A Good Resume Is Like An Expensive Piece Of Clothing

Good resumes are like beautiful clothing – they magnify your strengths and hide your weaknesses. Just like how people wear different clothes on different occasions, jobseekers change the content of their resumes accordingly when applying to different companies or industries.

Whether it is wearing different clothes or altering the resume, they all serve to blend in. The best clothes are not the ones with the most exquisite design but the one that is most appropriate under different situations. Wearing designer gowns to the wet market would only invite unwanted stares just like how resumes of fresh graduates would be frowned upon when applying for executives positions. On the surface, everyone might seem to be wearing different clothes and holding different resumes. However, a closer look will make one realize that all these resumes and clothing are all of the same style. Nothing really seem to stand out. And the very reason why they are all similar is because organizations often seek the same things in a candidate – grades, qualifications and experiences.

In this century, people talk a lot about “inner beauty.” Do not judge a book by its cover, they say. However, the sad truth is that people still judge by one’s external appearance. And out of this external appearance, approximately 70% of one’s body is covered by clothes. You can get a rough idea of one’s character by their clothes, some might say. One with their clothes ironed can appear to be a neater and tidier individual for instance and might hence be more organized at work. People form these impressions about one another without thinking about the stories behind those clothes. Those with their clothes ironed might come from a comparatively well-to-do families with domestic helpers who do all their household chores. Those with relatively less tidy clothes might not have the luxury of having domestic helpers and are too busy with earning a living to iron their clothes. Therefore, what one is judging is no longer a person’s character but one’s family background. Clothes can only show whether one is wealthy on the outside but will often fail to show whether one is equally wealthy on the inside. Similarly, a resume with more experiences are seen to be better candidates for a position rather than those without as many. However, what many organizations fail to see from a resume is the “inner beauty” of the resumes. That is, the potential of what one can become. They attempt to have an idea of a candidate’s ability through the qualifications, the schools they graduate from or the list of positions they once held as stated on the resumes. However, those mere words on the Microsoft word documents are just like clothes that might not accurately reflect who one really is.

As a fresh graduate, my resume looks just like a normal plain tee shirt from a normal departmental store. Neither is it branded nor does it have designs. I do not graduate from the best university and I do not have a whole list of experiences. In fact, this plain tee shirt of mine looks similar to the resumes of other fresh graduates. Indeed, I might not have the highest qualifications, the most experiences or the best resume. However, my creative mind and my passionate heart are more than what this plain tee shirt could show.