look for “hacks” and secret ways to somehow get ahead. In the face of rejections, it feels comforting to blame a mysterious or irrational system.

But myths about the job search can actively harm our applications and distract us from what counts.

Today, you’ll unlearn 5 common myths so that you don’t sabotage your career pivot.

These myths have to do with:

• The ATS
• 1-page resumes
• Keyword stuffing
• The hidden job market
• The LinkedIn “looking for work” banner

The ATS isn’t a robot

You’re hear a lot of anxiety around Applicant Tracking Systems. Supposedly they auto-reject applicants by scanning for keywords.

They also supposedly are designed to capriciously mangle and lose applications if you don’t use secret formatting tricks.

Pause for a moment. Imagine you are a recruiter wanting to find the best candidate for a job. Would you want these features? Would they make your job easier? No. Of course not.

The truth is that your resume is rejected by a human.

• There may be some “knock out” questions that lead to auto-rejection. But those are yes/no criteria set by a human, not a robot.
• The recruiter may find a sufficient number of good candidates in the first 50 or 100 applications to move forward and they will reject the rest. But that’s still a human rejecting and the recruiter DID put their own eyes on the applications they are forwarding to the HM.
• Some ATS may rank candidates by keywords. But if you follow recruiters on LinkedIn, you will consistently see them commenting about how they ignore and do not use those rankings or how they can’t (and don’t) trust those rankings.
• In the end, the ATS is a database for tracking your application. That’s it.

Design your resume for human eyes. Don’t try to “get past” the ATS. You want to be in the ATS. Anyone selling you an “ATS compliant resume” is selling you snake oil.

There is a hard truth here, however. The myth of the ATS lets applicants tell themselves that they are rejected by a stupid, uncaring robot. The reality is that a human rejected your application.

And that can hurt. But that means it’s your responsibility to convey your value effectively.

The danger of this myth is that you abdicate responsibility for how your resume is doing and that you try to use “hacks” to “get past the ATS” that don’t work and that make your application look like crap.

Your resume can be longer than 1 page (if you have a reason)

It is not a sacred command that a resume only be 1 page.

Can you imagine rejecting a perfect candidate for your role because their resume was 1.5 pages? Really?

If everything on your resume is relevant, effectively contributes to the story you are telling about yourself, and gives true value to your reader - it’s OK if it goes onto a second page.

If you have to delete spacing, use a tiny font, and cram things in order to fit onto 1 page, it’s OK instead to go onto a second page.

The truth about the ATS is relevant here, too.

Design for human eyes. Are you creating a resume that can be easily scanned and digested by human eyes?

Maybe that means you need to cut some fluff. But maybe that means it’s OK if the resume spills onto page 2.

If someone rejects you because your resume went onto the second page … do you actually want to work for them? Sounds like a foolish company.

Keyword stuffing is a bad idea

Yes, use the language of your targeted field.

Yes, mirror and incorporate language from the job ad.

No, do not cram in keywords for their own sake. Cramming jargon into your resume won’t convince anyone.

After all, does it sound convincing to you? Really?

And please, please, please do not put white-on-white keywords in tiny font somewhere in your resume in an attempt to boost it with secret keywords.

When a recruiter searches the ATS (it’s a database, remember?), if a keyword is in your resume, your resume will be pulled up with the keyword highlighted.

Guess what will happen when white-on-white tiny font keywords show up highlighted?

Rejection. And maybe the recruiter will flag you in the database as someone to ignore.

Keyword stuffing doesn’t fool a robot. It just annoys a human.

The hidden job market… doesn’t exist

It doesn’t.

You’re telling me that companies don’t list 80% of their open jobs? Really?

This myth builds on some truths.

Networking is super important. Referrals are super important. Nepotism is rampant. There are inside candidates sometimes. But actual recruiters will tell you that generally 50%+ of their hires are cold applications.

And recruiters don’t hit their hiring numbers by not posting jobs. (Think about it … if you were paid to fill jobs, would your strategy be to only list 20% of them?).

Pay attention to and follow the underlying truths.

But don’t get roped into believing there are scads of super sekrit jobs out there.

Someone is trying to sell you supposedly amazing arcane knowledge here - but they’re just dressing up the basic advice: build a network and relationships with people and get referrals.

Recruiters actually want to know if you’re looking for work

You’ll see advice about how the green “open to work” banner on LinkedIn makes you look desperate or less desirable.

Personally, I have no idea if that’s true. Because I’m not a recruiter.

But actual recruiters post repeatedly on LinkedIn assuring applicants that the banner is HELPFUL or at least not hurtful.

It assists them in finding job candidates.

LinkedIn also has data that the banner generally assists job candidates.

So who are you going to believe? Recruiters and LinkedIn? Or people trying to make you anxious?

TLDR:

Follow Amy Miller and Tejal Wagandia if you want the real tea on recruiting and applications. (Just search for them on LinkedIn. They’ll pop up quickly).

Don’t fall prey to myths that cause you to:

• Avoid responsibility for your applications’ success
• Use weird “hacks” and “tricks”
• Pay money to snake oil vendors for “secrets”