Details Matter, or On Wearing a Unicorn T-Shirt

In a job search, details matter.

Every HR Manager and career counselor and business publication says that when you are applying to jobs, details matter. Spelling mistakes on your resume or LinkedIn profile will get you passed over. Wearing a poorly fitted dress shirt to an interview will sink you. And if you can’t explain why manhole covers are the shape that they are? You are TOAST.

What has always stumped me is, why? Every other day of the week, everyone in the interview — on both sides of that table — makes spelling mistakes, wears band t-shirts and has no idea why manhole covers are shaped the way they are.

And yet, they all somehow manage to stay employed!

So why, in the most important decision for a company (deciding which people they will hire), do we insist on making everyone present a largely artificial version of themselves? Everyone in an interview is knowingly acting, putting forth a flawless representation of themselves despite everyone else in the room knowing the truth: they are all normal (flawed) people who get divorced and forget to pick their kids up at soccer practice and sometimes drink too much.

Is there any good argument to make for passing on someone with a Master’s degree because in a moment of excitement and nervousness they wrote “there” and not “their” in their application?

No, it isn’t rationale. But that doesn’t mean it is wrong, either. In fact, I think it is important, especially for young job seekers, to understand why it is critical to nail the details: because identifying talent is really hard and no one knows how to do it.

We live in an era with more highly educated people than ever. Human Resource Departments are being inundated with resumes from highly educated people. So how do you decide, out of a hundred resumes, who is going to be a good fit in an organization?

You come up with an arbitrary screening process!

Yes, it is irrational to throw away a resume because an applicant wrote “to” and not “too.” But at least it helps recruiters widdle down the list of resumes from 100 to 75. And when the boss asks that recruiter how they came up with their final list if candidates, they can justify their selections by citing grammar, “unprofessional dress” and the lack of knowledge about manhole covers.

And while those are largely arbitrary criteria to base a decision on, they are slightly less meaningless than selecting talent by throwing a dart at a wall covered in resumes.

Listen, if you are a Millennial or Gen Z job seeker, I get it: you are, like, totally into nonconformity of traditional big business practices and you want to wear a shirt with a unicorn riding a skateboard to your interview because like, whatever man, a company should like you for you.

And you are right! But also very wrong. You are, in a sense, kissing your sister.*

Now, if you want to be the one to fight the system, by all means, wear the unicorn T-shirt. But not everyone wants to stick it to the man. Some of us are bit more conservative (small “c”) and accept that details matter, arbitrary or not.

If you are the latter, throw on some Crest Whitestrips. Snag a watch. Get one nicely tailored shirt. Give your resume an extra read through. It may be a dumb game, yes, but it is the game. And as with most things in life, you need to win the game before you start trying to change the rules that govern it.

*This is a phrase I learned from a very wise man that had me in tears the first time I heard it and I vowed to myself I would use in it my writing as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

Got a hankering for more? You can read more of my posts on Letters to a Young Professional, you can check out my blog 12HourDifference.co for my thoughts on launching an international career and you can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter to chat about…whatever you’d like!