Don’t apply for the job; just do it

Resumes are inefficient. They’re a dated tool created to summarize your life and experience because it used to be difficult to find out anything about a person. Today you are searchable online and have an online profile that speaks volumes about your experience and personality. People have tried to replace resumes with websites and other products in an effort to simplify the recruiting experience. However we still live in a world where resumes are required, if not crucial, for the vast majority of jobs. So when I sat down to think about what my resume would be like, I was continuously annoyed that instead of actually getting to do the job, I had to describe how I was qualified to potentially do it. I tried writing and got bored, so instead I decided to do my job approach my resume like my own product.

Market Research

First things first — I need to answer some key questions: What am I doing? What is the goal? Who is the user? What do they care about? And - what is their problem? I need an idea of what user and market I’m dealing with so I know what to address. So let’s do some brainstorming.

As you can see, I looked at a few ways to think about what I’m trying to do and realized that the driving goal is really to get a job. And not just any job, but a job I want. As such, I’ve identified the goal for this product is to build a resume for a job I want. Now how do I do that.

This is where some research is required. I need to find out who the user is, what their goals are, and what their pain points are so that I know how to address them. So, like every quality researcher looking for reliable information, I turn to Google.

With the wealth of information and advice out there, the initial challenge really is identifying what information to pay attention to and what ideas to ignore. After going through reviews, blogs, guidance from experts, and spending a bit too much time in labyrinthine rabbit holes of Reddit, I made some basic discoveries and gleaned some insights. There are a wide variety of opinions however.

There are a number of disparate preferences and recommendations reflecting different user experiences, industry exposures and ideas of what makes a ‘good’ resume. Some prefer the descriptive and lengthy, some the concise one-line summaries. Some hunt for the colorful and designy approach, others just want information without any fluffy visuals. This also speaks to the asymmetrical processes used by different organizations to deal with resumes, and the different design preferences.