Skip Class and Throw Out Your Resume

Today I led a recruiting workshop for Praxis titled, “How to Get Hired at a Startup”. While preparing for the presentation, a few students sauntered in. Each one introduced himself and took a seat.

As I set up the presentation, I talked to the students and got to know them. Just as I was about to get started, one of them asked:

“Excuse me, will you be taking resumes?”

Confused, I thought about it and said:

“Hm… sure. But you may want it back at the end.”

Now he was the confused one.

At campus recruiting events, resume drops are the norm. Each semester the same handful of firms come to campus. They showcase PowerPoints, they judge case competitions, and they ask you for your GPA. If you’ve spent a few years at a decent college you’ve seen this or maybe even done some recruiting yourself. Year in, year out, you can always expect the same thing. It’s like clockwork.

So, my audience expected something similar. They were conditioned to. Instead I threw them for a loop by telling them to forget what they knew, by ditching their resume and trying something new.

Resumes aren’t inherently bad; but they are inherently boring. If you want a job with a cutting edge organization, it’s crucial that you stand out. Limiting yourself to another piece of paper in a big white stack isn’t going to cut it.

To stand out from the rest of the stack, I made a few recommendations:

1. Ditch your resume. Like I mentioned above, resumes are boring. They tell employers what you can do instead of showing them. So what’s the alternative? Create something that shows employers the value you can create. There are a few ways of doing it, but Zachary Slayback highlights one of the best methods here. His suggestion? Build a personal pitch deck.

2. Do your homework. I’m not referring to schoolwork. I’m referring to research on the company you want to work for. Everything you ever wanted to know about a company is just a Google search away. So do your background research and then do some more. If you can find a unique reason that you should be employed by somebody, go out and find it.

3. Create value. This might seem too pithy. But it’s always worth emphasizing. People (myself included) often go to potential employers asking them for something. Instead of taking up their time and resources, show up with something you’ve already done for them. It shows interest, commitment, and an inclination toward getting stuff done.

If you’re into startups and self-promotion, these suggestions might be obvious. But to students who have spent more than a decade asking, “Will this be on the test?”, it can be hard to internalize.

This may be disjointed, so I want to make something clear:

You will not stand out by doing what you’re told. You can draft as many resumes as you want, but unless you show people what you are capable of, you’re selling yourself short.

At the end of the presentation, I spoke with the same student who handed me his resume. Without hesitation, he approached me and said:

“Wow, that was completely worth skipping 40 minutes of class!”

It just goes to show you kids. If you skip class and get rid of your resume, you might actually learn something.

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