Thoughts on résumés and the "shortcut game"
So I’ve been thinking a lot about résumés lately and I think one of the reasons why I might have such a vendetta against them is because of something I’m going to call “the shortcut game.”
When I say “shortcut” here, I mean anything someone can at least semi-truthfully claim that will encourage people to make positive assumptions about them. For example, when we say someone went to Harvard, we use it as a shortcut for saying they’re smart and competent and qualified, because those are things we generally believe about Harvard grads.
The thing with résumés is that if you don’t have much experience, you’re very encouraged to play the shortcut game – accumulate a bunch of stuff that solicits the right kind of assumptions. I mean sure, you do need to actually do stuff to some extent, but shortcuts help.
The problem with this is that shortcuts don’t always elicit correct assumptions. If your parents are rich enough, for example, you can be a total idiot and still graduate from Harvard. Or maybe you miss out because your parents couldn’t afford to pay Harvard tuition and residence.
This doesn’t matter as much for people with a lot of experience, because they can prove that they know what they’re talking about more easily and probably have other ways of finding jobs.
I think playing the shortcut game is depressing.