#97: Crossing The Line Again
Pandemic speakeasies! Blues Legends! Why Your Resume Isn't Getting Read!
MARKETING THING:
If you’re currently in the job market like most of us are, you’re no stranger to sending out resumes. The cliche is valid: Applying for jobs can be a full-time job in and of itself.
There have been countless articles written about how to beef up a resume. How to make it look professional, how to make it look creative, how to lie gracefully, how to highlight, what font works best, etc.
The article I’m sharing today was the single-most valuable tool I’ve had in my job search process, solely for introducing me to the concept of an applicant tracking system, or ATS. See, ATS software provides recruiting tools for companies of all sizes. Among other functions, these systems collect and sort thousands of resumes. This is the metaphorical “pile” of resumes you often hear about.
When you apply for a job online via LinkedIN or Glassdoor or whatever, your resume rarely goes to a hiring manager. The first stop is usually being processed by an ATS. Going back to that pile metaphor, if getting your resume to the top of the pile is the goal, then you need to adjust your resume to make it stand out in an ATS.
Learn more about ATS and grab some ATS-compliant templates. If this information helps even one person get a gig, it will be worth it. NEVER STOP FINESSING.
20 ATS-Friendly Resume Templates
CULTURE THING:
(I found this pic on the single weirdest blog I have ever read.)
Life during the COVID-19 pandemic was bound to come to this point: Groups all over the world have sprung up, creating an underground network of speakeasies, corona be damned.
One such network is explored by Elena Clavarino in her new piece for AirMail. If you haven’t heard of AirMail, it’s a blog that aims to be a magazine that caters to that sweet addiction us media nerds have for reading any and everything written by rich/rich-adjacent white old media titans. I adore it. Let’s all learn about the underground pandemic party scene!
Unmasked Ball
MUSIC THING:
The saga of Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley deserves a feature film. The two women recorded six songs in 1930 and 1931 that are essential Mississippi Delta Blues music. A truly lazy comparison would be if like Salt-N-Pepa made Push It, Shoop, Whatta Man, Let’s Talk About Sex and None of Your Business and then disappeared for the rest of time. Then, 90 years from now, some Obama High graduate is going to stumble upon them and writes an article on his AmazonBrain like the one that John Jeremiah Sullivan wrote about in The New York Times magazine.
The subtitle? “On the trail of the phantom women who changed American music and then vanished without a trace.” An absolute sizzler!
The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie.
BULLETIN BOARD:
Bonus Content!
A reminder that starting with Office Hours #100, this newsletter will shift to a tiered system.
Free subscribers will still get access to the podcast and the daily link newsletter.
Paid subscribers will receive the podcast, the daily link newsletter and will now receive exclusive articles like the Brands to Watch report, a monthly deepish-dive on a challenger brand that I think does really cool/innovative stuff.
In anticipation, I’m lifting the paywall on some of my most-read newsletters:
#7: WTF is the Yee-haw Agenda? (Paid subscribers, expect more deep dives like this!)
#9: Meet the woman who will tell you what you're going to wear next year.
#31: How $60 Changed My Life Forever
#34: 5 Books That Will Change How You See The World
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Until tomorrow…
WASH YOUR HANDS! STAY IN THE HOUSE! CHECK ON YOUR LOVED ONES!
Office Hours is written by Ernest Wilkins. Follow me on Twitter/IG @ErnestWilkins or send me an e-mail.