500 Words — Day Two: Resumes
The problem that I have with resumes is that I feel like I am just pandering to some person or algorithm that simply doesn’t care about the things that I care about. Pandering is special subcategory of bullshit that is particularly repulsive to me. At the end of the day, I’m highlighting keywords that make me more attractive to you based on the idea that I need to appeal to you in order to talk to someone else who actually knows what I’m talking about. I have experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, data mining, networking, cryptography, microservice architectures, and embedded systems. But like does that really hold any weight? Like given a favorable interpretation of one’s skill, almost anyone with a background in computer science can say the same things above in their resume. There is very little means of the signal distinguishing itself from the noise. Rather than focus on the hard skills that actually matter, the chumps on the outside looking in (like me) have to pander to gain entry to the gated garden. The resume is simply the artifact of this pandering.
Considering something like formatting. In my opinion, a complete waste of time. I’m not applying for a job in graphical design. I’m a builder. I want to construct quality products that move the needle forward for some group of people. If I can make someone’s life better, than I consider that a job well done. Hopefully that person is not an investor or a VC and someone who is simply creating uncontrollable software that they can sell a future company that manages that uncontrollable software for you. When I see Software-as-a-Service applications that manage your other Software-as-a-Service applications, I feel like something, somewhere went wrong. Rather than making problems to sell solutions on, we really should be trying to just directly solve the problem. Going back to the resume pandering, I’m not looking to be sold solutions on how to make the greatest resume. That is simply amplifying the noise. Which encourages other people to amplify the noise. And now, the signal-to-noise ratio is even worse, but at least we have created a new industry to sell solutions that allow you to pander louder than ever. Can you hear me now?
So, how do I get around this noise issue? Well, I could just be an insider and know people. Unfortunately, I’m an introvert and have never been good at this. My parents are also introverted and tend to stay to themselves. The nepotism networking prospects are rather limited in that regard. I do have a professional network, but unfortunately it’s rather small and not necessarily super well connected either. Also, the industries with the most connections are ones I’m trying to get away from as they tend to be places where dreamers go to be content with mortgages, unhappy marriages, and office politics. Also there’s the fake smiles and fake handshakes that go along with networking that aren’t sincere until too much alcohol has been consumed. For the sake of our livers, this isn’t a great solution to the noise problem.
One way to improve the signal to noise ratio is to add filters to filter out the noise. Unfortunately, most filters filter out the signal by encouraging the noise makers to make more noise. Build a keyword filter, and the noise will simply pander with more keywords. The solution becomes a problem. Luckily, that’s simply another opportunity to create another platform with another algorithm that doesn’t work. If you can’t find a job, don’t worry, at least we are creating more jobs that attempt but will ultimately fail to solve your problem anyways. But this is getting really negative and my social credibility is going to start to take a hit if I keep complaining, so I’ll stop complaining and start learning how the metaverse works so I can put that on my resume.
