After spending more than a decade recruiting for companies like Google, TikTok, Uber, and the New York Times, I’ve noticed a shift in who gets hired and who doesn’t.
Previously, applicants could land a role simply by showing enthusiasm and touting their potential. In the past, companies spent time and resources developing their employees. Budgets are tight right now, so we need people who can hit the ground running from day one.
The problem is that many job seekers haven’t changed the way they apply for jobs. On their resumes and cover letters, they still portray themselves as eager learners who are ready to grow, and hiring managers see them right in front of them.
My best advice for breaking through this tough job market is:
Prioritize evidence over potential on your resume
Every recruiter has a specific problem that needs to be solved immediately. The most effective resumes provide evidence that what is broken can be fixed. When reading job postings, parse the problem the role exists to solve, not the list of duties that come with it. Then follow these three steps.
Describe what improvements you made at your previous company. This is not the time to vaguely summarize your career. Explain your responsibilities clearly, confidently, and without jargon. What’s better? If a task used to take 12 days but was completed in 3 days after you took over, you should include such details in your resume.
Give all numbers a reference point. “Revenue increased by 40%” doesn’t tell you anything. 40 percent of what? Which product to use, from what starting point, and for which target? Shapes without context are invisible. Every number should explain what it measures and why it is difficult to achieve that goal.
Cut out empty descriptors. Your resume takes 6 seconds to prove you can do the job. All resumes state that the candidate is detail-oriented and a cooperative team player. That’s why recruiters are looking right at them. It’s not a quantifiable skill, and it doesn’t represent your personality, so get rid of it. “Good communication skills” is empty. “Leaded weekly stakeholder reviews across engineering, legal, and product for 18 months” shows you can work seamlessly with multiple teams and shows how you would do this job.
Keep your cover letter concise and practical
The most common cover letter mistake is treating it like a defense, explaining why you’re great at a job you’ve never done. If your resume doesn’t show you can do the job, writing a cover letter won’t solve the problem.
Keep it in two or three short paragraphs. Please tell us the name of the specific job you are applying for and how you found it. Then, name the problem the role exists to solve based on the post or what the company has said publicly. Then give one or two examples of past work that solved a version of that problem. that’s it.
This letter is not intended as a sales pitch, but as further evidence. If the reader finishes reading it and knows exactly which past projects to reference to do this job, then it’s working.
Stop looking for a company that will help you grow
Another outdated piece of advice is to find an employer who will invest in your growth. If you’re at the beginner level, it’s still there, but you need to know where to look. Tel is a dedicated infrastructure. The team’s university or campus recruiter, a designated internship or rotation program, and the actual graduate cohort.
If an “entry level” role is handled by a generic industry recruiter without any development programs, they are not hiring you to grow. They hire you cheaply.
However, for mid-level companies, there are some other factors to consider. Companies are looking for experience and knowledge, not potential. You are being hired to fill a specific gap. Looking for an employer who will grow you into a role that you are not yet capable of is like looking for a market that has all but disappeared.
My current company is an exception. Internal mobility still potentially works because your employer has real data about you. If you want to grow into something new, the fastest way is often to go inward, not outward.
But it only works if there is a real path. If there’s a hiring freeze or your team is stagnant, the honest question isn’t whether you should stay. The question you should be asking is, “Is my current role making me more employable?”
If you tread water and call it patience, you are not faithful. The value is decreasing. A freeze does not suspend the age of your resume. Your skills either improve or decline, and no one on the outside cares that you’ve been waiting to be unfrozen.
But if your boss still gives you a tough job and the problem you’re solving will be important to other employers, stay with the company and cultivate those skills for the future.
Farah Sharghi is an HR and technology recruiter, career coach, speaker, and content creator. She has worked as a talent acquisition specialist at Google, Lyft, Uber, TikTok, and The New York Times. She posts about job hunting, interview preparation, and salary negotiations on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
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